Pricing and Rules are Up in the Air Yesterday, the OPA announced that the official review of Ontario’s FIT and microFIT programs is finally underway. The results of the review may have broad-reaching implications for the solar PV, wind, biomass, micro hydro industries and the overall Cleantech sector. As part of the review process, the OPA has scheduled a teleconference for tomorrow morning, 2 November 2011, at 10 am EDT. The...

Hydropower – can there be too much of a good thing? As discussed at the recent CanSIA Solar West Conference, when hydropower is compared to PV power on a value basis, the results are surprising. PV today can be more economical than hydropower. Hydropower is considered to be the most economic way to generate electricity today, and provides almost one-fifth of the world’s electricity. Solar PV, on the other hand, is widely...

Boston Harbor - revolution birthplace The theme of last week’s Lux Executive Summit was innovation without borders. China was a focus, as was the topic of whether corporate venture capital and private venture capital can get along. Based upon the large number of corporate venture capital representatives, that question had a high degree of resonance with the attendees. According to Andrew Williamson from Physic Ventures, though, the...

California - Palm Trees and Solar Forests Just four years in, the California Solar Initiative (CSI) is racing ahead of its plan. The CSI PV program is already half subscribed and accelerating.   If this pace continues, the CSI PV program could be fully subscribed almost four years ahead of schedule.   Reservations now at Step 8 of 10   Originally conceived as a ten year project, with ten discrete steps, most CSI service territories...

 Attendance was way up for the Canadian Solar Industry Association’s (CanSIA) annual Solar Industry Conference last week in Toronto, and was at least double that of last year. Virtually all of the presentations were very upbeat. Major announcements at the Conference included MEMC’s new plans for Ontario-based module manufacturing as well as the launch of CanSIA’s Solar Vision 2025. The mood wasn’t all positive, however. Among...