Thanks to the Green Energy Act, Ontario is rapidly becoming the leading solar energy producer in North America.  Canada’s first fully operational large scale solar installation, in Stone Mills, Ontario, began to produce clean power last fall, and two more sites are now slated for construction.

First Light Solar Park, the 48-hectare site (more…)

EDF EN Canada has now begun construction on three photovoltaic solar projects that will produce 36 megawatts total and employ 350 solar installation and engineering professionals.  Originally initiated by the now-replaced Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) (more…)

Energy investors and entrepreneurs often refer to the period between technologies being developed in the lab and making their way to the marketplace as a "valley of death" due to the multitude of factors that can prevent those advancements from reaching the consumer. Last week, just miles from the real Death Valley in Nevada, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and I announced a venture that will help promising solar technologies make that journey to the market. The Nevada Test site, which was once used to test nuclear weapons, will now be dedicated to testing new (more…)

A slender, glider-like plane has completed the first night flight powered by solar energy, staying aloft for 26 hours and flying higher and longer than any previous solar flight. The Solar Impulse, with a 193-foot wingspan and weighing only 3,500 pounds, completed its record-breaking flight over Switzerland, soaring to (more…)

With an eye on Ontario, Conergy and Sustainable Energy Technologies have partnered up to supply Sunergy inverters to one of North America’s most active solar markets.  Over the next year, the two companies hope to produce 3MW of clean energy, spread across a number of different projects.  First on the list is a 75kW rooftop installation on Brampton’s Metex Heat Treating facility.

In high-tech industries, it is not uncommon for such partnerships to emerge, with each side enjoying greater access to knowledge and skills outside of its core expertise.  According to Conergy’s Managing Director (more…)

Imagine that every car in America was an Electric Vehicle (EV) powered by a electric battery like the Tesla’s (Nasdaq: TSLA) Roadster.  Imagine also that each and every car was powered with solar energy. Here’s a question: what amount of land would you need to generate the solar energy to power every electric vehicle in America?  And how would that solar acreage compare with the land surface that the oil industry uses to drill today?

I did the numbers and the answer will surprise you. (more…)

Solar Energy (both photovoltaic and solar hot water, aka solar thermal) are great resources to have at your disposal. In the case of photovoltaic, you can substitute the power from your utility grid by harnessing the sun’s power and converting the sun’s rays into electricity. With rising electricity prices, photovoltaics (aka solar electric) is a great hedge against ever expanding utility bills. The photovoltaic industry is growing by leaps and bounds. You may want to get into the action. (more…)

The Green Energy Act is quickly positioning Ontario as a world leader in the global sustainability movement. Originally enacted in 2009, the Act continues to bolster the province’s local economy through domestic content provisions and a number of renewable energy growth initiatives among both major and minor players in the solar energy arena. These domestic content provisions require that companies seeking to develop large or micro solar projects within the province use a percentage of local goods and labour. (more…)

When you put 75 solar installers, policy makers and advocates in a room and ask them to discuss policies and tactics for reducing the local cost component of solar energy, what do they say?

We tried it at the end of May at the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) annual conference SOLAR 2010, and here is what we learned.

Building Customer Demand
Reducing Cost of Customer Acquisition
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Power purchase agreements and solar leases can eliminate up-front costs and are ideal for commercial use.

When considering solar energy for your business, what you really want is the power, so why shell out for the system? That’s the basic scheme of financial agreements known as power purchase agreements and solar leases that cover up-front equipment and installation costs while the customer pays only a monthly amount.

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it isn’t, but the process can be rather complicated and contracts become very complex, according to Matt Lugar, vice president of sales at Stellar Energy in Rohnert Park, Calif. Lugar outlined the primary types of financial structures available for solar and the impacts of the 2008-09 financial crisis on the marketplace during a workshop held at the California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego, Calif.

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