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Joint Green Energy Venture to Create Career Options, Jobs for 2,300 in Ontario

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Toronto’s Celestica, Inc. (Celestica) and San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy have recently agreed to enter into a joint venture to produce components for solar installations in Ontario.  The partnership will support the region’s rapidly-growing green economy by creating up to 2,300 jobs and manufacturing domestically-produced materials for its career solar workers and students of renewable energy classes.

Celestica is a global provider of design and engineering expertise, electronics manufacturing, and supply chain management services with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia.  The company’s previous work in Ontario includes making components for the BlackBerry smartphone.  Recurrent Energy is a subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corporation that develops, builds, finances, and operates solar power systems in North America, Europe, and other emerging markets.

Celestica will manufacture Recurrent Energy’s solar panels at its facilities in Toronto.  Recurrent Energy plans to use the modules in nineteen photovoltaic projects for which it has signed contracts with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to participate in its lucrative feed-in tariff program (FIT).

Photovoltaic Industry Number Two in N. America, on Course to Number One

The FIT pays producers of electricity from solar, wind, and biomass installations above-market rates to tie their projects into the provincial power grid, but it requires participating solar projects to include 60% made-in-Ontario materials and regional labour.  The program creates enormous opportunities for green energy production as well as new career options.  It also opens up new educational streams like photovoltaic system design and installation classes and other courses that train Ontario’s workers and students for today’s energy jobs.

Ontario saw a boom in its solar industry following its institution of the FIT.  This growth culminated in the province ranking second in North America for installed photovoltaic capacity in 2010, and a recent analysis revealed that the region may be on course to surpass California and take first place in the coming year.  In addition to creating green energy and jobs, Recurrent Energy and Celestica’s contributions to this thriving industry will include materials to help the region’s developers and solar class graduates meet the FIT’s domestic content requirements.  The joint venture joins a number of partnerships operating in the province that capitalize on the demand for solar power while they help Ontario make the switch to more environmentally-friendly forms of energy generation.

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New Data Show Global Solar Industry On Course, Venture Capital Up

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Texas-based Mercom Capital Group (Mercom) has released data that show that venture capital investment in the global solar and wind industries rose 18% between 2009 and 2010.  Mercom’s latest Solar Funding and M & A Report shows that despite a number of potential hurdles, the worldwide effort to increase renewable energy production is on course and continues to expand.

Global investors put more than US$1.66 billion into the solar market by the end of last year, with the US, France, Israel, and Canada representing the top four contributors.  While last year’s numbers improved over those of the previous year, they fell short of 2008 figures, which exceeded $3.87 billion.  In Ontario, a combination of venture capital investment and government incentives, in the form of a powerful feed-in tariff (FIT) program, have helped to create a progressive solar market that includes green energy, jobs, photovoltaic training courses, and new manufacturing facilities.

Sunnydale, California’s Calisolar drew the most investment to the Canadian solar market in 2010, totalling US$22.5 million, followed by Toronto-based Morgan Solar, Inc., who brought in US$3.5 million.  While solar venture capital grew over the last year, the overall number of deals has dropped steadily since 2008.  However, funding for large-scale photovoltaic projects rose over the last two quarters of 2010, which saw the industry add twenty-six new deals worth a combined US $4.1 billion.

More Solar Energy, Jobs for the Future, Despite Setbacks

While the trends for solar are mainly encouraging, they do not come without setbacks.  According to the Mercom report, 2010 figures peaked in the first half of the year and this, combined with the drastic fluctuations between the 2008 and 2009 numbers, reveal a level of instability.  “Analysts are predicting this to be a continuing trend,” the report explains, “as the capital-intensive nature of solar is not fitting well with traditional (venture capital) models and exits in the solar sector have been tough for (venture capitalists).”

With Ontario and a number of other regions and countries across the globe offering FIT programs and a worldwide push to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint, the photovoltaic industry will find ways to overcome its growing pains.  In Ontario, this will mean more new projects that will require photovoltaic training programs to turn out more trained solar energy workers to fill the jobs in the years to come.

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Thunder Bay School Goes Green, Begins Photovoltaic Training Early

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

Students in Thunder Bay, Ontario, will start training for the realities of the new solar economy at young ages, thanks to a new 50 kW solar photovoltaic installation that the city’s Catholic District School Board plans to build on the roof of Pope John Paul II Senior Elementary School (John Paul Elementary).

