B.C. launches solar initiative
B.C. launches solar initiative
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, 01-Apr-2006
Starshine solution to B.C. energy needs
Jim Jamieson, The Province, 02-Apr-2006
SolarBC for conference agenda and more information
http://www.solarbc.org/events/
BC Sustainable Energy Association
www.bcsea.org
COMMENT:Hmm, what's the first thought that comes to mind if a BC government minister announces a progressive energy initiative on April 1st?
B.C. launches solar initiative
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, April 01, 2006
To listen to story, click link.
British Columbia is launching a groundbreaking green energy initiative that hopes to install solar heating panels on 100,000 residential rooftops, and the province turned into a manufacturing hub for the sector.
Environment Minister Barry Penner told Canada's first solar heating summit in Vancouver on Friday that he's looking for ideas in support of a project that would make B.C. the leader in Canada for harvesting the latent energy in the rays of the sun.
The summit drew a wide range of participants, from local politicians and contractors to public utilities and prominent environmentalists, who heard that B.C. could develop thousands of new jobs and emerge as a North American hub for green technology.
"It's a groundbreaking event for Canada," said Rob McMonagle, executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association.
"This is the first time we've got all the policymakers in government, utilities and industry all sitting down to talk about solar issues. It sometimes gets included as part of a discussion, but this is the first time that solar is the only subject for discussion."
The summit was organized by the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association.
Solar heating involves installation of panels on roofs to collect heat to warm water for household use, and cuts monthly heating bills by about 25 per cent.
"Natural gas prices have gone up 300 per cent in the last five years, and there's no hope that it will ever go back down again," McMonagle added. "Solar thermal has the best energy pricing of any technology. The average cost of a solar hot water system, in terms of electricity costs, is about five cents per kilowatt hour. The average individual in B.C. is paying over six cents per kilowatt hour."
A typical installed unit costs about $4,000 to $5,000 -- and B.C. was described as a good market for the technology.
European solar market expert Teun Bokhoven told the summit that B.C.'s south coast gets more than enough sunlight to power water heating systems.
Bokhoven said he found it remarkable that there were no solar panels visible on the roofs of Greater Vancouver homes as he flew into the region for this week's Globe 2006 conference and the solar summit.
The notion of a 100,000-roof program has bounced around several international jurisdictions, notably Europe and India, and a similar program targeting one million roofs is underway in California.
Penner's interest puts B.C. into the lead in Canada -- but the minister said the provincial government needs input from a wide range of stakeholders to create momentum for the initiative.
"There's huge economic opportunity in pursuing these new technologies. Solar energy has the potential to be widely used in homes and businesses."
Penner said that there are about 40 million solar hot-water installations worldwide -- "but that's just a fraction of the total amount of electricity generated in the world."
Xantrex Technology chairman Mossadiq Umedaly, co-chairman of the premier's committee on alternative power technology, agreed it will take "collective will" to realize the effort.
"There is a huge number of people who are interested," Umedaly said, adding that the economic opportunities are huge for B.C. if it acts quickly
"The infrastructure can be developed. We have companies here. We are in a very good position to move out and the time is now. If we wait much longer we will be followers, not leaders. We won't be leaders in the world [if we act now] but we will certainly be leaders in North America."
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
SolarBC for conference agenda and more information
http://www.solarbc.org/events/
BC Sustainable Energy Association
www.bcsea.org
Starshine solution to B.C. energy needs
Jim Jamieson
The Province
02-Apr-2006
Rain-soaked British Columbia may be one of the last places you would associate with solar power, but the sun is definitely rising here on this most sexy of the renewable-energy technologies.
The installation of rooftop solar-thermal systems for mitigating hot-water-heating costs are now paying for themselves in reasonable time frames and B.C. companies are working on ways to improve the efficiency of solar-electric or photovoltaic (PV) cells.
And this weekend, stakeholders participated in the B.C. Solar Summit, a smorgasbord of panels and workshops hosted by the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) in Vancouver and Victoria to promote usage of the sun's energy to reduce dependence on conventional electricity.
The conference had offerings for plumbing inspectors to policymakers to consumers.
"The beauty of B.C. is that we have this huge dam system that allows us to use hydro-
electric power when we don't have enough sunshine or wind or other forms of energy," said Scott Sinclair, a BCSEA director. "It's like a big storage system. The BCSEA believes we can become one of the first large regions of the world to have zero emissions."
It may sound like pie-in-the-sky, but consider that it's estimated the world's energy requirements will triple this century.
With demand increasing and fossil fuel reserves dwindling, renewable energy sources will receive more and more attention -- even here in B.C., where power is dirt cheap by global standards.
Actually, the sun's power -- through solar-thermal systems -- has already made significant inroads in B.C. Numerous consumer and business installations use the sun's energy to offset heating requirements for swimming pools and in-home hot-water tanks.
Vancouver International Airport has B.C.'s largest array -- 100 solar panels that generate enough energy help to heat an average of 800 gallons of hot water an hour and save what YVR estimates is $90,000 a year.
Residential applications have been going on rooftops for a decade and can provide up to 55 per cent of a home's annual hot-water needs. Installers say the cost of a typical system is about $5,000 with payback in six to eight years at current energy prices.
The BCSEA last year established a goal of reaching 100,000 solar roofs in B.C. by 2025, although there are only about 1,000 currently.
What's putting the brakes on demand, said Sinclair, is the low cost of electricity in B.C. -- about six cents per kilowatt-hour when it's 10 to 20 cents US in California and 20 cents in Europe.
By comparison, China's installed capacity is the equivalent of 15 million single-family homes.
But the holy grail of solar energy is photovoltaic panels, or PV, which translates sunlight directly into electrical current. It's clean, simple and emission-free.
The problem is the cost. It used to be astronomical, and it's still expensive, but has come down dramatically in recent years.
Didier Thevenard, project leader in renewable energy research at the B.C. Institute of Technology, said there are already economical solar PV installations in locations off the electricity grid, and Victoria's Carmanah Technologies is an international player in industrial solar-lighting systems, but there is still some ways to go before it makes sense in residential applications in B.C.
"The main application will be grid integration [where a consumer can put electricity generated back into the grid for credit on his utility bill], but that is still quite a ways off because of the cost," said Thevenard. He said Ontario will buy back electricity at 42 cents per kilowatt hour (as opposed to B.C. Hydro's six cents per kilowatt hour), but the cost of the panels, depending on numerous factors, would likely be in the 60- to 70-cent range.
"Even at 42 cents, it's almost cost effective but not quite," he said.
A Burnaby company founded by John MacDonald -- co-founder of major tech company MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates -- says it is on the verge of closing the PV cost gap. MacDonald's Day4 Energy says it has developed a new way of connecting to a photovoltaic cell and inter-connecting the cells to one another, such that it dramatically reduces the electrical resistance.
Day4 expects to produce prototypes by the fall and have products in 2007 for markets where there is ample sunlight and high power costs.
"It will bring the cost down to the point where in some areas of the world you should be able to produce electricity from sunlight at kilowatt/hour rates that are comparable with conventional fossil-fuel generation," said MacDonald.
"If we can get solar energy to be cost competitive . . . it will start to enter the mainstream of electrical generation."
Posted by Arthur Caldicott on 01 Apr 2006