Solar Development in Canada
Ground-Mounted Solar
“We’re quite suddenly at the moment where, as a species, we could and should break the habit of burning things”. Author and dedicated climate activist Bill McKibben opens his 2025 book, Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.
The sun, the Earth’s first and most significant source of energy, has been underappreciated in human production and broader economics as a symptom of the Industrial Revolution and its reliance on fossil fuels. But the sun has always been there, and humans have a long history of efforts to capture its photons for non-photosynthetic uses.
This piece is the fourth installment of our Renewables Own the Future series. A series of articles that try to answer the question: What does it take to develop renewables in Canada? This, the fourth installment, sets its sights on the light, focusing only on solar photovoltaics (PV), not solar thermal energy. To better understand ground-mounted solar project development, I relied on valuable conversations with developers of these projects.
See Part I- Introduction to the series here; Part II – Onshore Wind here; Part III – Offshore Wind here; Part IV- Ground-Mounted Solar is below.
Canada’s potential
According to a report by CanREA, Canada is set to deploy 17-26 GW of new solar power by 2035. For context, Ontario currently has an approximate nuclear power capacity of 12.2 GW and represents about one third of the province’s grid capacity. Solar will be increasingly relied upon as the growth in energy demand, not unique to Ontario, is expected to exceed its current grid capacity.
Some readers may be wondering: how is this possible in a country with long, dark winters, where parts of Canada see almost no sunlight for months? It’s a fair question, but Canada’s solar potential holds up even in its dimmest cities. Yellowknife, Vancouver, and St. John’s, Canada’s three darkest major cities, still average roughly 1,000kWh/kW/yr of solar potential, and low-sun regions are building. Watson Lake, Yukon, is a case in point: its 2.85 MW solar farm (projected commissioning summer 2027) will offset roughly 24% of local annual diesel use, with excess power generating revenue for Laird First Nation. In the country’s sunniest cities, Regina and Calgary, that potential climbs to 1,300 kWh/KW/yr.
The image below helps visualize the concentration of photovoltaic (electricity from sunlight) potential across Canada. Saskatchewan clearly takes the crown as the country’s sunniest province, followed closely by Alberta and then Winnipeg.
Annual Photovoltaic Potential of Canada – NRCan
Saskatchewan has not yet come anywhere close to harnessing the benefits of its geography, by choice. Solar currently represents 0.1% of its electricity generation, with 41% Coal and 44% natural gas. Without the advantage of major hydroelectric potential, Saskatchewan has become one of the only grids in the country still dependent on coal and, according to Premier Scott Moe, that won’t change until they can get some nuclear up and running. In the meantime, the province has decided to spend nearly $50 billion over the next 20 years to refurbish existing coal power plants- an expensive feat for a temporary bridge to nuclear. With $50 billion, Saskatchewan could develop 71solar farms at the scale of Canada’s largest 465MW solar project (based on its 2022 cost of $700 million). This would be enough generating capacity to hit five times the province’s entire 2025 grid.
Of course, this comparison is not a real plan. Battery storage, siting and new transmission infrastructure would all have to be solved, none of which is trivial. But this back-of-the-napkin math does show the colossal gap between what Saskatchewan is doing and what it could be doing. Put simply, they’re missing out. Every dollar lost to extending coal’s life is a dollar not spent building the affordable, renewable grid and keeping Saskatchewan behind.
Now what about the cold?
Generating electricity from sunlight is a unique process. Of the most common electricity technologies- diesel and gas generators, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams- solar panels (aka PV modules) are the only ones to not require a spinning motion in a generator.
Quick crash course on how electricity is typically generated. All generators (turbines) generate electricity by first spinning blades, relying on water vapour, water, smoke or wind to push through the blades. That spinning turns the rotor, where magnets spin around a coil of stationary copper. As the magnets spin, electrons move and continue along conductors and a series of wires until they reach your walls. It, of course, is a bit more complicated in real life, but that’s the basics.
Solar PVs are different. Sunlight is made up of tiny particles- photons. These photons hit the surface of the solar panel and its individual solar cells, which are made up of negatively and positively charged layers of silicon. When photons reach the cells, they knock electrons out of their hole, freeing them from their atomic bonds. The now mobile electrons follow a built-in path of conductors into wires and transmission lines and into your walls.
Typically, once they’ve gone through most of the circuit, they will go back to the solar panel into a “hole” attracted by a now positively charged atom (due to the electron’s absence), where the photons will hit it again. Like most things, solar panels are not 100% efficient, meaning they cannot turn 100% of the sunlight into electricity. Current solar panel efficiency rates sit between 19 and 22%. Efficiency is affected by a few factors: sometimes, electrons don’t make it all the way through the circuit, finding a hole before leaving the panel; light is still reflected off the panels, and some photons have too much energy or not enough to act effectively.
Ultimately, 100% efficiency of all electricity technologies is held back by the second law of thermodynamics, which, for all of our sakes, I won’t go into.
Now that that’s out of the way, what about the cold?
