2024 – Rush to solar energy

(Edmonton, Alberta) The day after the Easter holidays, spring feels like summer in Edmonton. The mercury exceeds 18 degrees Celsius, a butterfly flutters in front of Bruce and Cory Moorehead’s house. On the roof, workers are installing photovoltaic panels.

Their team leader takes us to the basement. “Here’s the circuit breaker for your solar system. You have a two-way meter, you have an app that you can download on your phone,” Mary Jane Mahe explains to the retired couple.

“We believe in the environment and the importance of doing our part. Our son, who lives in South Africa, has solar panels, he encouraged us to install them,” Cory explains with a big smile.

Like thousands of households, businesses, municipalities and organizations across the province, Cory and Bruce have used solar energy to power their properties. At the end of their small residential street, several other roofs are already covered with photovoltaic panels.

The company that installed their system can confirm this. Kuby Renewable Energy installed solar panels on approximately 1,200 homes and approximately 100 commercial buildings last year. This year it expects to equip about 3,000 homes and 250 commercial customers.

“Each panel installed on a roof represents 400 watts of energy that does not come from a carbon-emitting source,” Kuby CEO Jake Kubiski points out.

Until 10 years ago, this professional electrician worked in the oil and gas sector. A trip to Costa Rica, where he saw the use of wind, solar and geothermal energy powered by a volcano, made him want to work in renewable energy. Volcanic geothermal energy was not an option in Alberta and wind projects were too big. This made him interested in solar energy. After training through his union, he struck out on his own in 2015 and founded Kuby with a high school friend, Adam Yereniuk.

This is because, in addition to houses, farms, warehouses and all kinds of businesses, Kuby integrates solar energy into large-scale buildings. This is the case at the spectacular Edmonton Convention Centre, where tropical plants thrive, and at the new fire station in the Windermere neighborhood, whose roof resembles a ski slope. And don’t forget Red Deer Polytechnic College, where several buildings are equipped with solar panels – including the student residence, where the sensors are integrated directly into the exterior walls.

Kuby now has more than 130 employees, approximately 30 of whom also come from the oil and gas sector. Like Paul de Groot, who quit his job as a union electrician in a refinery in search of ‘a breath of fresh air’. He joined Kuby as an installer just under five years ago and is now general manager of the Edmonton office.

Albertans’ enthusiasm for solar energy can be explained by a combination of factors unique to the country.

First, the resource. The province has one of the highest photovoltaic capabilities in Canada (see map). Calgary and Edmonton are among the five Canadian cities with the greatest potential, behind Regina and Saskatoon, and alongside Winnipeg, all of which are the least populated.

Then the price of the systems, which melted like snow in the sun. In 2015, the cost was “about $4 per watt installed. It has been halved,” Mr Kubiski summarizes. Various provincial, federal and municipal subsidy programs have already convinced many customers.

The Alberta market is also very favorable to micro-manufacturing. Individuals and organizations can install a system with a capacity equal to their consumption (up to 5 MW) and sell their excess production to the network in exchange for credits. They also have access to a seasonal tariff, where the excess electricity they send to the grid in the summer is credited to them at a higher rate ($0.30/kWh) than the rate they are charged at the time of purchase. winter ($0.12/kWh for example).

And what also weighs heavily in the balance are Alberta’s electricity rates, which are among the highest in the country.

While residential customers in Montreal had to pay just under 8 cents per kilowatt hour last spring, those in Edmonton and Calgary had to pay between 28 and 30 cents. The rate charged to customers without long-term contracts, which fluctuates monthly depending on the market, was even more than 32 cents in August 2023.

“Last year the prices doubled! » Albertans exclaim as soon as we talk to them about electricity.

Because homes are mainly heated with natural gas, solar panels only compensate part of the energy consumption. A housing system like the Mooreheads’ that costs more than $20,000 “will take a long time to pay for itself, about 25 years,” Cory predicts.

The fact remains that the solar system will produce enough electricity in the summer to meet the needs of the household (especially the air conditioning, which the couple had installed last summer because the smoke from the burning forest prevented him from opening the windows ) and send the surplus to the network. Enough surpluses, the Mooreheads hope, so that their winter consumption no longer costs them anything.

For a company that specializes in selling solar energy systems, Alberta’s expensive rates are its best selling point, says Kuby CEO Jake Kubiski.

“It’s becoming more of a mainstream product than a niche product, but we’re just getting started!” »