When you hear the word garden, most people think about flowers or food. But in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, a local organization is harvesting solar energy to grow resilience and self-reliance in the community.
New Dawn Enterprises is Canada’s oldest community development corporation. For more than 45 years, they’ve been working to give people the tools they need to support themselves and live independently. One of New Dawn’s key services is providing safe, affordable housing. They own and manage housing developments around Sydney, including Pine Tree Park, which has 29 affordable homes. New Dawn knows that the more affordable life is, the better people can live. That led them to look for ways to lower energy costs for Pine Tree Park residents.
With energy bills taking a big chunk of a family’s monthly income, New Dawn turned their attention to an innovative idea—building a community solar garden to power people's homes. Residents of Pine Tree Park can now subscribe to solar energy at a lower cost. By eliminating fossil fuels from Pine Tree Park, the project is also cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting Nova Scotia’s goal of adding at least 500 megawatts of new local, renewable energy by 2026.
Solar power isn’t new, but not everyone can access it. Some people don’t have the right roof space, have too much shade, live in an apartment or shared housing, or can’t afford the upfront costs. So the Province created the Community Solar Program — Canada’s first subscription-based community solar program -- to provide people who cannot install their own solar panels the option to buy solar power from a community provider. The program helps remove these barriers, offering an accessible and affordable solution. And that gives communities a reason to feel hopeful and optimistic about the future.
Erika Shea, CEO of New Dawn Enterprises, put it simply: “This investment is going to fundamentally change Pine Tree Park. It will remove all fossil fuels from the property and make energy costs both more affordable and more predictable for our residents.”
New Dawn believed that clean, affordable energy was possible right now and with $475,000 in funding from the Province, they installed the 1,800-panel solar garden. The system generates 555 kW of electricity—enough to power all 29 homes and community buildings. Combined with energy-efficient upgrades like heat pumps, Pine Tree Park became Cape Breton’s first net-zero energy and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions community.
Since the switch was flipped in 2024, residents have seen their energy bills drop by up to 50 per cent, freeing up money for other essentials. Residents can worry less about unpredictable energy prices, and every home using the solar garden is one less home using greenhouse gas producing fossil fuel-based energy. But the benefits go beyond clean power and making life more affordable. For Pine Tree Park residents, being part of something so innovative has created a huge sense of pride in their community.
The success of the project has also generated interest from other communities in Nova Scotia, and New Dawn is eager to share their experience to help others follow their lead. "This is a significant transformation for Cape Breton. We really want other organizations to know that these types of projects are possible and not out of their reach, regardless of scale," says Erika Shea.
Clean, renewable energy is the way of the future, and the Province will continue to help communities with the capital costs of building community solar gardens in other locations, which is anticipated to leverage more than $200 million in capital investments.
The solar garden is another example of how community-led ideas and action are building a stronger, more resilient Nova Scotia. It proves that moving Nova Scotia forward doesn’t mean trade-offs such as choosing between affordability and sustainability—we can have both. Just ask the people of Pine Tree Park.
The Community Solar Program is part of Our Climate, Our Future: Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth — the province's plan to create a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future for all Nova Scotians. It includes initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, switch to clean energy, create a clean economy, make homes and buildings energy efficient and able to stand up to the impacts of climate change, and help Nova Scotians adapt to the changing climate.
Render of the Array
Pine Tree Park Array in progress