With the new solar project, John Paul Elementary will join a number of schools across the province that help to make the region and its economy greener by supplying renewable sources of energy to replace less environmentally-friendly methods of power generation such as gas and coal.  The installations also offer students first-hand looks at green technology as they prepare for their future careers.

Ontario has a blossoming solar industry that is powered by a feed-in tariff (FIT) program that pays producers of photovoltaic, wind, and biomass energy high prices to feed their projects into the province’s electrical grid.  The FIT has led to the creation of renewable energy, green careers, and new training opportunities in the province, which in turn help the region’s economy recover from the recent global recession.

Province Invests Heavily in Green Economy, Schools

Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board expects to save up to $70,000 each year on its utility bills by offsetting its hydro consumption with green energy it produces using the rooftop solar array at John Paul Elementary.  It also stands to reduce its carbon footprint by as much as sixty-four tonnes annually.  The Ontario government funded the $800,000 solar project as part of a plan to build more than 120 renewable energy installations at schools across the province.  The $50 million plan helps the province to reduce its environmental impact while it prepares teachers, students, and the communities they serve for a future that depends less on fossil fuels and more on green alternatives.

A number of other schools in the province have solar systems installed or in the works at their facilities, including Bear Creek Secondary in Barrie and Fort Frances High School in the northern Ontario town of Fort Francis.  These projects demonstrate that at Ontario’s learning institutions, today’s students train not only for their own careers, but also for the future of the province and of the planet.

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New Ottawa PV Projects on Course, Will Create Jobs for Trained Solar Workers

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Ottawa’s Dymon Power Corporation (Dymon Power) recently announced that it has selected Ontario Solar Provider, Inc. (OSP) to design, finance, and install eight photovoltaic (PV) projects in the National Capital Region that will have a combined generating capacity of 2.7 MW.  The projects will create jobs for graduates of Ontario’s solar training courses and help the region prepare to phase out its coal-fired power plants.

Ontario is a hotbed of green development, with solar, wind, and other green energy technologies bringing in jobs, training opportunities like PV installation courses, and clean, unpolluted air.  The renewable energy industry received a powerful boost in May of 2009 when the province signed its Green Energy and Green Economy Act (Green Energy Act) into law.  The Act gave the province and its Minister of Energy increased decision-making power over issues of energy supply and efficiency and prepared the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to institute its feed-in tariff (FIT) program later the same year.

Company Plans to Benefit from Green Energy Act Provisions

The FIT program pays high prices, guaranteed over twenty years, to producers of green energy who feed their projects into the power grid.  Dymon Power, a division of the Dymon Group of Companies (Dymon), plans to feed its eight new projects into the grid and participate in the incentive program.  Dymon is a real estate development group that develops and operates storage facilities.  The company also built and runs two high-end retirement homes in Ottawa.

In preparation for its eight new solar projects in the capital, Dymon Power considered more than thirty companies before it selected OSP for the jobs.  OSP is a PV development and installation company based in Toronto that sells its products and services across Europe as well as in North America.  According to Dymon’s CEO, Glen Luckman, “OSP stood out from the competition due its extensive knowledge of the rooftop solar PV market.”

OSP will begin constructing the new projects in April of this year.  The rooftop installations range in capacity from 100 kW to 500 kW and will collectively generate enough electricity to power 1,000 homes, bringing the province closer to achieving one of the FIT’s main goals – to shut down all Ontario coal-fired power plants by 2014.

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Carleton U’s New Green Building Sports Rooftop PV Installation

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario has completed construction of its new seven-story Canal Building, which contains a number of environmentally-friendly features, including 10 kW solar installation and a green roof.  The building, the first of a pair that sits near the Hartwell Locks on the Rideau Canal, received five out of a possible five “globes” on the stringent Green Globes measure of a building’s contribution to environmental sustainability.

The university contracted Ottawa-based GRC Architects and Toronto’s Moriyama and Teshima firm to design the Canal Building and its companion, the River Building, which it expects to complete by August.  While the finished building’s green roof will not make its debut until the spring, the small rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system is operational.  Although the university considers the solar installation to be more of a research and training tool, it will contribute a small amount of power to Carleton’s energy supply.  The system will provide an educational model for students enrolled in the school’s environmental engineering courses and other green tech programs.

