Natural Resources committee  No, it's the opposite. You have economies of scale. The more we produce, the larger the industry, the lower the cost.

Natural Resources committee  If Canada were serious about really pushing the industry, one of the things we did.... As the president of CanSIA, I signed a $400,000, over two years, contribution agreement with the industry. We were trying to establish an industry training program with that. You're talking very minimal amounts here.

Natural Resources committee  I'm talking here about an industrial context, where a great deal of air is required. In such cases, the heat produced by solar collectors costs 3¢ per kilowatt/hour. If we do the same exercise for the residential sector, we find a production cost of 5, 6 or 7¢ per kilowatt/hour to heat a home of the type you described.

Natural Resources committee  Exactly. If Natural Resources Canada's method is used, where energy is produced by air solar collectors, which you talked about, the cost is 3¢ per kilowatt/hour. That is much below the cost of electricity, gas, propane and oil in Canada.

Natural Resources committee  That does not cause any problem. This is done everywhere, including Germany. It is very easy, technically speaking, to incorporate this electricity into the grid. When solar energy is being produced, dams, nuclear power plants and coal-fired plants produce less energy. There's simply no technical problem involved in doing this.

Natural Resources committee  Is that more in Canada than in other countries?

Natural Resources committee  Yes. We are away behind, definitely.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, definitely. Not all their greenhouse gas emission reductions have been reached with the implementation of solar, but solar was part of the mix of increased energy efficiency, with more energy coming from biomass, wind, geothermal, and of course solar, both thermal and photovoltaic.

Natural Resources committee  When I started in the business about 10 years ago, there was not much interest from industry, from people who own buildings, to go solar. As we have now reached that critical mass, and word of mouth is passed around, and people have been satisfied with their systems, they are becoming more and more interested.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. I have been making this point forcefully for three or four years.

Natural Resources committee  Well, there is no doubt that it is more difficult to use geothermal energy than solar energy in existing buildings. It is not impossible, but it is much more difficult. It is easy to retrofit a building for solar energy. In any case, 95% of the projects in which our company is involved are non-residential.

Natural Resources committee  It is not used to produce electricity, but rather to replace the electricity that would be used to produce heat. That is true. Geothermal energy produces heat. Ultimately, people will save on electricity, without doubt, particularly if they heat with electricity, which 32% of homes in Canada do.

Natural Resources committee  It is true that vacuum tubes are not the most cost-effective technology per square metre. There was a peak period in the 1980s, but since the technology was quite expensive, it fell into complete disuse once the grants ran out. The Government of Canada put all its eggs into one basket—Solarwall, a solar heating system.

Natural Resources committee  In 1998, the Canadian government took part in a task force with the International Energy Agency. A study was done of the six existing technologies for solar collectors. We were involved in that and efficiency curves were developed for each collector, among other things. Solarwall was not the most efficient system nor the least efficient one.