All Weather at Home unveils Edmonton rooftop solar field producing 1.3 GWh annually
All Weather at Home opens Edmonton rooftop solar field with 2,000+ panels producing 1.3 GWh a year, supplying 35% of its facility and exporting weekend surplus.
All Weather at Home has switched on a rooftop solar field at its west‑end Edmonton showroom and manufacturing plant, marking the largest installation of its kind on a Canadian window, door and glass manufacturing site.
The rooftop solar array, fitted with more than 2,000 panels, is expected to generate about 1.3 gigawatt hours of electricity annually and supply roughly 35 per cent of the power demands for the 261,000‑square‑foot facility.
Company leaders said the system will feed surplus power into Alberta’s grid on weekends and signal a long‑term investment in local operations and sustainability.
Project scale and production figures
The new array delivers 1.3 GWh of electricity each year, a yield company officials said will materially reduce purchased energy costs.
At peak, the installation produces roughly a third of the plant’s annual electrical consumption, with excess output exported to the provincial grid during lower onsite demand periods.
Installation and engineering hurdles
Building the field required custom engineering to adapt an older roof to modern solar loads.
Installer InfernoSolar said the project used more than 17,500 concrete ballast blocks and a total installed weight that exceeded what the bare structure could support, so crews removed existing gravel and used the ballast system to distribute loads safely.
Electrical overhaul in a tight window
Operators faced a narrow window to replace the facility’s primary electrical panel without interrupting production.
Work crews completed the cutover in a 36‑hour weekend, a sequence executives described as removing “the heart of the building and putting it back in” while keeping Monday operations on schedule.
Cost, financing and incentives
Company executives said the investment ran into the millions of dollars and took about a year from planning to commissioning.
The project moved ahead without direct grants, relying instead on federal and provincial tax credits and rebates to improve returns, according to the installer and plant management.
Comparisons within Edmonton and the sector
Among private manufacturing sites in Edmonton, only utility and municipal arrays are larger, officials said, with Epcor’s solar farm and the Edmonton Expo Centre rooftop installation cited as the only bigger local systems.
Within Canada’s window, door and glass manufacturing sector, All Weather at Home’s rooftop field ranks as the largest known deployment, a point emphasized at the project’s official launch.
Business rationale and market context
Executives framed the investment as both a cost‑management measure and a signal to customers and employees about the company’s long‑term presence in Edmonton.
Installer representatives noted a wider trend: as solar module costs have dropped and energy prices have risen, commercial investors are increasingly treating rooftop solar as a strategic business asset rather than a discretionary green initiative.
Operational benefits and grid contributions
Beyond onsite savings, the facility’s weekend exports add renewable supply to Alberta’s grid during periods of lower domestic demand, providing modest additional revenue and helping balance provincial supply.
Plant managers said the array will also serve as a demonstration for customers and community partners, showcasing manufacturing paired with decarbonization technologies.
The rooftop solar project is intended to be the first of several sustainability measures the company is exploring for its Edmonton operations, with leadership saying they will continue assessing efficiency upgrades and electrification opportunities.
Company officials stressed the deployment was as much about future‑proofing the business as it was about immediate cost savings, citing reliability, reputation and regulatory expectations as factors driving the decision.
