Posts Tagged ‘solar panels’

Solar Partnership Will Create 100 New Alternative Energy Careers

Friday, December 10th, 2010

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (MEMC), has announced a new partnership with Flextronics International (Flextronics) to produce solar panels that comply with the standards and regulations of the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program.  The partnership will produce the panels at an existing facility in Newmarket, Ontario, and the companies expect to create 100 new alternative energy careers in the province while they provide made-in-Ontario materials for workers with PV installation training.  MEMC and Flextronics will initially produce 50 MW worth of solar panels per year, with the potential for as much as 200 MW in the future.  Production is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2011.

Flextronics is a Singapore-based provider of electronics manufacturing services with facilities in thirty countries on four continents.  The company was recognized by Fortune Magazine on both its “World’s Most Admired Companies” and “Global 500” lists for 2010 and promises, on its website, to “optimize… customers’ operations, lower their costs and reduce time to market.”  Flextronics will manufacture panels at the Newmarket facility under the MEMC brand.

Missouri’s MEMC is a global provider of wafers and other products used by the semiconductor and solar industries.  The company has more than fifty years’ worth of training and experience in the field and will sell its solar panels for installations in Ontario through its Canadian subsidiary, SunEdison.  Through SunEdison, MEMC is the largest solar energy service provider on the continent.

Ontario FIT Creates Green Opportunities

Since 2009, Ontario’s FIT has helped to create a whole alternative energy industry by paying above-market rates for electricity producers feed into the grid from renewable sources such as solar, wind, and biomass.  The new economy includes careers in solar panel manufacturing and installation plus various programs to train workers and students for the new realities of green energy.  SunEdison’s role in the partnership will allow MEMC’s solar panels to qualify as domestic content under FIT provisions, which mandate that a certain portion of participating projects’ labour and materials comes from Ontario.

Partnerships such as MEMC’s with Flextronics help put Ontario on the map when it comes to green energy, and they bring the province one step closer to the FIT’s goal to phase out coal-fired power plants in the region by 2014.

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From Solar Calculators to Renewable Energy Careers

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

When I was a kid, solar panels powered calculators, and that was about it.  Renewable energy was a hobby, not a career path, let alone an industry.  There was the odd off-grid system, but besides these, a few calculators, and some aerospace applications, solar power was a dream.  In fact, according to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), as far back as 1971, solar systems “were subject to review and possible restriction” by the US patent office if they were more than 20% efficient.  The potential power of solar was so great it was an official secret.

Fast forward to today.  There are backpacks that, in only a few hours, can charge laptop computers many times more powerful than the processors that the lunar modules used to take man to the moon.  Photovoltaic (PV) panels adorn parking meters and road signs, and solar farms glisten in fields and on rooftops across the province.  Solar technology has come a long way.  In Ontario, which has a solar industry powered by a feed-in tariff (FIT) program that pays high prices for electricity fed into the grid from a variety of “green” sources, a lot of interesting new developments are in the works, and renewable energy career development starts early.

Elementary, Post-Secondary Students Bring PV to Class

Some schools expose students to the possibilities of solar and other renewable energy technologies at young ages.  Students at Bear Creek High School in Barrie, for example, receive hands-on training with what is currently a 2 kW PV installation on the school’s roof.  When complete, the school expects the project to generate 10 kW per hour.

The province’s post-secondary schools have also taken part in the solar bonanza.  St. Lawrence College campuses in Kingston and Brockville currently have the record for the most rooftop PV capacity of any post-secondary institution in Canada.  Students attending Energy Systems Engineering classes at the college study the project while they work towards new renewable energy careers.  Ottawa University students continue work that leads to breakthroughs in PV efficiency with the SUNRISE solar project, headed by the National Research Council (NRC).  Ottawa’s Cyrium Technologies, Inc. (Cyrium) contributes its expertise in concentrating PV technology to the project – technology which, until recently, was only used in space-based applications.  Cyrium’s tests of its CPV modules have shown them to be capable of 38-40% efficiency, nearly twice that which was considered a danger to American national security in the 1970’s.

Who knows what technological feats the future has in store – feats that in several years could have us looking back nostalgically at the comparably limited technologies of today?  Whatever the future holds, we can be sure that for the solar industry, it seems to only get brighter.

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Solar Energy Industry Flourishes in FIT’s First Year

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Ontario’s solar energy industry has made great progress.  Just over a year into the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, the Green Energy Act Alliance (the Alliance) has released a report on the Green Energy and Green Economy Act’s successes.  The Act was signed into law in May of 2009 and opened the door for the creation of the FIT later the same year.  The FIT pays above-market rates to owners of projects that feed solar, wind, and biofuel energy into the power grid.  In only a year, the program and the industry have succeeded in creating thousands of renewable energy jobs and have opened the door to new educational opportunities, such as photovoltaic (PV) installation courses.

In its first year, the FIT approved more solar and wind capacity than a similar program in France did in its first year and more PV energy than Spain’s industry, the second biggest solar market in the world.  “The response to the Green Energy Act is overwhelming,” says Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Canada’s Environmental Defence.  “To be in the same league as France and Spain,” he adds, “is beyond our wildest dreams.”

