By Dave Hall, The Windsor Star
Solar panels sit on display at the Solar Ontario Conference at Caesars Windsor in Windsor on Friday, May 6, 2011. The event attracted several hundred people from the solar energy industry.
Photograph by: TYLER BROWNBRIDGE, The Windsor Star
WINDSOR, Ont. -- Amid a celebration of the solar industry's best and brightest, cautionary voices were still heard during the Canadian Solar Industry Association's Ontario conference Friday.
With more than 600 delegates and 50 exhibitors, it's Ontario's largest solar conference and held at a time when the province's fledgling renewable energy industry is gaining strength and investment from the U.S., Europe and across Canada.
But with a provincial election looming in six months and a two-year review of the Green Energy Act's feedin-tariff provisions following a month later, the tone was still cautionary if not negative.
"We operate in many jurisdictions and we have seen changes in FIT programs before," said Paco Caudet, general manager of Siliken Group, a Spanish manufacturer of solar panels.
"We are committed to Ontario in the long run but if the program were to be cancelled, we would move to another jurisdiction," said Caudet, whose company began production in Windsor two weeks ago.
Conservative leader Tim Hudak has said on a number of occasions that his party, should it form the next government, would cancel the FIT program and dismantle large pieces of the Green Energy Act.
In its place would be a greater emphasis on nuclear and hydroelectric generation.
Recognizing the impact on green job creation cancellation of the program would have, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello said the program "remains in its infancy and needs to be given time to mature.
"It's already created jobs in communities such as Windsor and as it grows, it will create more jobs," said Pupatello. "It's your job as representatives of this industry to ask critics what their plan is for clean renewable energy."
Klaus Dohring, president of Green Sun Rising, believes the program will remain in place regardless of who forms the next government but expects that changes will be made.
"We accept that FIT prices are generous and could stand being reduced," said Dohring. "I think even the Liberals will make changes if they are reelected but the impact of a complete cancellation would see many of the companies in this room leave Ontario and take jobs with them."
Under the current FIT provisions, the province pays 42 cents per kilowatt hour of power returned to the grid for projects over 10 kilowatts compared to 53 cents in Italy, 47 cents in Spain, 46 cents in France and the U.K. and 40 cents in Germany.
Many of the delegates at the show said they could envision a renewable energy sector focused largely on small commercial and residential projects but little or no involvement by large industrial users.
Manish Nayar of OYA Solar also said cancellation of the FIT program would definitely hurt the renewable energy sector which is still in its infancy.
"First of all, I'm hopeful of a Liberal victory but beyond that, whoever forms the government needs to be cognizant of the impact it would have on job creation," said Nayar. "I think all of us in the industry agree that a reduction in pricing is necessary now that we have had almost two years to develop a cost history."
"But if the program goes away completely, I would think a great many of the smaller companies at this event would go out of business or simply move away," said Nayar.
Even the review process and fluctuating FIT prices is causing uncertainty within the industry, according to Wolfgang Fritz, vice-president of engineering for Schletter Inc., a German company which recently opened a plant in Windsor.
"Our challenge under the current system is to determine inventory and production levels while these changes are occurring," said Fritz. "We are also faced with forecasting which projects will be built and which won't be built.
"We need stability in the marketplace if we are to make the necessary investments to enable this industry to grow," said Fritz.
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