Prince George has become the home for B.C.’s first solar panel parking lot.

In a new pilot project, a 20-metre-squared space has been installed just outside its city hall.

The goal is for the lot to generate electricity to help with powering the city building, and to supply additional power for other needs such as the electric vehicle-charging stations.

The technology used to build the space was developed by Colas Group, a French civil engineering firm headquartered in Paris, according to a city news release late last week.

The solar panels, which are called photovoltaic panels, are only a few millimetres thick, which allowed crews to simply mount each panel atop the pavement.

Residents online were quick to draw concern around Prince George’s notoriously cold weather, sometimes reaching lows of -40 C.

The city said the panels are made of a durable composite material and are strong enough to withhold the weight of vehicles and all kinds of weather.

@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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