Renewable Energy Assessments

A renewable energy assessment estimates the potential energy production of your site and designs a custom renewable energy system to maximize your energy production. VREC highly recommends that our clients do an assessment before proceeding with an installation.  An assessment will help avoid costly mistakes in system design and give you an accurate expectation of potential energy savings. Please email us to schedule an appointment or if you have further questions, give us a call at (778) 869-8333. VREC provides assessments for both solar and wind energy technologies. With your renewable energy assessment, you receive an assessment report with the following information:

• Potential energy production at your site for your choice of renewable energy system (Solar Electricity, Solar Thermal, Wind)
• System design to meet your specific needs or budget
• Quote for the cost of installation, which includes all parts and labour
• Potential greenhouse gas offsets resulting from your system
• Analysis of opportunities to reduce electricity and/or hot water consumption to compliment your system
• Potential government grants and financing opportunities

Cost of Assessment

The cost of an assessment ranges from $200-$400 for residential customers and $400-$600 for commercial businesses. We can do an assessment for any combination of PV, Solar Thermal, and Wind.

Type of Assessment	Residential	Commercial
PV Assessment	$250	$450
Wind Assessment with wind monitoring station data	$200	$450
Wind Assessment with Anemometer	Please call for price.
PV and Solar Thermal	$300	$550
PV, Solar Thermal, and Wind	$400	$650

Estimating Energy Production of a Site

The solar energy potential of your site is dependent on year-round sun exposure. A site that has full sun in the summer months can be fully shaded in the winter months. We use a device called the PathFinder to estimate the degree of shading a site will receive in every month of the year.  We then combine this site-specific solar data with data on regional weather patterns, building orientation and roof angle to estimate the site’s solar energy potential. Wind energy potential is dependent on the strength of wind at your site.  From our experience, most places in the Greater Vancouver area have greater solar power potential than wind power. For example, for the same capital cost, a photovoltaic system can produce up to 10 times more electricity than a small wind generation system. However, if you think that your site has a good wind resource, we can estimate the strength of your wind resource with data from the nearest wind monitoring station or from on-site monitoring with an anemometer.