SUNMINE
“SUNMINE IS BRITISH COLUMBIA’S LARGEST SOLAR PROJECT, WITH 4032 SOLAR-CELL MODULES MOUNTED ON 96 SOLAR TRACKERS.”
SUNMINE WITH THE CANADIAN ROCKIES IN THE BACKGROUND.
Kimberley, British Columbia, is a city built on mining. Named after the Kimberley diamond mine in South Africa, the city was home to one of the world’s largest lead and zinc mines. Twenty billion dollars’ worth of ore was pulled from the Sullivan Mine, supporting a thriving community of miners and their families. By the end of the
42 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
century, however, the wealth of the mine had been depleted, and production finally ceased in 2001. It’s an old story, but one which, for Kimberley, has a happy ending. Unlike so many other mining-dependent communities, Kimberley didn’t disappear when its mines closed. In the 1980s, the city and the com-
pany which operated the mine, Cominco, which is now known as Teck, invested in economic diversification. Kimberley today is a thriving, tourism-based community of 6,700, with a ski resort, adventure sports, golfing, and the largest municipal park in Canada. For the city’s latest ambitious project, it is once again taking advantage of an abundant natural resource: The energy of the sun. “SunMine is British Columbia’s largest solar project, with 4032 solar-cell modules mounted on 96 solar trackers,” explains Kevin Wilson, Economic Development Officer for the City of Kimberley. “In 2008, an organization called EcoSmart approached the city and pointed out we had among the best solar exposure in Canada – the best, without exception, in the southeastern corner of B.C. Teck also has large tracts of fully reclaimed land for potential use. The site that SunMine eventually was built on is the site of the former mine concentrator.” In 2011, 76% of voters in Kimberley approved the city borrowing $2 million to build SunMine. Construction began in 2014