Thoughts on the Ontario Green Energy Act

Disclaimer.  I was exhausted after a long, hard, but very good week when I wrote this.  So forgive me if I ramble or if my tone wanders.

I’m in the Ottawa airport waiting for a flight home to Toronto.  My main reason for coming to Ottawa was to hear George Smitherman, Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, talk about the proposed Ontario Green Energy Act.  I was a true believer in this before I heard him speak the first time last November, and the more I read or hear about this piece of legislation the more convinced I am.

Too often, politicians use lofty sounding rhetoric, but this really will make Ontario a  North American leader in renewable energy, conservation and energy policy.  This will create jobs in clean technology and lead to less carbon emissions and pollution in Ontario.  If we’re lucky, this will prove to be a model too tempting not to copy.

It’s also a politically risky move that includes controversial and in some cases, extremely unpopular provisions, like anti-NIMBY policies and more natural gas fired power plants.  These are not elements of a “crowd pleaser” act.  People like to use language like “the importance of not overruling local planning decisions” and “not consulting the community”, but it’s just NIMBYism dressed up.  I’m sympathetic to people who don’t want a wind farm or natural gas power plant in their community, but Toronto is downwind from the dirtiest smokestack in the western world.

Really, Nanticoke is that bad.  From a a summary of the CEC Taking Stock 2004 report (quote from this PDF):

In Canada, a single facility was responsible for eight percent of all toxic air emissions – Ontario Power Generation’s Nanticoke Generation Station. The largest power station of its kind in North America, Nanticoke’s eight 500 megawatt generators produce a total of 4,000 megawatts of power at this 30 year old facility.

The Nanticoke plant was also responsible for the second largest onsite air releases of mercury – some 226 kilograms (497 pounds) – by a Canadian electrical facility…

Like I said, I can understand why people might not want a power station near their house, but when you’re planning a provincial wide power grid, and you want to shut down something that big, you’re not going to make everyone happy.

In a reply to a comment on a previous blog post,  I said this energy act looked like the “least bad” option.  There are bad parts, there will be unintended consequences and negative effects, and in some cases there are even things I hate, but at the end of the day, I’m going to withdraw that statement.  I think this is a good energy act.  It will lead to better conditions in Ontario for green energy entrepreneurs, for companies serious about green energy projects, and for people looking to migrate into a sustainable industry.

And we’ll get to breathe less vaporized mercury for the privilege.  Sounds good to me.

Solar Panel Installer Job Seekers in Ontario

I get quite a few emails a week for job seekers and I usually try to send more than just a simple “We”re not hiring right now” reply.  I love that people want to work in this industry and so I try to give a little advice where I can.  One of the groups of people that I hear from occasionally are people interested in being solar panel installers.  The following points are a distillation of the advice that I’ve given out.  (If you don’t want to be climbing up on rooftops, or don’t want to install solar farms, then this blog post might not be that useful to you.)

Know the Industry:

If you’re job hunting for a solar installer job, there are a few things you should really start with.  These might help you figure out where the opportunities are and if you’re lucky, might help you figure out who’s hiring.

• Ontario’s Green Energy Act – Learn everything you can about the act, the Feed-In Tariffs, the job creation programs etc.  These programs are specifically being created to encourage green job creation, and the programs have been very explicitly designed to mimic successful programs in Germany, Spain and other regions.  The more you understand these programs, the more likely you’ll be able to figure out where the opportunities are and the better you can demonstrate that you’re the right employee for the job.  Some links:
  • The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure Green Energy Act Page
  • OPA Feed-In Tariff Page – Very important.
  • Employment Ontario – Don’t just look for job postings and advice, learn about the different incentives.  If you’re a student, make sure you understand coop  and summer job incentives for employers.  If you’re looking for training or apprentiships, there are incentives there too.  Understand them.
• FIT Rates – I’ve covered this in a recent post, and there are some links there to get you started.
• Current Players – Figure out who’s actually doing solar panel installs.  If you want to get into home roof top, or solar farm work, figure out who’s already done it.  Look up the types of projects that have been done already – they’re the most likely to be expanding as solar installs increase.  This is partly research on your part, but the CanSIA member list above, and people who exhibit at Green and Solar shows are a good list.  The Toronto Green Living Expo is coming up in a few weeks – figure out who’s going to be exhibiting, sponsoring, and make sure you go.  (Hint, don’t take resumes and don’t ask people for jobs at the show, they’re busy and they’ll forget you.  Apply before, be friendly and treat the show itself as a networking event.)
• Know the technology – I’m not going to put together a series of links here, but if you want to do rooftop, have an opinion about the major silicon panel manufacturers and thin films, different inverters, mounting schemes etc.  Also, look at micro inverters and wiring in parallel to solve shading issues and meters and grid tie issues.  Make sure you know the actual stuff you’ll be installing, and have specific knowledge of specific companies.
• Understand the Basics of Solar Resource – Look up insolation, kWh/kw and understand panel efficiency.  Don’t just know electrician and roofing stuff (but know that too).  If you don’t know the latitude of the town you want to work in, and you can’t figure out the correct tilt for a panel, go learn.

