A cleaner future: Shediac, N.B., benefitting from province’s largest solar farm

Take a look at the solar farm in Shediac, N.B.

Shediac, N.B., a tourist town near Moncton, is quickly becoming one of the “greenest” communities in Atlantic Canada, thanks to its solar farm and generating plant.

The solar farm is the largest in New Brunswick with row upon row of solar panels waiting to soak up the sun.

“This is New Brunswick’s first utility-scale solar farm,” says Sara Mudge, Senior Technical Lead at NB Power. “We’re so proud to bring the first one online. It’s been up and running since 2023.”

Mudge says the farm generates 1.63 megawatt hours of solar capacity. Enough to power about 90 homes annually.

“What the farm does today is it actually makes the federal pension centre and the Town of Shediac Multipurpose Centre net zero,” she said.

Shediac Mayor Roger Caissie says the town was a willing partner for the solar project.

“The initial conversation happened over 10 years ago following an ice storm of all things, where we had no power for about a day and a half,” he explains. “This is good anywhere, but it’s good for Shediac in terms of this provides green energy. This provides net-zero, no carbon.”

Caissie said the farm’s benefits extend beyond environmental considerations.

“This puts a power-generating facility right next to the town. Whatever it produces gets consumed without any loss of transmission.”

The project was part of Smart Grid Atlantic, a federally funded program in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. NB Power and Nova Scotia Power received $35.66 million in federal funding for the joint pilot project.

“There’s a call for about 200 megawatts of solar farms like this one that we have here,” Mudge said.

“Definitely more solar farms are going to be popping up across New Brunswick in the future.”

Mudge said there are additional challenges in the winter.

“We use three times more electricity in the winter to heat our homes,” Mudge said. “Solar doesn’t really directly benefit us in the winter because it doesn’t produce at the time that we need it the most.”

Mudge said the batteries can charge during the daytime, even in winter and electricity from those batteries can be used in the morning.

The project also boasts regional benefits. The solar panels aren’t manufactured in New Brunswick, but the racking and other systems are.

“This system is now being shipped across Canada as one of the strongest made for Canadian winters and storms and hurricanes,” said Mudge.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.