SOLAR SHOW 2022
Written by : Joanne Saunders
On February 7 to 11, 2022, Solar Alberta held its Solar Show 2022 online and garnered attendance from people worldwide. Solar Alberta is in its thirty-first year of operation and has over 350 individual and business members.
The opening keynote speaker, sustainability consultant Alicia Richins, provided a powerful speech to open the Solar Show, and giving insight on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while accentuating the importance of climate justice and climate action. Her main message was that sustainability is more than just about reducing global emissions; it also has to do with climate justice. For many years, the world has understood the technical challenges and solutions to climate change. However, the reductions have not been easy to arrive at, and commitments have either weakened or been delayed. Ms. Richins obtained her master’s degree in ecological economics, where she learned that economic growth also involves supporting the interconnected systems of different economies. One attendee asked how non-indigenous people can help with indigenous programs? Ms. Richins said we needed to check our intentions and build relationships instead of viewing any assistance as a way to “save the day.” Suggestions include sharing expertise and labor and to seek consent before acting.
Please review the Solar Alberta Show 2022 Program for information on the speakers. A few of the show highlights included the following:
Microgen Regs 101 was an industry-oriented session about Alberta’s - current micro-generation regulations, which have been in place since July 1, 2008. Micro-Generation is where a customer produces electricity using renewable or alternative energy sources of 1 MW or less and is connected to a distribution system. If the micro-generation customer does not use all the energy used at a given time, the customer will receive a credit for power put on the grid. As of 2020, there are 6,111 micro-generating units in Alberta. One of the main takeaways from the talk was that the micro-generation regulations are intended to give Albertans choices of energy production. They were not put in place to commercially benefit customers by way of profiting in excess power production because those benefits are paid through the ISO and government (taxes). There is a complaint and appeals process for setting up as a micro-generator unit and, the Alberta Utilities Commission was happy to report very few disputes since the regulations have been in place.
Nerding Out for Net Zero - Canada has a goal to get to net zero emissions by 2050. Each of the three speakers expressed ideas on how to get to net zero, and they all agreed that it is an exciting time in the renewables and environmental industries because many people are interested in solving environmental issues. One of the challenges in moving towards implementing more renewable energy is that the cost of traditional sources of energy like oil and gas is cheap and abundant in Canada. We need to think about incentivizing individuals, businesses, and governments to move to more sustainable measures while also considering the cost differentials. Pricing incentives would be helpful along with better and developing technologies in battery storage and controls. Some things we can do as consumers include changing our habits in charging our electric vehicles to off peak hours. Due to the abundance of energy options for consumers, the difficulties lie in choosing the best options and the economic pathways. The speakers encouraged people to contact city councils because they often are shareholders of a utility and can influence how the energy transition can occur.
Affordable Commercial Solar Financing – Due to capital costs, business and community scale projects are often stalled. There are two commercial financing solutions available to Albertans: 1) a building-owner solution for owners who build to self-generate electricity and 2) third party owner solutions, which are ideal for solar project developers who want to own solar installation or portfolios and sell the power to end users through power purchase agreements or other means. The Clean Energy Improvement Program (CEIP) is a municipal-led financing program to help reduce barriers for property owners to install efficiency upgrades. A similar and more well-known program is the PACE program (Property Assessed Clean Energy). Property owners can finance clean energy upgrades and pay the cost back through their property taxes. The benefit is that financing is tied to the property, not to the property owners, so when the owner sells the home, the new owner takes over the improvements and receives the benefits of investment recoveries. The property tax repayment can be structured off the balance sheet, thus not impacting the owner’s borrowing capacity.
Navigating Community Generation – the speakers discussed what community generation is and how to overcome barriers in launching a community-based project. It was interesting to hear the stories of how some communities, such as the Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative, created a community generation project that is distribution system connected and provides economic benefits to the community. The projects allow citizens to participate through full or partial ownership. How it works: a) a cooperative identifies a host site and negotiates the power purchase agreement (PPA); b) reach out to the community to get local investments; 3) purchase a system to install on the host site; 4) once operating, the coop collects money from the host and divides the income. The money goes to a fund to be reinvested in the community, dividends to investors and covers base costs. They essentially install systems behind the meter under microgeneration regulations. Decentralized Energy Canada (DEC) is a nonprofit association focusing on decentralized energy in Canada and provides a guidebook and toolkit to show how you can start a community project. Also, the Alberta Community Cooperative Association is a great resource.
Retraining in Renewables: the speakers talked about their interesting career and life paths into the renewable energy space. One suggestion on how to get into the industry is to attend a trade school for 1-2 years to learn a trade. There are distance education options as well. One can also work in renewables without training in the areas of health and safety or sales.
Passive House Basics: The Passive House building standard (PHS) is an efficiency building standard and was first developed in Canada in the 1970s. In 1990, Germany built its first Passive House, and now this standard is used worldwide. Homes built to this standard ensure low energy use and bills with abundant natural light and a draft-free home and can often cost significantly less than standard built homes.
You can find many of the seminars, including those not mentioned here, at the Solar Alberta YouTube channel.