CanREA Spotlights Report on Canada Solar Outlook

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) welcomes the latest national market outlook for rooftop and on-site solar, which calls for scaling-up rooftop solar by 20 to 40 times to help Canada achieve its net-zero targets.

The report from Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, “BTM Solar: Canadian Market Outlook: How Behind-the-Meter (BTM) solar can contribute to Canada’s net-zero future,” outlines the current status of this industry within the country and models its growth potential under different scenarios, within the context of reaching net-zero by 2050.

“CanREA commissioned this independent report to investigate the progress to date and potential market outlook for BTM solar in Canada,” says Vittoria Bellissimo, CanREA president and CEO. “BTM solar is an important part of Canada’s renewable energy sector and it has tremendous growth potential. Canadian homeowners want it, municipalities want it, local businesses want it, and Canada needs it.”

The report states that if Canada is to achieve net-zero, the country needs BTM solar to meet 2%  to 4% of its total annual electricity demand, or 24 to 48 TWh per year. The current adoption rate for BTM solar in Canada is just 0.2%, says CanREA.

The report also states that the most impactful way to accelerate the adoption curve is to revise building codes to mandate solar in new single-family homes. This would result in an estimated 13 GW of new capacity.

The report also states putting solar on existing homes in Canada could generate an additional 11 GW, with an additional 12 GW generated by solar systems on commercial buildings. Together, this growth would account for 36 GW by 2050.