Last week, I was doing some research on the Canadian small wind market in preparation for Urban Green Energy's participation for the GREENBUILD 2011 Expo in Toronto.  I wanted to share my findings, which shows a bright future for small wind!

          Canada's domestic sales of small wind turbines are growing.  Domestic sales of small wind turbines, those rated 300 kW and less, grew 77% in 2008 and 32% in 2009. During this period, domestic sales of $24 million resulted in 5.3 MW of new small wind capacity, for an average cost of $4.40 per Watt. In 2009, nearly 11,000 small wind turbines were installed nationwide, for a total of 12.6 MW of cumulative installed capacity. Consumer interest in this sector remains high, and the small wind industry is poised for significant global growth.    

          Canada's domestic sales of residential grid-connected turbines are climbing along with the increasing imports for farm and business sales.  Domestic sales of residential grid-connected turbines (1-10 kW) were 57% in 2008 and 62% in 2009. Imports for farm and business sales (11-300 kW) increased from 10% estimated in 2007 to 64% in 2008 and 73% in 2009. Overall, 63% of 2009 small wind sales in Canada were imports, up from 47% in 2008.

          Canada's average unit size remains at 1.0 kW.   While the average small wind turbine size increased by 20% in the US to 2.2kW and by 30% globally to 3.1kW in 2009, Canada's average unit size remained at 1.0 kW. AWEA notes that the upward size trend demonstrates a continued market shift toward larger grid-tied systems. Canada saw higher growth rates in the 11-50 kW market segments, while sales of off-grid turbines also continued to increase.

          More business opportunities lie in Ontario & Alberta due to incentives, wind resources, potential subsidies and rebates, and a "green thinking".  Ontario holds 30% of the national small wind market.

The small wind industry in Canada benefits from government interventions, such as feed-in tariffs. Currently, Nova Scotia's Community Feed-in Tariff, or ComFIT, pays the highest tariffs for small wind in North America! Small wind tarrifs have been reduced to $0.50/kWh from $0.66/kWh.  ComFIT targets 100 MW of renewables by 2015, but it is not limited to that amount.

The findings above are based on a recent market survey by Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA). I'm looking forward to seeing small wind grow in the future in Canada and globally!

Written by Tting, October 2011