“This demonstrates Carleton’s commitment to sustainability in a manner that we believe is effective,” says Carleton’s Assistant VP of Facilities Management and Planning, Darryl Boyce.  The Canal Building’s other green attributes include lighting that self-adjusts according to the amount of available natural illumination, as well as a design that allows the facilities to use 80% natural light, overall, and an automated system that controls lighting and temperature.

University Augments Province’s PV Training Courses

The solar panels atop the Canal Building not only symbolize Carleton’s commitment to the environment, but they also reflect Ontario’s movement toward greener sources of energy.  The province is home to North America’s first-ever feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy, which uses the lure of high prices to encourage corporations, farmers, and individual citizens to install renewable energy systems that feed into the provincial grid.  The program has helped to create a vibrant renewable energy economy and offers far-above-market rates for solar, wind, and biomass energy.  The solar economy, in particular, has expanded rapidly under the FIT, as PV projects receive some of the highest prices the program offers, up to 80.2 cents per kW-hour.

While the Canal Building will not participate in the FIT, it will add to the ways educators in the province train students and workers for tomorrow’s energy jobs and augment other educational streams like Ontario Solar Academy’s PV design and installation courses.  Together, Carleton University and the province of Ontario are doing their parts to fortify the region’s solar economy and put Ontarians on the path to sustainability.

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BC Investment Firm Moves Into Ontario’s Green Economy

Monday, January 24th, 2011

British Columbia-based League Assets Corporation (League Assets) recently created its Member-Partners Solar Energy Limited Partnership to offer investors a new way to generate revenue while they help Ontario bolster its green economy.   The partner-owned venture invests in rooftop solar arrays in the province that earn money by taking advantage of government green energy incentives.

“This investment is our answer to the hundreds of requests we’ve received from our Member-Partners,” says League Assets’ Founding Partner, Adam Gant.  “Green investing is the right thing to do, and League’s Member-Partners Solar LP is the right way to do it.”

League Assets is an investment firm that offers its clients shared ownership of primarily real estate-based investments.  The company manages the IGW Real Estate Investment Trust, which deals with Canadian commercial and residential properties and currently boasts combined assets worth close to $300 million.  According to its website, League Assets has “partnered with the families of its more than 2,500 Member-Partners.”  Among the company’s other environmental achievements, it provided funding for energy saving equipment at the 2010 Winter Olympics Athlete’s Village; Canada hosted the event in League Assets’ home province.

Investors Help Create Renewable Energy, Careers for Certified Solar Workers

Ontario’s green economy is fuelled by the high prices the provincial government’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program pays to producers of renewable energy who feed their installations into the power grid.  The program continues to lead to the creation of solar, wind, and biofuel energy as well as career opportunities for assembly line workers and certified solar installers across the region.  The FIT’s high prices have also drawn the eyes and bank accounts of investors from across the globe.

“Member-Partners Solar Energy LP will enter into contracts under Ontario’s FIT program,” says the company’s other Founding Partner, Emanuel Arruda, “and the difference (between) our cost to produce the power and what we earn for producing the energy will become profit to be shared by our Member-Partners…. It’s that simple.”

League Assets’ investment in Ontario’s green economy will bring the FIT’s goal, to eliminate coal-fired power generation in the province by 2014, closer to reality.  It also adds to the pool of renewable energy careers in the region and boosts solar certification and other green educational streams, all while it contributes to a more sustainable future.

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Ontario PV Company Brings Training, Certified Product to EU’s Largest Array

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Ontario-based Canadian Solar, Inc. (Canadian Solar) has announced its participation in the European solar industry’s most powerful photovoltaic (PV) installation to date.  The 70 MW solar array was constructed and recently connected by SunEdison, based out of Spain and Beltsville, Maryland, which also maintains an office in Toronto.  SunEdison is an international developer, financer, operator, and monitor of solar plants across the globe.  Canadian Solar was among the companies who contributed solar panels to SunEdison for the project.

