Does it want to be in the same club as integrated oil company Cenovus, which has captured many headlines related to its venture investments in everything from fusion power to water desalination technology? Not sure, but perhaps this is the first of more tech investments to come — as sign that corporate capital is playing a more important role in a country where venture capital is hard to come by.

Morgan Solar, mind you, hasn’t had a tough time raising capital. In March 2011 it aimed to raise up to $25 million (U.S.), but with Enbridge joining the party the round is oversubscribed at $28.8 million. The interest in Morgan Solar is understandable. It has developed an inexpensive and innovative light-guide solar optic that captures and directs incoming sunlight into a tiny, high-efficiency, finger-nail sized PV chip, achieving a balance of cost, efficiency, weight, and low-profile (i.e. the system is really thin) that may be unrivaled in the market. The company says its systems cost less to build, ship, deploy and maintain than competing technologies. Indeed, it’s bold enough to say that its Sun Simba product will offer a lower Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) “than solar technologies on the market today, or known to be under development.”

It should be pointed out that Enbridge owns three solar facilities that together represent 100 megawatts of capacity. Most of that comes from its 80 MW Sarnia Solar Project, which until recently was the largest operating PV facility in the world. It’s unclear whether Enbridge eyes using Morgan Solar’s CPV systems in future projects, but the potential certainly exists for collaboration on smaller demonstration projects. The reality, however, is that Enbridge has so far let others take on solar development risks. It then steps in and buys finished, operational projects that are already generating cash.

Morgan has other partners in the mix, some of them strategic. Iberdrola S.A., one of the world’s largest renewable-energy utilities, is a strategic investor, as is Nypro Inc., a contract manufacturer specializing in precision injection molding. Nypro, for example, makes the light-guide optic for Morgan Solar.

Morgan Solar, by the way, was recently named — for the second time — to Corporate Knights’ Next 10 list of most promising Canadian cleantech companies.

I remember it was just a few years ago when it was a big deal to see 1 megawatt of solar installed across ALL of Ontario, let alone single projects.

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).

Solution simple: Let the company broaden its energy offerings so it can pursue geothermal, solar thermal and other green energy offerings beyond just pilot projects. Yes, Enbridge’s current restrictions were created to ensure fair competition, but if others could do what Marshall Homes envisions, why aren’t they stepping up? (I should say, however, that local electric distribution company Veridian Connections is interested in working with Marshall, but the problem with working with LDCs is that you’re limited to a smaller service territory. Go outside that territory and you have to start all over again with a new LDC). Unleashing Enbridge could make a difference. Few companies have the scope, reach, engineering know-how and clout to take the district heating concept, so popular in Europe, and make it an attractive offering to builders of new subdivisions throughout the province.

See my column here discussing the Marshall Homes project and the role that Enbridge could play, if permitted.

Solar domestic hot-water systems don’t grab as many headlines, probably because they’re not considered as high-tech as their solar PV cousins, where science is pushing the boundaries of sunlight-to-electricity conversion. I’m always surprised that residential solar thermal systems don’t get much attention in the United States, particularly in the south where many homes have swimming pools (that need heating) and where the sun shines warm all year, making the payback dramatically better than PV. In Canada, where the conditions are less ideal, we seem for some strange reason to have a greater appreciation for rooftop solar thermal systems, and indeed, have many startups, such as EnerWorks, and academics spending considerable time improving on the technology.

Now, it seems, there’s a much bigger push going on to put solar thermal on Canadian rooftops. Just this week, natural gas distribution giant Enbridge announced a partnership with green electricity retailer Bullfrog Power that is targeting the installation of 1,200 residential solar thermal systems in Ontario over the next two years. The pilot program aims to take advantage of several government incentives, as you’ll find in this Toronto Star article I wrote on the program. The announcement is significant because it’s the first time (at least, I believe, in Ontario) a major fossil-fuel utility has put its name behind a residential renewable-energy technology, beyond tiny-scale pilot studies. Potential customers, in turn, can feel more comfortable dealing with a company they know will be around next year and that already takes their money.

