Industry Insight
Thin Film ranking tops as choice technology in Canadian Sun Belt
4 May 2010
We continue our two part series on thin film opportunities arising out of Ontario Canada´s Solar Sunbelt; the project constraints; and how academia could bring about industry change.
By Elizabeth Block
Local content – not a deterrent
When Ontario’s Energy & Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid introduced the Green Energy Act last year, he predicted the creation of 50,000 jobs for Ontarians within three years.
This forecast was based on fairly tough local content requirements as developers must meet a certain percentage of made-in-Ontario goods and labour at the time the project reaches commercial operation.
The requirements for solar are higher than for wind and separate rules apply to thin film and crystalline silicon projects under 10 KW, because of the components: silicon can be refined and cells formed in Ontario.
More generally, for larger solar projects above 10KW, the requirement starts at 50% but will rise to 60% at the start of 2011.
Micro solar is currently at 40%, but will also rise to 60% next year.
So a firm importing thin film modules from Germany’s Q-Cells, as the Pod Generating Group plans to do in Sault Ste Marie, will have to ensure that panels are completed locally.
Despite the local content rules, renewable energy companies are flocking in, many from abroad. Most dramatically, in January 2010 South Korea’s Samsung C&T, as part of a consortium, invested $7bn in wind and solar.
Within the province, Horizon Energy Solutions has trademarked the name “Ontario’s Solar Sunbelt”, aiming to attract green businesses and jobs to the Golden Horseshoe, roughly the Toronto-Hamilton metropolitan area, home to half of the population of Ontario.
Horizon plans to lease rooftops to generate solar energy.
And the city of Sault Ste Marie, with a population of only 75,000, but with vigorous leadership from its mayor and its own Economic Development Corporation, has declared itself The Alternative Energy Capital of North America. To date more than C$535m in renewable energy projects have been completed with an additional C$436m expected this year.
Thin film positioning
While it is too soon to predict whether thin film will dominate Ontario’s solar landscape, several companies are making an impact.
The plans of the Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc. show that ambitious solar plans were underway well before the new FIT programme.
Last year Enbridge acquired the Sarnia 20-MW solar energy farm from First Solar which moved into Ontario in early 2009, encouraged by the earlier FIT regime. According to John Maniawski, Enbridge’s Director, Wind & Solar Energy, Enbridge plans to expand Sarnia, which uses First Solar’s cadmium telluride thin film technology, to 80 MW, making it the largest PV solar energy facility in North America.
“We are investing more than C$100m in solar energy in Ontario,” he said. Under the agreement, First Solar will be paid for the project’s completion, and will provide operations and maintenance services under a 10-year fixed price contract.
Recurrent Energy was the largest solar power project developer in Ontario under the FIT programme.
Last year the company bought UPC Solar’s “project pipeline” of 350 MW.
UPC is based in Chicago and has focused on thin film solar.
And EDF entered the fray in January 2010, with plans for the 23.4 MW thin film Arnprior Solar Project near Ottawa.
EDF EN Canada has invested C$100m in the project, with panels to come from First Solar.
Other initiatives
While thin film seems to be the technology of choice in this region so far, other technologies are raising their profile.
For example, Toronto start-up Morgan Solar claims to be have “reinvented CPV” with its ‘Light-guide Solar Optic’, a planar concentrating optic that is said to cut the cost, materials, and complexity associated with existing lens- and mirror-based CPV.
The company recently raised $8.2m a mix of venture capital firms and strategic investors.
Its first round strategic investors include Iberdrola of Spain. And Heliene Canada, based in Sault Ste Marie, will import a turn-key operation from Heliene Europe in Spain, to make polycrystalline modules.
But significantly for thin film, John Preston, Professor of Engineering Physics at McMaster University and an expert in thin film PV, said: “McMaster University has made several strategic investments that will enable us to play a major role in the development and commercialization of new solar technologies.
“With the partnership of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Province of Ontario, McMaster will be investing over $10m in new equipment and infrastructure to fabricate and test next generation solar cells.”
The university, a leader in solar energy research, was recently selected as the host for the Canadian Photovoltaic Innovation Network, a consortium of leading academic institutions and the private sector to fund “pre-competitive research” into 3rd generation solar cell technologies.
He added: “We also have many research projects being undertaken by faculty working in this area, all in collaboration with industry and spanning most approaches to solar-generated electricity.
“There is, however a substantial concentration in thin film and nano-enabled material approaches.”
