Ever since the first solar panel was placed on the Drake Landing Solar Community it has continued to surpass everyone's expectations.

In it's tenth year since being built the solar heating storage homes is completely efficient from energy sources like natural gas to heat the 95 home community.

Okotoks Town Councillor Ed sands

Okotoks Town Councillor Ed Sands has been able to observe the project's growth from the ground up and is still amazed at what has been accomplished.

"Success was intended to look like is if they could get 90 percent solar utilization/heating at the end of five years it would have been the most successful project of its kind," he says. "By three years they were at 95 percent and this past year we were at 100 percent."

ATCO Gas along with the federal government have put plenty of investment into the community, and it's the only community you'll find like it in the entire world.

Sands says every time he and other members of Town Council take a tour they learn something new.

"Engineers from ATCO were telling us that they host tours for municipalities all across the country and all across the world in fact delegations from China and I think Sweden are able to come to Okotoks and they check us out. They find out what kind of things they learn for themselves and how they can apply that to their own countries."

Sand says he hopes the 100 percent success will lead to more solar communities, not just locally but globally, and hopes all the work done in Okotoks can have an everlasting effect.

"Most of the equipment used in the process wasn't even made in Canada and they had to import a lot of this stuff. I think by doing it in Canada we start to create a market for manufacturers to start making these things in Canada so it helps with industry as well."

For more on the DLSC follow the link.