Over the last decade, the Canadian Solar team has applied its solar industry training and experience in seven countries across the globe and operates as many manufacturing plants worldwide.  Between 2002 and 2009, the company’s revenue increased by almost $600 million.  According to its website, Canadian Solar’s products “adhere to the strictest international quality standards, backed by IEC, TUV, (and) UL, certifications.”  Canadian Solar recently formed Canadian Solar Solutions to take part in the vibrant PV market that has sprung up in its home province.

Company, Province Create Clean Power, Alternative Energy Jobs

Ontario’s solar projects benefit from its feed-in tariff (FIT) and microFIT programs, the first of their kind in North America, which pay above-market rates, guaranteed over twenty years, to alternative energy producers who feed solar, wind, and biomass installations into the provincial power grid.  The programs create renewable energy, jobs, and inspire new educational opportunities such as PV training certification courses.

Canadian Solar’s and its subsidiary’s most significant contribution to the Ontario industry to date is a solar panel manufacturing facility in Guelph, which the companies expect will begin operations by spring of 2011.  They predict that the plant will produce 200 MW worth of panels each year and provide the province with up to 500 new alternative energy jobs.  According to the company’s President, Shawn Qu, the facility will be one of the largest of its kind in North America.

With its international efforts, Canadian Solar makes Canada’s influence felt and its commitment to environmental sustainability known across the globe.  And with its Guelph plant, it will also do its part to ensure the successes of Ontario’s FIT and microFIT programs.

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Minister Tours Plant on First Anniversary of Its Entry into the Solar Industry

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Ontario’s Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, recently completed a tour of the SunRise Power Corporation (SunRise Power) facilities in Peterborough during the first anniversary of the company’s entry into the province’s solar industry.  The city’s MPP, Jeff Leal, accompanied the Minister on the tour of the plant, where they received first-hand looks at the solar panel-making process.

The Ontario solar industry has grown quickly since the provincial Liberal government created its feed-in tariff (FIT) program near the close of 2009.  The program creates clean air and renewable energy job opportunities by paying high rates to producers of solar, wind, and biomass electricity who feed their projects into the grid.  It also supports the creation of solar installation and other renewable energy classes and curricula that help train the next generation of energy workers.  Investment in clean power projects has so far created at least 13,000 jobs in the province and Minister Duguid expects that it will add as many as 50,000 by the end of 2012.  These jobs are welcome additions to an economy hit hard by the 2008/2009 recession that gutted the North American auto industry, on which the province relied heavily.

Company Creates Fifteen Renewable Energy Jobs, Parts for Solar Class Grads

SunRise Power is a retailer and manufacturer of solar products that include inverters and racking systems for photovoltaic installations.  The company currently provides jobs for fifteen people and specializes in FIT-compliant systems that meet the program’s requirements for made-in-Ontario components and local labour.  These requirements help to keep both money and jobs in the province.

In addition to the FIT incentives, Ontario offers a number of other benefits to solar power producers and the businesses they serve.  The province’s solar PV classes bring much needed expertise to the industry as the local economy transitions from traditional manufacturing to greener and cleaner ways of doing business.

“We have the ability to take on the world,” says the Energy Minister, who adds that Ontario plans to terminate operations at all of its coal-fired power plants by 2014.  With the help of companies like SunRise Power, the province can meet this goal while it creates jobs and inspires green education and innovation for years to come.

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Toronto School Board to Power Classes with PV

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

The Toronto District School Board has announced that it plans to outfit nine local schools with photovoltaic (PV) installations by the time students return to their classes at the end of next summer.  Collectively, the installations will be capable of producing 223 kW of electricity and will allow the students to gain first-hand experience with green energy technology while they train for their future careers.

School board members have selected the two lowest bidders, whose names they have yet to release, to construct the solar projects.  Ontario’s Ministry of Education will provide the funding for the nine installations, which the board expects will cost $3.7 million.  The ministry operates a $50 million program designed to fund school renewable energy projects.  The solar systems will generate money for the school board by participating in the Ontario government’s feed-in tariff program, which pays high rates to producers of solar, wind, and biomass energy who feed their installations into the provincial power grid.  One of the feed-in tariff’s key goals is to help phase out coal-fired power production by 2014.  In addition to renewable energy, the program helps create green careers for graduates of the province’s PV classes and other educational streams that prepare workers for the future of energy generation.

