Solar thermal finally get respect in Ontario
My Clean Break column yesterday took a snapshot of Ontario’s policies for supporting solar technologies and found that the province has made impressive inroads, particularly and most recently in the area of solar thermal technologies — solar PV’s poor cousin. Now, let’s be clear: More can be done, lots more. But relative to other jurisdictions in Canada, and even the United States, Ontario is doing a respectable job of promoting and financially supporting early stage adoption of these technologies. I won’t go into detail — you can read the column. Suffice to say I’m currently investigating putting a solar thermal hot water system on my new home. I was considering geothermal, but the incentives and the ease of installation for solar thermal are too hard to resist.
BTW: My Clean Break podcast also sticks with the solar thermal theme. I interviewed Alex Winch, founder and president of Mondial Energy in Toronto. He gives his impression of Ontario as a solar thermal market, and says the province is currently the North American sweet spot for commercial-scale solar thermal installations. It’s a good interview — give it a listen if you can.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca