General Framework

The Government of Canada supported several new initiatives within the initial Climate Change Action Plan 2000 (1). Several federal departments have partnered with the Photovoltaic (PV) industry and regional stakeholders to deliver projects within the Technology Early Action Measures Program, the MicroPower-Connect initiative (2) and the expansion of the REDI program for On-Site Generation at Federal Facilities. Together these projects are helping to raise the awareness of this emerging technology, as well as contributing to their improvement and cost reduction targets. Highlights of PV Industry support of Canada’s climate change objectives, include:

• ATS, Spheral Solar Power Inc major investment in a novel technology that will significantly contribute to the cost reduction of solar power;
• ARISE Technologies and Cook Homes partnering to market PV solar homes to residential customers;
• Carmanah to develop improved LED lighting and solar products with partners, BC-Hydro and BCIT;
• Xantrex’s launch of a customer financing program for renewable energy products; and
• ICP Global’s attendance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Despite the relatively low price of conventional energy, many Canadians are contributing to the growth of the PV market and industry. A sustainable market for remote and off-grid applications has developed over the last 10 years in Canada. The installed power capacity reached 10 MW in 2002, compared to 8,8 MW in 2001 (see Table 1). This is an unsubsidized market that is growing because PV technology is meeting the remote power needs of Canadian customers particularly for transport route signaling, navigational aids, remote homes, telecommunication, and remote sensing and monitoring.
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Table 1: Cumulative PV power capacity installed in Canada

Year	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Cumulative PV power [MW]	0,96	1,24	1,51	1,86	2,56	3,38	4,47	5,83	7,15	8,83	10,00

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National Programme

The strategies of the Canadian R&D photovoltaic program are:

• To conduct R&D that will contribute to the improved performance of PV system components and applications in cold climates;
• Provide leadership and technical support that will foster the market deployment of PV technology by removing technical and non technical barriers;
• Collaborate with key partners and stakeholders to increase the awareness of the potential and value of PV;
• Provide support to globally competitive PV manufacturers that can significantly contribute to Canada’s Climate Change objectives.

Research and Development

Current projects include:

• a comprehensive research program to evaluate the use of small PV-hybrid systems in order to optimize their performance and reduce their life-cycle cost;
• a research project to increase the integration of renewable energy technologies in off-grid residences in Canadian climatic condition, in partnership with the Yukon Energy Solution Centre, the Artic Energy Alliance and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation;
• evaluating the energy performance of commercial PV modules operating in Canadian climatic conditions and contributing to the development of international PV module standards;
• assessing the performance of PV products designed for building integration, in collaborations with Canadian manufacturers and system integrators;
• conducting research to improve the efficiency and performance of inverters and balance of systems components used for utility interconnected PV systems;
• championing the development of a national guideline for the interconnection of small distributed generation systems, including PV, wind, micro-turbines, and fuel cells, in collaboration with the Electro-Federation of Canada;
• supporting the development and adoption of performance and safety standards for use in Canada, including participation in the International Electrotechnical Commission working groups that aim to develop international standards.

CETC-V also developed a Project Analysis Software Tool, known as RETScreen® that can be downloaded from the web free-of-charge (7). First released in 1998 for on-grid applications, the RETScreen 2 000 model was upgraded to cover off-grid PV applications, including stand-alone, hybrid and water pumping systems. Training modules presenting case studies were completed to provide guidance to those interested in assessing the cost and benefits of PV systems in various applications.
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Demonstration projects

• Queens University BIPV Façade
  This grid-connected 20 kW building-integrated solar photovoltaic array will be installed on the façade of Goodwin Hall, home to Queen's Departments of Mining Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computing and Information Science (Figure 1).
  This project is the result of the collaboration between the University’s Integrated Learning Centre, Faculty of Applied Sciences, ATS Automation Tooling Systems in Cambridge, Ontario, Ontario Power Generation, Solar Design Associates in Massachusetts, the Photovoltaic and Hybrid Systems Program at CETC-Varennes, the Climate Change Action Fund through TEAM and Halsall and Associates Limited – a Toronto headquartered professional engineering service company. This installation will include continuous arrays above the 4th to the 7th floor windows for the length of the building’s south elevation and generate about 20 megawatt-hours of electricity per year. It will result in a visible, attractive demonstration of Queen’s commitment to new energy technologies and sustainability in support of the Integrated Learning Centre concept.