School Projects Will Earn Revenue, Create Green Careers

The school board will put the money it generates from the solar installations and the feed-in tariff into its Go Green fund, which it will use to reduce the greenhouse gases its buildings emit by 20% over the next decade.  The Go Green initiative also includes plans for twenty more solar installations at Toronto-area schools by 2012, which the board will have to fund with its own resources.  It expects to pay back these costs within eleven years using feed-in tariff revenue.

Before it can commence building the projects, the board must wait for final approvals from the province, which staff hope to receive by this coming spring.  The installations’ construction will create green jobs for Ontario’s career solar workers since, in order to receive the province’s renewable energy incentives, participating projects must use up to 60% Ontario-sourced materials and labour.

With its numerous solar projects slated for the coming years, the Toronto District School Board joins schools, businesses, and individual residents across the province who are making the switch to renewable energy.

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Solar Training Ontario – One Engineer’s Story of Classroom Success

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Back in October of 2010, C-T Wire Prep Inc. (C-T) was right in the middle of three separate 10 megawatt solar projects to provide all the DC wiring connections from the solar panels to the combiner boxes.  These 3 projects were equal in value to the entire yearly business that C-T had invoiced up to that point and involved processing 4 million feet of wire.  With that successful year coming to a close, C-T management decided to have a deeper look into the solar window, so to speak.

Thomas Collins, C-T Wire Prep Engineer, was assigned the task of finding out what was going on in the solar industry because of his previous interest in and implementation of two solar systems in Tanzania and Kenya.  His main goal was to see if there were other solar opportunities available to C-T.  This is his story on how he approached the task and the impact it had on where he works.

Thomas Collins Solar Energy Analysis

I was given the assignment in October of 2010 to find out more about the solar industry and if there might be more opportunities for C-T to become more involved.  I started querying our 3 customers we had found by pure accident through our wire harness manufacturing facility.  I received some basic information from my customers, but a lot of the terminology and my general lack of inside knowledge about why solar had become so popular all of the sudden in Ontario were still mysteries.  So like anyone who has an Internet connection, I started to do some online searching on solar information.

One of my searches “ solar training Ontario” yielded exactly what I needed as I drilled down into the websites and came up with the Ontario Solar Academy.  This was a perfect fit for me as it was located only an hour away.  It offered a 5-day solar training course that seemed to be just what I needed.  I checked out a few other offerings and eventually decided on the Academy.  They were big on NABCEP, which I had learned from my 3 customers was a well-recognized designation that solar professionals such as designers, installers, or integrators covet as a benchmark to achieve.

I submitted my request to management asking to take the course and received approval to start the next schedule solar class in late October.  The course was indeed exactly what I needed to put C-T in the solar arena.  It was well taught by a qualified, NABCEP-certified instructor over the week, and employed great hands-on solar training as well.  I was so impressed I also signed up for the advanced 2-day solar course on Electrical Code.  Again that course was well taught and provided a great foundation for where C-T is proceeding in the solar business.  The course offered anyone to sit for the NABCEP entry level exam as well, so I proceeded to do that and should be NABCEP certified in the near future.

After I finished the two courses, C-T management requested a report on solar opportunities outlining where it might enter into the business further.  I submitted a business plan to form a solar installation division that would seek out microFIT and FIT solar installation opportunities.  The plan was approved, and we then sent another employee to the 5-day course so we would have two employees head up the supervision and implementation of the new division.  With equipment for solar site analysis purchased, as well as fall and arrest training in place, we are now doing solar site analysis for 25 microFIT and FIT opportunities coming in the spring, with more opportunities arising daily.

The other side benefit we discovered is our 3 solar farm customers are now seeking us out for site design and wiring.  It is so much better when we can enter their premises and talk intelligently about their needs.  So far, we have lined up 120 megawatts of wiring needs for a total of 32 million feet of wiring to be processed.

As we are now just past the new year, C-T Wire Prep and its Solar Power Installation division are gearing up for a record-breaking year thanks to that search I did for solar training Ontario and my stumbling upon Ontario Solar Academy.  Thank you Jacob for putting together such a robust solar program, and I wholeheartedly recommend your courses to anyone who has an interest in solar or wants to start a solar business.

Thomas Collins
Engineering Dept.
C-T Wire Prep Inc.

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