INNOVATION September-October 2014

f ea t ures

The Rise of the Sun in the West

Andria Ink

Are we going to contribute to make the future we want happen, or are we going to just wait and see what type of future happens, or are we going to ask, when the future arrives, what happened?

Michel de Spot, P.Eng. Baptiste Lafaille, EIT

T here are plenty of misconceptions about the feasibility of solar energy in BC, for example: • It’s a cottage technology, not a mainstream power source. • There is too much rain and snow here, and not enough sun like in California. • We have plenty of hydro power and the cheapest electricity in the world: solar can’t compete with that. • Not only is solar technology expensive, but the equipment is made in China and does not provide jobs to BC, etc. To debunk these myths, here are some facts: • The solar industry is experiencing an exponential growth. In 2005, the total photovoltaic (PV) installed in the world was 5.1 GW; in 2013, it was 140 GW, a 27-fold increase in eight years. See figure 1. • In 2013, there was more solar power installed than wind. • California aims at 5% of solar energy in its generation portfolio within the next two years. • On Monday June 9, 2014, solar energy provided 50.6% of the grid electricity in Germany—a country as sunny as Haida Gwaii.

• In some places, producing electricity with solar already costs less than buying it from the grid. • Unsubsidized solar energy is on the horizon, PV is now at grid parity in at least 19 markets. • Many indicators predict solar energy to be competitive to coal or natural gas by 2020. • In 2013, total investment in the solar industry sector was US$10 billion. So much for a cottage industry—don’t we want to be part of the game? Do we have enough sun here in ‘rainy’ BC? It’s easy to know. Of all energy sources, solar is the only one that can be assessed from satellite data. (It’s based on the principle that if you can see the sun, the sun can see you—and satellites in between as well.) Satellites have been around for some time and in most cases, 30 to 40 years of data are available. Figure 2 shows a solar map for BC and Alberta from two sets of data: ground weather stations located at each main airport and SUNY satellite data. Each pixel is a 10x10 km grid corresponding to the definition of solar satellite data provided by SUNY (State University New York). Contrary to most maps that provide ground

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