Solar company makes pitch for new net metering program

A local solar energy company says SaskPower is in the dark on embracing and regulating the technology in Saskatchewan.

“If you look at the solar resource map for Canada, Saskatchewan is the sweet spot. It’s free energy and we should be harvesting as much as we can,” Mo’ Solar Company owner Bradyn Parisian said.

He spoke at a media conference organized by the provincial NDP on Thursday.

Parisian said the utility provider’s decision to close the net metering program to new applicants was a disappointing one, decreasing the number of potential customers asking his company for quotes.

It forced him to lay off two employees, he said.

While Parisian understands SaskPower’s need to review and tweak the program, he said outright halting it was a poor decision.

The minister responsible for SaskPower, Dustin Duncan, announced on Sept. 23 that he and his office are moving up the timeline for rolling out a new net metering program.

Duncan didn’t give a specific date, but said it would be weeks and not months for the review, along with the announcement of a new one.

In an emailed response to Thursday’s media scrum, the provincial government said: “We have met and will continue to meet with stakeholder groups.

“SaskPower is committed to reviewing the program as quickly as possible, and announcing a new and more sustainable program very soon.”

As of Thursday morning, Parisian said he had only met with SaskPower once (that day), when he learned that “a new iteration of the program might be rolled out in November. Beyond that we have no details.”

In his mind, that’s too late.

“I wanted to meet last week,” he said. “So the sooner the better.”

Ideally, Parisian thinks his and other solar energy companies ought to be consulted together.

“We don’t want to be prescribed what the program is going to be. We want to help actually form and make educated decisions around what that program winds up looking like,” he said.

Parisian said he’s a fan of the rebate option, but he’s not prepared to fight over it.

More pertinent is the one-to-one option, he said. It means that for every unit of energy an owner generates from their solar panels, that amount is deducted from their electricity bill.

When the new program rolls out, Parisian wants it to include on-bill financing of solar installation.

“It enables more people to actually install it on (their) roof,” he said.

He said SaskPower and the province also need to start consulting with solar companies as a group, not on a one-to-one basis.

“We formed an industry association, Distributed Energy Association of Saskatchewan,” Parisian said. “We want to be at the table with you looking at the white board (as a group).”