Lower ambient temperatures –> higher electrical efficiency. You may have noticed this when your computer or laptop has overheated, and an internal fan starts up, sometimes with a lot of effort.
In electricity, heat increases resistance to electron flow; cooler temperatures create smoother paths. Consistently cooler temperatures can also reduce expansion and contraction of the hardware holding the panels in place. Cold weather can even result in PV overperformance, where solar modules generate more electricity than expected for their daily calculated capacity.
For solar panels, there’s no such thing as too cold, but their inverters (the piece that converts DC electricity from panels to AC – what most Canadian grids use) have temperature limits of about -30oC.
Development in Canada
To best understand ground-mounted solar development in Canada, I asked David Vonesch, CEO of SkyFire Energy and Jake Kubiski, CEO of Kuby Renewable Energy, for their insights as developers in the industry.
The very first step
One thing is consistent across all renewables development: siting is critical. Like in onshore wind, developers will decide which province to operate within based on various factors, most of them identical to those discussed in our Onshore Wind article.
For ground-mounted solar, the initial entity triggering the project may be the developer or a landowner (customer), an Indigenous nation, the province, or its crown corporation. While less common, communities can also trigger the development of a solar farm, owned within a co-operative.
There are many co-op-owned solar projects across Canada; one of them, located in Englehart, Ontario, is Sundance 1 is a ground mounted 500kW array developed in partnership with Green Timiskaming Co-op and owned by SolarShare (a community co-operative). Shown below, Sundance 1 is just one of many ground-mounted solar projects that are significant investments for community co-ops.
Sundance 1 ground-mounted dual-axis tracking solar project
When selecting the site, utility-scale projects (greater than 5 MW) will benefit most from their proximity to existing substations. According to Vonesch, developers can connect a larger system closer to an existing substation. Higher-capacity projects will depend on proximity to substations, and the entire project’s function will be dependent upon its interconnection to the broader grid.
Like all large-scale energy projects, permitting is the most time-consuming part of the development process. Securing the land, whether by leasing from landowners or gaining access to crown land, can take 6-18 months. Developers rarely purchase the land upon which their solar array will sit, paying landowners directly for the lease of their land.
For a 465MW project like Travers Solar, Canada’s largest solar farm, farmers have benefited from lease values of $700-900 per acre/yr. As emphasized in our Onshore Wind article, renewable energy projects are highly sought-after sources of revenue for Canadian farmers, who often depend on these annual payments to keep farm operations running. See more details about the land leasing process here. If the land is Crown land or in any way involves Indigenous nations, whether through ownership structures and/or land association, genuine consultation with Indigenous nations will be essential. Most provincial calls for power have required or resulted in 50-51% Indigenous equity ownership of utility-scale renewables, further emphasizing the importance of Indigenous-developer partnerships.
Once the land is provisionally secured, more detailed studies will commence. Developers check how sunny their parcel of land is, conducting shadow studies, supported by existing provincial data. They will do a physical scope of the conditions of the land- how much clearing is necessary, whether there are sensitive environmental areas and/or unbuildable areas. All of these questions will be answered once developers have access to the land.
Interconnection, the process where the project gets connected to the grid, is quite time-consuming, ranging anywhere from 1 to 4 years according to Vonesch. Each province and territory has its own interconnection regulations, including capacity thresholds and technical requirements. Developers are key players in this process, but interconnection relies heavily on the electricity regulatory agencies and Crown corporations (AESO, IESO, BC Hydro, Hydro-Québec), regardless of whether the energy market is regulated or deregulated (more on that here).
Further permit requirements are also province- and project-dependent. Some provinces require building permits, electrical permits, site plan approval and municipal zoning bylaw amendments. Provinces will determine how difficult or streamlined the entire process is. If they want to, they will make it harder. According to Vonesch, BC is looking to make the process easier for developers; they need new generation capacity ASAP and are streamlining policy for renewables development.
Alberta is on the other side. Recent policy changes discussed in detail here have created complexities and increased development challenges for renewables developers. Alberta’s renewables NIMBY-ism is coming at a cost to landowners and municipalities who are advocating for more renewables development, as they are key revenue sources for both entities.
Active construction is the shortest and final phase of solar farm development but is highly dependent on the project and land conditions and can be as little as a few weeks. Overall, a ground-mounted solar project can take 3 to 5 years from concept to commissioning.
Environmental impacts
The permitting process will include environmental assessments and reviews. Developers go to great lengths to avoid significant environmental harm associated with their projects, though exact risks are highly dependent upon project location and size. Any environmental impact is highly localized and due to the footprint of PV systems. By rule of thumb, these arrays require 5-10 acres of land/MW. But solar modules are not lying flat on the ground; they’re propped up.
According to Kubiski from Kuby Energy, ground-mounted solar is largely benign in terms of environmental impacts. Of course, there are changes that come to the land throughout the construction process; increased presence of vehicles and large installation equipment will disturb wildlife and damage vegetation, and any land clearing and grading will reduce native vegetation and could displace wildlife. Once everything is up and properly running, there are negligible environmental impacts from solar farms, and they can even become new shady and dry spots for local wildlife.
