Alberta's Solar PV Value Chain Opportunities

This report, developed in partnership with Alberta Economic Development and conducted by Solas Energy Consulting, Inc. (Solas), covers the potential business opportunity of the Alberta solar industry

It examines the solar PV value chain for both rooftop and ground-mount applications, Alberta’s current strengths in the solar PV sector, and the opportunities for Alberta to capture new business from its growing PV market through to 2030. It also identifies predicted employment opportunities and existing training capabilities for Albertans.

The report builds on Solas’ 2017 report, Alberta Solar Market Outlook — A View to 2030, which estimated Alberta’s potential for deploying behind-the-meter, distribution-connected, and transmissionconnected solar PV.

It also identifies opportunities in the Alberta solar PV value chain to provide government, investors, and job seekers with the information necessary to prepare for long-term opportunities created by the move to cleaner electricity generation.

This analysis captures purely conventional applications of solar PV (rooftop and ground-mount PV) and does not include the opportunity value from other applications of technologies, such as energy storage, building-integrated solar PV, nanotechnology, and other emerging solar PV technologies.

Although there are potential export market opportunities, Solas did not evaluate the export opportunity to the rest of Canada or the USA as part of this study. Today, 32 percent of wind power ownership in Canada is by Alberta-based companies. Solar PV could follow suit.