St. Thomas is about to take an arena-sized step in reducing its carbon footprint. Monday evening city council unanimously green-lighted the installation of solar panels on about half of the Joe Thornton Community Centre roof. The energy produced through the solar array would be fed back into the provincial grid with the city earning revenue. Funding is available from the province through a transit grant which has a renewable energy component for solar panel installation projects. The rate of return on the solar investment would be 7.5 per cent with 13 years required to pay off the cost of the undertaking.