  

• ARISE SOLAR Homes
  ARISE Technologies Corporation, Cook Homes Limited, The City of Waterloo, Waterloo North Hydro, The University of Waterloo, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and CETC-Varennes are partnering in a community project to advance the development and demonstration of photovoltaic (PV) solar homes in Canada (Figure 2).
  The project was announced during the Earth Day 2002 celebrations in Waterloo, Ontario. It will be the first demonstration of community-scale PV systems in a neighborhood in Canada. The PV rooftop systems on 10 to 15 homes will be connected to the local electrical grid so they can send surplus electricity back to the utility. The aims of the project are to accelerate the acceptance of PV technologies for grid-connected applications in the market and to develop a framework for expanding the program to other municipalities in Canada. This project will also study the impact of solar-powered neighborhoods from the perspective of the electrical utility, financial institutions, and municipal planning and bylaws. This community approach will be a major step in making available affordable and marketable PV solar home systems to residential customers in Canada.

• City of Airdrie Environmental Educational Centre
  The City of Airdrie in Alberta opened its Environmental Education Centre as a single-stop location to demonstrate solar PV, solar water heating, solar air heating, and building envelope and water efficiency. The center's systems include a 2 kW grid-dependent solar PV system, a 30-tube evacuated tube solar water heating collector, a Solarwall air heating collector, straw bale walls, and the new dual-flush toilet.

• Saskatchewan Advanced Solar Home
  The Saskatchewan Advanced Solar home was retrofitted to convert the 1,9 kW solar arrays to a grid-interactive system in 2002. NRCan, the Saskatchewan Research Centre, Kelln and SaskPower partnered to test and demonstrate. The system includes a 2 kW power-conditioner marketed by ARISE Technologies. The provincial electricity company, SaskPower, supported this installation as part of their Climate Change Action Plan.

• Aurum Lodge Eco-tourism Country Inn
  First established in 2001, Aurum Lodge is located in an environmentally sensitive part of Alberta's Rocky Mountains. The lodge design includes a 4 kW PV array, an 11-collector solar heating system, a 400 W wind turbine, 8 kW genset, wood stove and fireplace with water jackets, and low-flush and composting toilets, placing it in the forefront of Canadian eco-tourism and hospitality industry.

Implementation

Within this framework, several climate change measures have been initiated that should benefit the PV industry and other stakeholders:

• Technology Early Action Measure Program - This is a cost-shared program for the development of innovative technologies and their demonstration in the market place. Several PV technology proposals were approved under this program;
• MicroPower-Connect Initiative - This is an initiative that aims to develop and harmonize the requirements for the interconnection of emerging technologies, such as PV, wind, fuel cells, and microturbines;
• On-site Generation at Government Facilities - As part of its climate change action plan, the government of Canada will support the installation of approximately 15 PV systems over the next three years. Projects will include high visibility sites that demonstrate the application of building-integrated PV products;
• Climate Change Technology and Innovation Program - As part of this measure, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council will manage a research fund for novel next-generation energy technologies related to greenhouse gas mitigation. This program targets early-stage and exploratory research in Canadian Universities and will enhance the knowledge base for longer-term solutions to climate change (9);
• Federation of Canadian Municipality (FCM) Green Fund - The federal government provides funding to the FCM to initiate green energy projects. By partnering with a local community champion, PV companies have an opportunity to propose PV deployment projects (10).

The restructuring of the electricity market in North America is drawing more interest in providing customers a power choice. Much of the regulation for electricity in Canada is under provincial jurisdiction. Alberta was the first Province to deregulate the electricity industry and electricity is traded on the Alberta Power Pool since January 1996. ENMAX based in Alberta has successfully created a green power market in Alberta. In the province of Ontario, Ontario Power Generation created an Evergreen Energy division to offer Green power to their customers. In 2001, Evergreen Energy installed a 4,8 kW PV power system on their rooftop, as part of their renewable energy portfolio. However, there is no provincial legislation mandating net-metering options be provided to customers in Canada. Small systems installed by residential customers can, in principal, be approved on a case-by-case basis for interconnection; however, the process is still costly and lengthy. In 2002, the Ontario government announced that it would propose a 100 000 PV rooftop program along with other measures that target the electricity market in that province. SaskPower is the only provincial electricity company that has an incentive program that targets farmers who wish to purchase small PV or wind powered water-pumping systems.
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Industry Status

ATS Automation Tooling System announced an 85 MCAD project to commercialize a next generation solar cell technology, known as Spheral SolarTM. The newly created subsidiary of ATS, Spheral Solar Power Inc. will employ about 175 people at a new manufacturing plant near its head office in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. This technology is a low-cost flexible solar energy product that can readily be adapted to a wide range of applications. Industry Canada’s Technology Partnership Canada and Canada’s Climate Change TEAM programs are partners in this project. ATS also owns Photowatt of France and has levered its automation expertise and high-volume manufacturing in the production of silicon solar cells and modules. ATS is a globally competitive company that now employs 3 200 people at 26 facilities worldwide.

