Winnipeg firm looks to Saskatchewan after loss of subsidy
Two-year pilot project helped Manitoba hydro customers adapt to solar power
WINNIPEG One Winnipeg solar company says it has had to slash its workforce by more than half and is now preparing to move to Saskatchewan to find more business.
Living Skies Solar says at its peak, it employed 20 people, but that number has shrunk to eight after a pilot project from Manitoba Hydro’s Power Smart ended in April.
Riley Unger, sales director at Living Skies, says that number will be further reduced to three or four employees after the New Year.
“There’s been a huge drop-off in new sales,” Unger said. “This was such a successful program that I think we, and every other company out there, probably had enough sales to keep us going at a pretty good pace.”
The solar incentive pilot program that ran from May 2016 to May 1 of this year provided a $1-per-watt subsidy on new solar installations and also enabled solar customers to sell surplus electricity back to the Crown corp for credit on their hydro bills.
Those who submitted applications prior to January of this year fell under that agreement where they could sell back their power at a full rate through a net-metering program. Since the program has ended, that number is less than half the full rate. Unger says that’s effectively killed the market.
“Without that net-metering, it’s a challenge, to say the least,” Unger said. “Although there’s no rebate, probably the biggest part. Even without an incentive, you would still have lots of people in this province seeing this as an investment.”
Saskatchewan, where Living Skies is looking for new business, offers a 61-cent incentive program as well as a net-metering program.
Manitoba is among the cheapest jurisdictions in the country when it comes to electricity rates.
Todd Mackay, Prairie director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says that any business based on subsidies isn’t a good business plan.
“In this situation, we have the added issue that Manitoba is blessed with huge amounts of clean, renewable hydroelectricity,” Mackay said. “There isn’t the policy justifications you might otherwise have for pushing a clean power source. You already have one.”
Manitoba Hydro says the solar program was always designed to be a two-year pilot that ended as planned on May 1.
They say interest far exceeded expectations, with over 800 systems being installed, awaiting inspection or approved.
“Manitoba Hydro originally estimated that approximately 150 to 200 systems might be installed under the program,” said Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen on Wednesday. “The purpose of the pilot program was to gauge consumer interest in solar energy and assess the economics. We also wanted to look at what procedures and systems might be required to support solar energy adoption such as program administration and operational issues like in billing and feeding electricity back into our grid.”
Eric Dyck, an egg farmer in Springstein, says he jumped aboard the solar program to help mitigate the costs of hydro to his farm.
“It was a huge boost to our business,” Dyck said. “There’s very little that farmers can do to hedge their costs. Hydro did a great job in offering this program. As soon as they lowered the rates, the math doesn’t seem to work anymore.”
Dyck, who had his application in before January, benefits from the rules that were set before the pilot program ended. He says it’s an investment that many other farmers would be interested in.
“We pay very little, hardly anything,” Dyck said. “We saw benefits immediately. And it’s a longer-term investment. We’re going to pay hydro. It’s just a fact of being a farmer. But we’re able to build those credits.”
The purpose of the pilot program was to gauge consumer interest in solar energy and assess the economics.