This quote from Enbridge Gas VP Arunas Pleckaitis is perhaps most telling: “You’d have to be from another planet to not realize things are changing. We clearly realize the role of the utility is going to change. The question is, how quickly and what technologies, and what direction will we take? It could be geothermal. It could be micro-generators in people’s homes. It could be heat pumps. There are all sorts of different technologies we’re looking at.’”

Encouraging.

Well, not so white — as in snowy — yet, but certainly north. And Great, I should add. It is, however, starting to getting pretty cool these days. Maybe it’s because the federal Conservatives were re-elected? Hmmm…

Below is a wrap-up of news from Lignol Energy, Wal-Mart Canada, Enbridge, VRB Power, and 6N Silicon, ending with my suggestion of three cleantech/energy books that are good reads.

Lignol and Suncor Energy, looking like a couple still trying to “get to know” each other, look as if they’re warming to the idea of a closer bond. The two companies announced they will work more closely on cellulosic ethanol research and plans to development a full-scale commercial plant. This is an important relationship for Lignol considering Suncor’s market clout and its pioneering production of ethanol in the Canadian market.

Wal-Mart Canada has decided to begin recycling polystyrene foam from product packaging. It has struck a relationship with Grace Canada, which will recycle the foam using a proprietary process and turn it into fire-resistant commercial insulation for the building market. W. R. Grace & Co., the parent company of Grace Canada, has three plants in North America, including one in Ajax, Ontario, that has been recycling polystyrene foam since 1997. The Ajax plant can alone can process 4 million pounds of foam annually. Wal-Mart will begin the recycling program at eight of its stores in Southern Ontario. What’s less certain is whether this program applies only to in-store generated packaging waste, or if the stores will accept packaging from customers who buy its products.

Enbridge has finally cut the ribbon on its “Direct Fuel Cell-Energy Recovery Generation” system, which produces 2.2 megawatts of low-emission electricity. It’s the first multi-megawatt commercial fuel cell to operate in Canada, and as a hybrid energy system is the first of its kind in the world. I first wrote about this project back in April 2007. You can read that article for more details on how the system works. It’s pretty cool, actually.

Flow-battery maker VRB Power Systems announced that it is a “potential supplier” of two 60-kilowatt, 4-hour flow battery systems that would be used to store power from a wind farm in Nova Scotia. This comes three weeks after Vancouver-based VRB said it was conducting an engineering design study for a “large scale” storage system in Alaska. I’m a big fan of the potential of flow batteries for utility-scale energy storage, but I’m disappointed — as I’m sure many observers are — with the progress that VRB has made. Announcements of being a “potential supplier” of tiny pilot projects are getting tired. When is this company going to do something significant? I’ve got a feeling it will run out of money before that day happens, but one can hope.

6N Silicon has begun operation of its 2,000-tonne a year solar grade silicon manufacturing facility in Vaughan, just north of Toronto. The facility was constructed on time and on budget — very impressive.

On a final note, here are three books I’m either reading or planning to read soon, in case anyone is interested. Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded is so far an excellent read (though one or two chapters are a bit alarmist). Next on my list is the Green Collar Economy, by activist Van Jones. The title speaks for itself, and interesting is that it just made it onto the New York Times bestsellers list for non-fiction hardcover — debuting at No. 12. Finally, for those interested in how the Alberta oil sands are turning Canada into a petrostate (or already have), I’m just about to crack the spin on Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, by Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk. I heard Andrew interviewed yesterday on CBC Radio and his new book sounds both enlightening and frightening.

Have I mentioned that the U.S. wants to eat Canada’s lunch when it comes to creating green-collar jobs and manufacturing? By sitting back and reaping the short-term rewards of being a petrostate, and at the same time underestimating the green economy being built around us, we’re ripping off future generations.