Program Creates Renewable Energy Jobs for PV Course Graduates

The Alliance’s report also shares good news about energy independence.  The FIT has helped spur a long-awaited democratization of the energy supply.  Ontario already has the most community ownership of renewable energy on the continent; more than 22,000 people have applied to receive the government’s incentives for “green” projects.

The FIT program’s domestic content requirements (DCRs) add an extra element of empowerment.  By 2011, up to 60% of the parts and labour used in participating projects must come from within the province.  This provides added incentive for workers to upgrade their skills with PV design and installation courses like the ones offered by Canada’s only ISPQ-accredited solar training school, Ontario Solar Academy (OSA).  According to a recent report by ClearSky Advisors (ClearSky), if approvals for FIT applications continue at the current pace for another four years, Ontario will add the equivalent of 70,000 new jobs to its renewable energy sector.

It is clear that renewable energy, in one form or another, is here to stay.  Solar power continues to make great strides in efficiency and cost.  Moreover, it spreads the wealth, offers greater energy security, and helps Ontarians become more involved in processes that shape their futures.  “Renewable energy isn’t left versus right,” says Dr. Smith, “it’s about choosing the future over the past… Ontario isn’t just shutting (down) polluting coal plants.  We’re transforming as a province and spreading the benefits that clean energy brings.”

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Green Energy Act Surpasses Expectations

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

With the price of everything seeming to go up, as well as a slow economy and escalating public debt, Ontarians can be forgiven for any negative reactions they may have expressed toward the Green Energy Act and the provincial government’s commitment of public money to renewable energy generation.  However, less than two years after the Act was signed into law, it has already shown success.

Passage of the Act in May of 2009 allowed the province to introduce its feed-in tariff (FIT) program later the same year – a historic renewable energy incentive designed to help Ontario phase out coal-fired power generation in the province by 2014.  The FIT pays producers of clean energy high prices for feeding clean electricity into the power grid, prices for which hydro customers will have to foot the bill.  The trade-off, of course, is that the program has created, and continues to create, green jobs, revenue for the province, and educational opportunities such as photovoltaic training classes – not to mention the obvious benefit: clean air.  Ontario Solar Academy is an example of a successful institution whose classes prepare workers for the green jobs of the future.

Photovoltaic, Wind Energy Up, Fossil Fuels Down

Keith Stewart, who currently works for Greenpeace, predicted in 2005 that energy use in Ontario would drop 10% by 2010, while power planners predicted a 5% rise in demand.  During this period, demand dropped from 157 terawatt-hours to 140, a reduction that exceeded Stewart’s predictions.  “We think we can do a lot more to bring per capita demand down faster,” he says.  Meanwhile, renewable energy is now roughly on par with natural gas and nuclear in terms of new power brought online, thanks largely to the FIT.  In fact, rather than rushing to build more fossil-fuelled plants, the provincial government cancelled plans for a gas-fired generating station in Oakville and shut down four coal-fired plants in Nanticoke.

As for the costs, they were bound to escalate.  Ontario power rates had already begun to climb before the FIT, in response to mounting utility debt.  You might think of some of the money as long-term stimulus funding, as it creates green jobs at a time when the province, in the midst of a financial crisis and declining manufacturing sector, needs sustainable employment most.  The truth of the matter is that Ontario is doing its part to protect the environment for future generations.  We are entering a new world where solar panels are the new investment, photovoltaic classes the new education stream, and solar installers the new oil rig workers.  Thanks to the Green Energy Act, it is a sunny day in Ontario.

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Renewable Energy Company Offers Information, Training at Solar Exhibition

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Sustainable Energy Technologies, Ltd. (Sustainable), has announced that it will offer workshops to provide information and training on its renewable energy products as part of this year’s Solar Canada exhibition in Toronto.  Sustainable will showcase its latest SUNERGY photovoltaic inverter at the exhibit, which takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre December 4-7 and will hold the workshops on the 8th at the InterContinental Toronto Centre from 8 AM until noon and from 1-5 PM.

Sustainable’s workshops will augment the renewable energy training curricula of Ontario’s solar PV design and training courses, such as Ontario Solar Academy’s five-day solar installation classes.  The two sessions will focus on the company’s SUNERGY inverter technology, which allows solar installers to use parallel circuits, a technique that increases safety and energy yields and improves the versatility of solar panel configurations.  According to Sustainable, SUNERGY inverters are the only products on the market with a high power rating that also allow the parallel option with a price and ease of serviceability that compares to conventional inverters.  These qualities make the product ideal for projects that take part in Ontario’s feed-in tariff program.

Feed-in Tariff Program Pays High Prices for Alternative Energy, Creates Jobs

Ontario’s feed-in tariff program, the first on the continent, pays high prices for power generated by solar, wind, and other alternative energy systems.  The program has so far succeeded in its goals to create green jobs and clean energy in the province, and it allows home-owners to become part of the solution with its microFIT option for small-scale installations.  Rooftop systems less than 10 kW receive the highest prices, 80.2 cents per kW-hour.  The owners of these systems stand to benefit significantly from the increased efficiency, safety, and simplicity of Sustainable’s inverters.

Potential Sustainable customers and other interested parties can expect to learn about products and prices at the workshops, as well as about special price reductions, installation techniques, and system monitoring.  Admission to the event is $75; attendees must register using the Solar Canada sign-up form.  Space is limited and admission is first come, first served.

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