Kelowna’s Solar Future
Yes, it was a bright sunny day in Kelowna on May 15th, which was just as well, since 150 people had taken the time to attend the Kelowna Solar Hot Water Workshop and Tradeshow at the Coast Capri Hotel.
This gathering had an exuberant energy right from the start. Kelowna gets 2000 hours of sunshine a year, and is one of seven Solar Communities chosen by SolarBC to carry that title because of the leadership they’ve been giving.
The fact that the event was attended by Mayor Sharon Shepherd, MP Ron Cannan, federal Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt, and a dozen solar energy companies, who are out there on the streets of Kelowna doing the installations, added to the sense that this was a “day of significance”.
It was a German solar expert, however, Gerhard Stryi-Hipp from the Fraunhofer Institut Solare Energiesysteme in Freiburg, who really stirred our creative juices.
Globally, China has 69% of the world’s installed solar thermal systems. Germany and the USA each have 6%, Austria 3%, and Canada… well perhaps to be generous, 0.1%? To put Canada in perspective, Austria, with 8.2 million people, has solar hot water systems on 15% of its houses. It is considered totally normal to install a system over there – and somewhat shocking on a new house if you don’t.
In Europe, as well as homes, solar thermal energy is being used for combined hot water and space heating, collective large systems for multi-family dwelling, hospitals and hotels, and solar district heating systems both without and without seasonal storage. There are also pilot plants for solar assisted process heating for industry, and solar cooling.
This is impressive enough – but look at this. Europe’s solar thermal players have created Solar Thermal Vision 2030, in which they have set some ambitious goals:
- Solar space heating will be the building standard in every new building.
- 50% of refurbished buildings will use solar space heating as the most effective approach.
- 50% of all low temperature heating needs up to 250ºC will be met by solar.
- By 2020, there will be one square meter of solar thermal per inhabitant throughout Europe, increasing the market volume by 34% a year from 2 to 80 GWth a year, and total installed solar thermal systems would increase from 13 to 340 GWth.
- By 2030, the total installed systems would increase to 2400 GWth – that’s a 185-fold increase from today’s level, and it would be producing half of all Europe’s space heating needs. The total demand for heat would be reduced by 40% due to efficiency measures, and the other 50% would be met by other renewables, entirely eliminating all use of fossil and nuclear energy.
This – combined with the many photographs of installed systems, was impressive enough. But then Gerhard showed us a short 5 minute video from Europe’s annual Week of the Sun (May 9th – 17th) and Solar Days. This year, there were 5063 solar activities in ten countries around Europe, with activists organizing hands-on solar tours, solar toy car and toy boat races for children and students, newspaper ads, T-shirts, and balloons, creating a whole solar shindig. In one city, the week attracted 20,000 interested people. You can see a 3-minute movie here.
So what is it, that is building the solar thermal movement so much faster there than here? It varies for each country, but here are Germany’s incentives:
- Every homeowner can claim a grant of 60 Euros per square metre, up to a maximum 410 Euros. ($645) (The average cost of a solar thermal system for a 4-person household is $6,300 to $7,850 in Canadian dollars.
- Germans pay 14 Euros (22 cents) per kWh for their electricity. Not 7 cents.
- Germany’s natural gas comes from Russia - or fails to come, when the Russians choose to turn off the pipeline.
- The state-owned bank offers low-interest loans for solar thermal systems.
- Starting in 2009, all new buildings must use renewable energy to meet part of their heating. If it’s solar thermal, it’s 15%.
How does that contract with BC? Under the BCSEA’s SolarBC program, you can obtain up to $2375 in grants and tax rebates, and low-interest loans are available from TD Canada Trust – but we don’t pay 22 cents/kWh. Nor do we yet have any requirement for new buildings to use renewables.
So, duly inspired by Europe, it was back to Kelowna, and a day full of hard-hitting discussion, learning, and demonstrations. One local installer and BCSEA Business Member, Swiss Solar, is creating a group buying club to take advantage of an additional $375 subsidy, and performed 8 installations in the week before the Workshop.
For technologies, there were three main choices on display – the traditional flat plate, the evacuated tubes, and the Chinese Globe Solar system that has a tank mounted straight on the roof, and no use of glycol. Which is best? No-one was willing to say. Under clear skies, maybe the flat plates. Under cloudy skies, maybe the evacuated tubes. For the lowest cost, definitely the Globe Solar system, which will cost you $2,000 after the rebates and grants.
Where to from here? I gave a lunch-time keynote address which looked at Kelowna’s solar PV future – but I’m going to hold the details of that until next week, so as not to squeeze the solar thermal theme.
Eager to get at it? Go straight to SolarBC’s website, click on “Households”, and follow the three step installation process.
