Province’s solar industry waiting for ‘clear signals’
As the province looks toward renewable energy as part of its climate change strategy, the solar industry in Alberta is taking a wait-and-see approach toward development.
A recent report by Howell-Mayhew Engineering Alberta shows the province is on track for 2,000 megawatts of solar power development by 2025.
The province’s climate change strategy aims to move power generation to 30-per-cent renewables by 2030, tripling the current capacity for wind, solar and hydropower in Alberta.
Officials with the Canadian Solar Industries Association said solar could boom in Alberta, but the industry is awaiting further details from the Notley government before it goes ahead with specific projects.
“We’re depending on this government to come out with very clear signals about how it’s going to proceed as soon as it’s able,” said John Gorman, president and chief executive of the association. “Regardless of what industry you are in, it needs that certainty to do its business planning and investing strategy.
“It’s technically doable, but practically we’ve got to wait and see what direction the province is going to move in.”
Similarly, a renewable energy provider said there’s a lot of interest to get going on projects.
“We’re optioning land and getting ready for what we hope will be policy development,” said Jared Donald, vice-president of business development with AMP Solar. “I don’t see any solar moving ahead without any updated policy from this government.”
So far, the province has announced one solar program — the $5-million Alberta Municipal Solar Program, which is administered by the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre and provides capital cost rebates for solar system installations in the province’s municipalities.
Many in the industry said they’re hopeful the coming months — or the provincial budget April 14 — will bring more details beyond what’s contemplated in the climate change strategy prepared by economist Andrew Leach.
“If that policy is adopted without any change, I still think the opportunity for solar is going to be quite limited,” said Donald, noting he’s optimistic solar can help to replace 6,300 megawatts of coal being taken off-line. “The amount of wind that’s already in the development queue in Alberta, it will be a quick move to wind.”
Donald noted, however, that they are getting positive signals from the government toward technology and economic diversification.
“We’re quite hopeful that we’ll see positive results in that for solar,” said Donald, “because the industry really needs a kick-start to really get going in the province.”
It comes as the American solar industry booms, installing 7.3 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2015.
“You can see what’s going on in the United States and you can extrapolate it out to Alberta,” said Duncan Kinney, executive director of Progress Alberta, a left-leaning “progressive” advisory group. “We are phasing out our coal plants and we’ve got this commitment to replacing them with renewable energy.
“Solar is definitely going to be part of that mix.”