It’s the latest attempt by members of the agricultural community to improve the industry’s sustainability.
"This project really is a first of its kind in Canada in trialing new technologies that could potentially define the new normal for energy efficiency and reducing climate impacts for animal housing," Nathan Pelletier, a University of British Columbia professor specializing in sustainability, told CBC.
The provincial government supported the initiative by providing a $250,000 grant to offset some of the costs.
The colony must provide data to Egg Farmers of Alberta. It also installed a live video stream inside the barn.
The chickens were placed in the barn in January, and so far results are positive.
“It looks very promising, I think we’ll be very close to net zero with solar,” Darrel Mandel, a member of the colony told CBC. “With the colder months coming we’ll have more data available to maybe prove that it was a good cause.”
Jenna Griffin, who helped manage the project with Egg Farmers of Alberta, told CBC more data and information will be collected to determine if more solar panels are needed to achieve net-zero status.