Since first writing about Toronto-based Morgan Solar a year ago, I’ve grown increasingly fond of this up-and-coming developer and soon-to-be manufacturer of concentrated PV systems. They think out-of-the-box, and they execute quickly. They fine tune until they get it right, and they don’t make a lot of noise until they get it right. They’re creative and original, and as a result stand out from others in the field.

So when I got a call from biz-dev director Nicolas Morgan telling me the company had secured $4.7 million in financing and that Spanish utility Iberdrola Group signed on a strategic investor, I guess I wasn’t surprised. Click here to learn more about the latest news from Morgan Solar, and its plans to get a commercial production line up and running in Toronto sometime in 2010. Also click here for an MIT Technology Review article about the company’s innovative technology.

When the Alberta government announced last week that it would be handing over $745 million to Shell Canada so it could move ahead with its Quest commercial-scale CCS project, and when the federal government said it would chip in another $120 million, it didn’t sit well with environmental and energy think-tank The Pembina Institute.

It’s not that Pembina is against developing this technology. What it doesn’t particularly like, and I can’t help but agree, is the fact that the Alberta and federal governments’ are covering two-thirds of the cost for this $1.35 billion project, which will be designed to capture CO2 from the steam methane units at the Scotford Upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan. It’s part of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture among Shell (60 per cent), Chevron Canada (20 per cent) and Marathon Oil Sands (20 per cent).

Why, Pembina asks, are taxpayers covering the majority of a project’s costs when the companies benefitting from this public freebie are some of the most profitable companies in the country? Pembina is also opposed to the governments being “singularly focused” on end-of-pipe technologies, such as CCS, at the expense of investments in technologies and energy sources that reduce or altogether eliminate carbon emissions at the front of the pipe — renewables, energy efficiency, etc…

Rather than carry the load for the private sector, the government should be moving quickly to establish a cap-and-trade regime that would put a sufficient price on carbon, Pembina argues. Ultimately, polluters should cover the whole cost of CCS deployment and that will only happen when they factor in the cost of not doing so once carbon pricing hits their bottom line. Pembina also argues that the government shouldn’t be so narrowly focused on CCS that it ignores the much broader, and less risky opportunities out there. (more…)

Toronto-based renewable-energy developer SkyPower Corp., along with joint-venture partner SunEdison, formally announced the activation and grid connection today of a 9.1 megawatt solar park near the tiny Ontario town of Stone Mills. Their project, called First Light I, becomes the first multimegawatt-scale solar park in Canada to go live.  Two more phases are in the works — First Light II and First Light III — which will add 7.8 MW and 10 MW, respectively.

First Light I takes up 90 acres, equivalent to 50 Canadian football fields (i.e. they’re larger than those pansy NFL fields). All three phases totalling about 26 MW will cover 290 acres and be composed of 130,000 solar panels. These projects are backed by 20-year power purchase contracts obtained under Ontario’s former Renewable-Energy Standard Offer Program, or RESOP. That means the companies can sell power from the projects into the Ontario grid at 42 cents (Canadian) per kilowatt-hour. And because it’s not under the new Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program, it doesn’t have to comply with new local content rules.

First Solar and EDF are in similar situations under the RESOP — 42 cents and no local content restrictions. EDF started construction in June of its 23.4 MW project in Arnprior, Ontario (near Ottawa), while First Solar (which acquired the Ontario project pipeline from OptiSolar earlier this year) has been busy in Sarnia with more than 10 megawatts already installed. Today, it was announced that natural gas and oil pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. of Calgary was purchasing 20 megawatts of First Solar’s Sarnia pipeline for something close to $100 million. Enbridge also indicated that it’s interested, potentially, in doing more deals with First Solar, which has about 80 MW of projects in Sarnia and more than 200 MW under contract across province with the Ontario Power Authority.

In other news, expect Samsung to build about 100 MW of solar in Ontario — potentially. The company, which has signed a “framework agreement” with the province of Ontario (whatever that means), appears ready to develop 500 megawatts worth of wind and solar in the province. The hint came this week, when Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman directed the power authority to “hold in reserve” 500 MW of transmission capacity for a certain “proponent” doing some business dealings with the government — i.e. Samsung. The government is giving Samsung the royal treatment because it has also indicated plans to manufacture wind and solar products in Ontario to meet its own and other developer demands.

Sounds good, unless you’re a developer being booted further back in the transmission-connection waiting queu. Expect some vocal pushback. (check out my Monday column for more on that).

There’s been a lot of head scratching since AP ran a story about Canadian Hydro’s purchase of a massive “offshore wind prospect” from Utah-based Wasatch Wind Inc.

According to the story, the Ontario government said Wasatch doesn’t have any water rights related to the reported Lake Erie site. It said Wasatch has filed an application, and that application is still under review. “They’re in the queu but there’s no guarantee,” Donna Cansfield, Ontario’s minister of natural resources told me today. “Because of that, it’s too early to say whether there’s been any transfer of rights with this application or any application, for that matter.”

Canadian Hydro’s press release was pretty clear. “Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the rights to a 4,400 MW offshore wind prospect in Ontario from Wasatch Wind Inc.” So what’s going on? Darryl Warren, a spokesman for Canadian Hydro, put it this way: “Canadian Hydro acquired from Wasatch Wind Inc. a subsidiary called Wasatch Wind Ltd., and that subsidiary has been involved in development of offshore wind projects in Lake Erie for almost two years.” Warren added: “It’s an ongoing process that will eventually lead to a site release. Where it’s at at this point is the ministry has confirmed it received valid applications.”

Saying it will “eventually lead” to a site release isn’t like the minister saying “there’s no guarantee.” And acquiring a subsidiary of a company that’s pursuing offshore wind in Lake Erie isn’t the same as buying the rights to a 4,400 MW offshore wind prospect. Needless to say, I’m sure Canadian Hydro is a bit embarrassed by this sloppy episode, which you wouldn’t expect from a publicly traded company currently the subject of a billion-dollar hostile takeover bid.

Or would you?

Plasma gasification company Alter NRG Corp. of Calgary has acquired Mississauga-based Clean Energy Developments Corp. (CED) for $18.4 million. It’s an odd deal, when you consider Alter NRG’s main business is to build systems that gasify coal and biomass to produce a number of outputs, including ethanol, syngas and electricity. Clean Energy, on the other hand, is a geoexchange project developer that got its start working with residential and commercial builders.

But Alter NRG decided it was a nice opportunity to diversify its business, considering the plasma gasification market still requires some time to mature. Company president and CEO Mark Montemurro said Alter NRG has the balance sheet and executive team that will help CED or “CleanEnergy” grow its business, which today sits at $6 million in revenues. “From a cash position, the acquisition provides for more stable and near-term revenue and cashflow from geoexchange installations which will be enhanced by the larger but less predictable plasma gasification equipment sales,” the company said.

I wrote about CleanEnergy a few years ago, when the company was just getting started. Back then, its primary focus was to work with homebuilders that wanted to include geoexchange systems as an option for new homebuyers. One of its first projects was in 2006 with Ontario-based Marshall Homes, which offered geothermal and solar thermal as an option in one of its subdivisions. These days, CleanEnergy is busy installing geoexchange systems for hotels, schools, commercial office buildings, and high-end homes. It still works with builders, but will also work directly with large customers.

Alter NRG knew it had to come up with some way of generating cash flow. Selling gasification systems is a risky business and has long sales cycles, while selling geoexchange systems can take place in a rapidly maturing market that is currently supported with generous government subsidies. Sales cycles are shorter, allowing for cash flow. So while it might seem like an odd fit for NRG, it could turn out to be a wise acquisition.