A lot of the points we'll make today are provided in the briefing; you can certainly review those after the fact.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We certainly appreciate the opportunity to come and to present to the committee.
The Canadian Solar Industries Association represents about 150 corporate members who participate in the manufacturing, project development, and distribution, as well as sales and installation, of solar technologies. It's estimated that the Canadian solar industry employs between 900 and 1,200 people in Canada, and we've installed about 16 megawatts worth of PV or electrical capacity and about 250 megawatts of solar thermal. Unfortunately, these amounts typically lag well behind a lot of the industrial leaders in the world, such as Germany, Japan, Australia, Austria, and the United States.
At this time, though, we'd certainly like to take the opportunity to thank the current government for a lot of the initiatives that are in play, particularly the extension of the REDI program, which became the ecoENERGY renewable heat initiative, and the extension of the tax ruling on classes 43.1 and now 43.2.
The solar technologies we cover are photovoltaics, which is obviously the production of electricity; solar thermal, which covers heat, and that's in the form of water as well as air; and passive solar, which is space heating and daylight.
Obviously Canada is a very bountiful nation in terms of non-renewable energy, and at some point we look at the progressive nature of the industry but feel that we are a bit complacent in terms of renewable energy generation. Some of the points within the presentation itself are to clearly point out that the public is obviously well interested in having renewables put on the table.
One of the interesting parts about solar energy is that it has the capacity and potential to play an important role in the diversification of clean energy in the future of Canada. It also creates numerous employment opportunities for the local community. Obviously it's putting into the energy mix in terms of not being a central source, but quite diversified.
Some of the myths you see out there today include that there's not enough sun in Canada, and you can see from the presentation that there is; also, that the solar industry cannot provide very much energy, and that's false. One square metre of south-facing windows can supply as much power as a baseboard electric heater. The amount of solar energy falling on 15 square kilometres of Canadian land equals the entire energy capacity of all the nuclear power plants in Canada.
To give some of the global facts on solar energy, internationally solar energy is now a $15 billion a year industry, and it's growing by 35% annually. Many of the major electronics firms in the world, such as Sharp, Sanyo, Kyocera, and Mitsubishi, are operating and developing plants within the nations that basically support their products, particularly in Germany and Japan.
In April 2006, the National Bank of Canada issued a report on solar, recommending the solar industry sector as a major investment opportunity. Because of the increase in market stimulation of solar technologies that have led to greater economies of scale, solar energy production costs have continued to decline over the last 20 years and will continue to decline moving forward into the future.
Concerning sales targets and national sales, the leading solar nations in the world experience strong leadership and support from their national governments in financial support for R and D, demonstration, and market stimulation incentives. These countries have established national energy frameworks with challenging yet obtainable solar PV and thermal targets, providing a vision to inspire further clean energy generation. In Japan and Germany this is fairly evident. For example, Germany's renewable energy focus has created more than 170,000 jobs. Many of these countries have national targets for solar PV. The Canadian government at this time has no energy targets for PV or solar thermal.
Solar is one of the preferred energy sources of Canadians. There's strong public support for the development of solar energy. In a 2005 survey, the question was asked, “Would you like to see the following energy sources developed?” Solar energy received the highest approval, with 92% of Canadians approving of solar energy.
I think a key thing to remember from this is the thought about solar being a peak power generator. As you're well aware, a lot of the brownouts occur during midday. Clearly there's a lot of sunshine at the same time. Solar produces power during periods of peak energy demand, reducing the need for expensive peak power generating plants that often produce a lot of CO2-emitting fuels. In relative terms, solar power is much more cost-effective compared with peak energy production from starting up fossil fuel-based power plants, adding to the economic and environmental value of solar-generated electricity.
Solar creates more jobs than any other energy source. These jobs tend to be highly skilled positions throughout the solar value chain, including a requirement for qualified tradespeople to install the solar applications across Canada in all sorts of communities.
One other area that one never talks about is the production of PV. Until a year or so ago, the product that was used in the production of solar power modules was actually the residual from the manufacturer of silicon chips. The computer industry uses very high-grade silicon to produce their chips, and the byproduct of that is typically used for the production of solar cells. So the actual product itself comes from product that would actually be just a byproduct and not used. Of course, demand has increased some of that, but a lot of that feedstock is still used from the chip manufacturers themselves.
The economic opportunity for Canada here is that the rapid growth of the PV industry worldwide has created a shortage of this silicon feedstock. Production of silicon requires a large amount of electricity. Most PV modules are manufactured in Germany and Japan, countries whose electricity rates are very high, producing a lot of GHG content.
We have an opportunity here in Canada, particularly in B.C. and Quebec, to help produce some of this feedstock. It's clean, inexpensive electricity that we get from these provinces, basic natural resources such as silicon and aluminum production, and we have a very skilled workforce. What is missing? The home market for this type of product.
I'll move to some of the recommendations that CanSIA is proposing.
Certain things should be looked at, including solar in a national energy framework; more commitment from the government and consistent policies so that the policies put in place today continue on and build an industry that's not short-lived; an increase in the budget for solar to match that of our major trading partners; meaningful support to grow the use of solar, which needs to be increased to $75 million annually; and support for market stimulation.
With regard to potential deployment support mechanisms, there could be some form of product subsidies, and certainly a look at some sort of financing program. You're already doing tax incentives, but more could be done there as well. There should also be some form of energy mandate for buildings.
A lot of this is spelled out in the actual presentation itself.
At this time, I can introduce our new executive director, Elizabeth McDonald.