Originally published December 18 2005
Demand does not match supply in Canadian solar market
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Ontario-based Business Edge examines the problem that solar power companies are having with raising interest in alternative energy in the Canadian market, as many Canadian solar companies are looking to European markets that offer a wider range of opportunities.
The Calgary company has developed and markets a power inverter that converts the direct current generated by solar-photovoltaic panels, fuel cells and wind turbines into an energy-efficient, reliable alternating current - the electricity used in homes and businesses and carried on utility transmission lines.
The company, along with a Spanish partner, will begin manufacturing inverters in Barcelona next month to sell to a European market that has become a world leader in incorporating solar-generated electricity into its supply of power.
Germany and Austria, for example, compel utilities to offer long-term contracts for independent solar-power producers - under a system known as feed-in tariffs - that allow them to sell onto the grid at an equivalent of more than 90 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Germany alone had installed 768 megawatts of grid-connected solar power by the end of 2004, and posts annual growth rates of more than 50 per cent.
A British Columbia-based firm, Xantrex Technology Inc., manufactures and supplies inverter technology to the European marketplace and is rapidly expanding its business on that continent and elsewhere.
The Burnaby company - which also designs off-grid solar-power technologies as well as products for wind-power systems - has announced a number of agreements this past year in the United States and Europe.
Around 95 per cent of Xantrex's revenues from solar-technology sales come from outside Canada.
CanSIA says that while Canada lags the rest of the world in support of solar technologies, there are some bright spots on the horizon.
While Natural Resources Canada offers to pay 25 per cent of the cost of installing the solar thermal panels on factories, buildings and, more increasingly, residential homes, Ontario and other provinces do little to promote this and like technologies, he says.
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