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March 2015
New roadmap for Canadian solar industry
The Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) has shared its vision of what Canada's solar electricity industry will look like leading up to 2020."Roadmap 2020: Powering Canada's Future with Solar Electricity" was unveiled at a recent two-day conference that brought together members of the solar industry to share knowledge, learn of advancements in solar energy policy, and network with colleagues and stakeholders from around the country and the world.
Implementing CanSIA's Roadmap 2020 will achieve two primary objectives, says the association. It will solidify solar electricity as a mainstream energy source, and an integral part of Canada's diversified electricity mix. It will also ensure the solar electricity industry will be sustainable, with no direct subsidies, and operating in a supportive and stable policy and regulatory environment.
"Solar electricity is the smart choice to power Canada's future", said CanSIA President and CEO John Gorman. "We've seen public support for renewable energy increase significantly over the last few years, a sign Canadians don't want to just consume electricity, but produce it. They want to be 'prosumers'."
In 2013, installations of solar electricity systems grew by nearly 60 percent over the previous year, and the total value of the industry sales in 2013 was nearly $1.5 billion, up from just over $1 billion in 2012.
Roadmap 2020 lays out a confident plan that identifies barriers to success, outlines opportunities, and makes recommendations to ensure Canada's solar electricity sector is cost competitive with other forms of electricity by 2020. The plan focuses on five key areas that require action:
- Develop a supportive and stable policy and regulatory environment that recognizes the total value of solar electricity, including externalities;
- Simplify and streamline permitting and processes for grid interconnection and metering of solar electricity systems;
- Reduce soft costs to levels consistent with global best practices;
- Educate the Canadian population on the true benefits and costs of solar electricity, and empower them to take action to support and adopt solar; and
- Develop new and enhance existing relationships with technologies, applications and stakeholders to create synergies that enable greater solar electricity use in Canada.
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