Kubiski and Vonesch emphasized that the most common location of solar farms is on marginal, brownfield or non-farmable land, reducing the risk of opposition from communities and transforming their economic potential.
An environmental risk associated with that is often overlooked is fire. Fires from a solar farm are extremely rare, especially if there is no battery storage connected to the project. The recent fire at the Sunbank Solar Farm in Summerside, PEI was due to its battery storage component, not the solar panels or transmission infrastructure.
It is important to remember that any electrical renewable and non-renewable energy project is dealing with electricity. As we all have learned either in school or by stories, or through personal experience, electricity can cause fires, ones that can be very difficult to put out. This factor is not ignored by developers or the provinces that regulate their projects, as electrical permits depend on a project’s existing fire-avoidance measures.
Anchoring equipment
When designing the project, developers will determine the best anchoring equipment for its environment.
Standard fixed ground mounts will have multiple points of support from the ground to the panels. How these structures are anchored to the ground is highly dependent on the ground conditions. They may use concrete piers, driven piers, helical piles, concrete ballasts, and pole mounts (shown below).
Driven piers and helical piles are similar in style, though driven piers are smooth while helical piles are screw-shaped.
Pole mounts can be used for both fixed and tracking systems.
When paired with agriculture, the modules will sit up on stilts and let livestock or vegetation grow in the shade.
Costs
Non-ballast anchoring systems are the least expensive fixed-panel anchoring options. All options vary in cost significantly and are dependent on models, materials and retailers, although generally ballast anchoring is the costliest.
Fixed-tilt systems have lower hardware costs and are less technical to install compared to tracking systems, with no moving parts. They will also not require significant equipment changes for the 25-30 years of a typical project lifetime. The average cost of installed fixed tilt systems is about $2,600/kWAC (converted from USD).
Tracking solar modules have unique benefits and the highest upfront capital and installation costs. These systems also require more frequent maintenance costs, but their equipment premiums are often offset by their increased energy outputs, putting them at about $2,200/kWAC (converted from USD).
There are four main options for solar trackers, all with varying complexities:
- Single Axis (panels move east-west, manually adjusted with seasonal changes)
- Dual Axis (panels move east-west and follow the altitude of the sun, no manual adjustment). These systems result in the highest output, though they require double the power (two motors).
- Passive Tracker (no mechanical tracking; Freon reacts to sunlight to change weight distribution and move the panel).
- Active Tracker (motors controlled by a sensor to follow the light).
Tracking panels are becoming less common as solar panel prices have dropped. Developers can simply buy more panels to make up for the output differences. While maintenance costs will vary between tracking and fixed modules (more moving parts means something is more likely to break), the number of employees responsible for daily operations is quite small. The Travers Solar Farm, the aforementioned largest solar farm in Canada, employs a 6-person maintenance crew for all its 1.3 million PV modules.
According to Vonesch, this work can be repetitive; it can require the analysis of large, complex datasets, and AI is likely to have a larger role in the maintenance of these projects, particularly with repetitive data analysis.
Solar getting cheaper….
The cost decrease of solar technology has been a game-changer for increased global solar PV adoption.
Cost comparison of wind, solar, and nuclear
The reduction in technology cost has resulted in mass global solar buildout. The world has now reached 3 Terawatts of solar power. For context, Canada has just about 0.16 TW of total installed capacity, the US has 1.4, and Mexico has 0.09. 3 TW would be enough to power all of North America, and then some.
It is hard to predict how significant this decrease in cost will be and how quickly global adoption of solar will continue to grow. Costs of other materials (solar racks, installation equipment, etc.) have increased over time, as with labour, but certainly not enough to derail this progress.
According to Vonesch, cost and interconnections will be two key factors that will enable more solar deployment across Canada. As previously mentioned, grid interconnection is a significant consideration for developers and investors, along with transmission availability. National improvements to these infrastructural components will be essential for mass renewables buildout.
The future
I asked David Vonesch how policymakers could encourage more large-scale solar development in Canada. His response:
It’s more about getting out of the way. Policymakers in Alberta have been trying to put up roadblocks against these projects. In BC and Ontario, policymakers are getting out of the way, collaboratively and constructively working with industry. Canada needs a diversified energy mix, and renewables are the lowest-cost option to get us there.
Vonesch also had some advice on what communities could do to champion more renewables:
Champion is a key piece. Where there are community champions, projects result in better benefits for those: better employment, thoughtful project development, and significant economic development- something that communities desire. Being at the table is important and mutually beneficial.
Final words
Ground-mounted solar projects are complex and extremely diverse across the country, but one thing is for certain: where there is sun, there could be a solar farm. Solar development will be instrumental for Canada’s energy transition and its growing electricity demand; jurisdictions that do not embrace its adoption will not reap its multifaceted advantages.
The next article in our Renewables Own the Future series will be on rooftop solar.
A special thank you to David Vonesch, CEO of Skyfire Energy and Jake Kubiski, CEO of Kuby Renewable Energy, who helped provide first-hand accounts and insights as solar developers.
