Group of Alberta homeowners, farmers earn $75K in carbon credits: Solar panels pay off as emission reductions are combined.

Six homeowners and a small farming collective are the first small-scale solar power generators in Alberta to earn money through carbon credits.

They are each keeping small amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by generating their electricity via solar panels, instead of buying it from power plants that run on CO2-emitting fossil fuels.

But when they combine their individual reductions, under a recent provincial program that allows for that, it adds up to more than 5,000 tonnes of C02 over the last three years. And that qualifies them to register for carbon credits on the Alberta Emission Offset Registry, credits which they have now sold.

“We’re currently able to get about $15 per tonne back to our producers, so that’s over $75,000”,” says Richard Kennedy of Carbon Credit Solutions Inc., the Alberta company that verified, quantified and registered the group’s reductions, and then bought its credits.

CCSI will sell the credits to larger-scale emitters, such as power plants, that need to meet annual targets for carbon reduction.

Small-scale emitters can benefit from projects such as this under rules the Alberta government laid out in the Quantification Protocol for Distributed Renewable Energy in 2013. However, the process requires meticulous monitoring and reporting.

CCSI provides the exact skills and experience that are vital for recording reductions in small-scale carbon emission and achieving financial benefits from carbon credits. The Calgary-based company is the largest producer of agricultural carbon credits in North America, having developed valuable carbon offset credits for farmers who use conservation cropping techniques since 2008.

This solar project aggregation by CCSI is the first of its kind to be completed in Canada. The project will continue to generate credits for the group for a further five years.