Xantrex Technology Inc. based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has acquired and formed an alliance with Statpower, Heart Interface, Cruising Equipment and Trace Engineering to create the world’s leading supplier of advanced power electronics. In 2002, Xantrex launched a customer financing program for renewable energy products. This is the first renewable energy industry player to offer financing packages to residential, municipal and commercial customer. This joint initiative with Thalman Financial Inc, based in California, is a pro-active way to assist customers to move forward with the purchase through regular payment plans.

ICP Global Technologies, a leading supplier of consumer products in North America, has expanded its operations to manufacture a new line of PV panels. It now employs approximately 75 people dedicated to its solar product line. Its new manufacturing facility in Montréal, Québec was inaugurated in October 2000. ICP Global won a design and engineering award for its iSun Power Charger at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Carmanah based in Victoria, British Columbia is expanding its manufacturing efforts with a range of specialized products. A Canadian manufacturer of solar-powered LED lights estimates that it now has installed 45 000 units around the world since it expanded its business to serve the transportation sector. Carmanah is collaborating with the City of Victoria to demonstrate a new bus transit stop, the i-STOPTM . It includes backlit schedule information, a safety light and a flashing beacon that alerts the bus driver when a customer is waiting at the stop.

A network of systems integration companies has established distribution and dealer networks that effectively serve a growing Canadian PV market. These include distributors for BP Solar (acquired Solarex), Shell Solar (acquired Siemens), Kyocera, Photowatt, and UniSolar. These modules are sold with product warranties ranging from 10 to 25 years and have certified their products to international standards.
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Market Development

There are still many barriers to the development of the grid-connected market sector in Canada. In particular, residential customers find the installation and approval process costly and lengthy. Commercial and industrial customers generally have dedicated staff and expertise to deal with the various steps and are more likely to pursue projects.
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Future Outlook

PV power systems have demonstrated that they are a reliable source of electricity and the public perception of this technology is favorable. Nevertheless, increased knowledge of this energy choice is required to maintain the growth of its domestic market. Both the Canadian Solar Industries Association and Énergie Solaire Québec have continued their promotional and marketing activities in Canada.

More significant effort will be required to encourage the development of the grid-connected market sector in Canada.

CANMET Energy Technology Centre-Varennes completed a study examining the benefits of on-site generation using photovoltaic technologies on buildings in Canada (4). Several new activities have been initiated as part of an action plan that aims to build on Canadian Industry experience base and address some of the market place barriers that currently exist. New government investments in R&D for Building-Integrated PV technology, support for the development of a technical guideline for the interconnection of small power supplies, and support for demonstrations of PV on building in high-visibility sites throughout Canada will contribute to facilitating the market introduction of PV technology for grid-tied applications in the medium to long term.
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Footnotes with relevant web sites

1. Climate change web site: http://www.climatechange.gc.ca
2. Removing barriers to interconnection: http://www.micropower-connect.org
3. Renewable Energy and Electricity Division: http://reed.nrcan.gc.ca
4. Photovoltaic for Building report: http://cetc-varennes.nrcan.gc.ca/eng/publication/r2001-123e.html
5. CETC-Varennes was formerly known as the CANMET-Energy Diversification Research Laboratory (CEDRL)
6. PV-Hybrid Program newsletter, HYBRID-INFO: http://cetc-varennes.nrcan.gc.ca/eng/publication/2002-109e.pdf
7. Free software tool: http://www.retscreen.net
8. REDI ON-SITE initiative: http://reed.nrcan.gc.ca
9. Funding University research: http://www.nserc.ca
10. Green Municipal Fund: http://www.fcm.ca
11. Directory of members and companies available from: the Canadian Solar Industry Association (http://www.cansia.ca) and Énergie Solaire Québec: http://www.esq.qc.ca

Further reading about Canada

• Canada - Country information