Network, attend and visit

• Networking events – Like Green Drinks, and different events on campuses and organized by the city and the province.
• Eco, solar and green events – Good green events posted at:
  • GreenGTA.ca Calendar
  • Toronto Clean Air Partnership
  • Live Green Toronto – I especially like the Doors Open Ontario Events where you can tour green buildings.
• Visit solar installations – It’s surprising how many there are that you can find out about.
  • Kortright Centre – Amazing place, they have tours of different green energy installations on site, workshops and other educational resources.  Go.  Take your kids.
  • Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative – They offer Solar Neighborhood Tours.
• Volunteer Experience – There are lots of ways to do this, but why not try Habitat for Humanity.  Pick up some valuable experience, get some roofing experience, show that you’re a decent guy and meet lots of other people that are interested in doing good and pound nails.  Good experience, makes you more employable and excellent networking.  Also, I’m not sure how much solar they do, but if they do one project a year in solar, they’ll give first dibs to the active volunteers.  There are probably ten other good ideas out there for good volunteering.
• Other Green and Solar Organizations -
  • Canadian Solar Energy Industries Association.  Here is their member list of solar energy companies, consider joining CanSIA, especially if you’re still a student, look at their training for solar panel installation, and most relevant, their CanSIA Employment page.
  • The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association has a number of Educational Links to programs they offer or are affiliated with.  There are others, use your google-fu.

Solar Panels at Exhibition Place - This picture was taken last year when we helped out in some testing with the system on the Automotive Centre in Exhibition Place.

It’s tough out there, but fortune favours the prepared.  I wish I were hiring solar installers, but for now, other people are and more will be soon.  Good luck.

Photos and 2009 Ontario Budget

We’ve uploaded a few new pics to our Flickr page, mostly updated images of the Sun Simba and some other prototype images. This one is my favourite:

Third Generation Sun Simba HCPV Prototype - Much more advanced prototypes coming soon.

Also, the new Provincial Budget just came out.  Some of the Infrastructure investments, “Growing the Green Economy” measures and Innovation and Manufacturing measures seem good, but it’s to really tell how some of these measures will play out.  Fingers crossed.  The budget overview is online, and I’m especially interested in the various Jobs of Tomorrow investments, the improvements in electrical transmission capacity and the smart grid investments (along with the FIT Rates).

Solar Energy in Ontario

So a Canadian, an American and an Irishman were in a business meeting discussing solar energy.  It sounds like a bad St. Patrick’s Day joke, but it’s actually an honest description of my day.  I’ve met with one person from Ireland since I’ve started, and he visits me today.  What are the odds?  Seriously though, we were talking about Ontario’s new FIT Rates, and a very common question came up – “Is there enough sun in Ontario for solar energy.”

I’ve talked about this before, but I explained it better today than I have in a while.  We feel like we’re a long way from the equator and that there’s a big difference in the sunlight, but for solar energy purposes, the quantity of light is good enough pretty much anywhere in the world.  Excessive cloudiness, too much pollution and extremely high latitudes might make a small difference, but the most important factor for determining the viability of solar energy is the cost of electricity.

Germany proves this, as I’ve said before.  As of 2007, half of all the solar power in the world was in Germany, and Germany’s solar resources isn’t nearly as good as Ontario’s.  What made Germany such a solar leader was their own feed-in tariff system.  Same with Spain.  Spain doesn’t have nearly the solar resource that the US South West does, but they had a proactive feed-in tariff and solar farms popped up everywhere.  Ontario’s new FIT system, if it’s done right, will make Ontario a solar energy giant.  Which is pretty cool, really.

Natural Resources Canada - Solar Resource Map - Ontario - Link to this map.

This a screen grab from the Natural Resources Canada Map Server for the solar resource potential maps for Canada.  What that legend means is that for every kW installed, you can expect that many kWh per year in that location.  So people right down near Windsor, Niagara and up near Ottawa are really doing well, and the rest of us are sitting pretty too.  (Here’s a link to the Ontario map view above.)

Calling Ontario Solar

If you’re in Ontario and:

• You’re part of a solar energy company, advocacy or industry group, or your company is interested in solar.
• You’re interested in developing a Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) contract either on solar farm scale or a home solar scale.
• You’re knowledgeable about solar energy, renewable energy or the Ontario electricity market.
• Or you’re just interested  or thinking of getting involved with a project.

Call or email me.

You can get my contact details from the Morgan Solar web page.

If you know anyone who meets any of the above, email them a link to this post, or call them.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, original image URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ontario-flag-contour.png