Province unveils $36-million plan for home and business solar rebates
A new $36-million rebate plan for solar panel installation on Albertan homes and businesses should be up and running by summer.
While the details are yet to be ironed out — what systems qualify, installation requirements, who’s eligible — Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Monday the program will create up to 900 solar sector jobs by 2019.
The program will be funded with some of the cash the government has raked in through the carbon tax, cutting solar installation costs for homes by up to 30 per cent, and 25 per cent for businesses.
Solar uptake in Alberta has doubled since 2015, for which Phillips credits funding programs created by her government.
Wildrose renewables critic Don MacIntyre is unimpressed with the rebate, and sees it as an example of the government artificially propping up an entire sector.
Sure it will create “a bunch of work” for solar companies in the short term, he said, but it will create long-term problems as customers come to rely on the government rebate, rather than the industry having to keep itself afloat.
Phillips unveiled the new program Monday at Gridworks, a solar company in Edmonton.
According to owner and president Randall Benson, similar programs for farms, indigenous communities and municipalities created a flood of work for contractors like him, and he envisages his days becoming busier.
A decade ago, solar installation was more of a part-time job, he said, but over the last eight years, he estimates business has ballooned by around 80 per cent.
While he congratulated the government on the new program, he did so framing it against the mistakes made in other provinces.
“We want to go slow and steady, and I think that’s what wins the race here,” he said.
According to Ontario’s auditor general, failed green energy programs will cost that province $170 billion over 30 years.
Phillips said Monday avoiding mistakes like that is why the government is moving to solar in smaller steps.
The government will bring in a third-party contractor to deliver the new program, which is expected to lead to solar panels on 10,000 Alberta rooftops by 2020.