Green Wombat

A solar power plant in the Great White North? Thin-film solar startup OptiSolar has signed a deal to build a 40-megawatt photovoltaic power station about 180 miles west of Toronto. The project, to be rolled out in 10-megawatt stages, will be – for the moment – the world’s largest PV power plant. Canada isn’t exactly known for its sunny skies but it does offer something solar power companies won’t find south of the border: a premium price for green electricity. The Ontario government will pay OptiSolar 42 (Canadian) cents a kilowatt hour – nearly 10 times the standard rate. In this case, Ontario signed a 20-year contract at that rate with OptiSolar’s Canadian subsidiary. Germany, Portugal and Spain pay similar above-market rates and as a result Europe is experiencing a solar power plant building boom. It’s the kind of deal that thin-film solar startups like OptiSolar need to get their technology out of the lab and into the field. Thin-film companies promise to significantly lower the cost of solar energy by printing solar cells on metal sheets. Although the efficiency of thin-film cells is far less than the solar flat panel solar cells produced by companies like SunPower (SPWR), the ability to continuously produce them in rolls of thin material is expected to significantly lower production costs.  A 6-megawatt thin-film power plant recently went online in Germany using cells made by First Solar (FSLR). Another Silicon Valley startup, Nanosolar, has attracted $100 million in venture capital fundng and is building a factory in San Jose that would triple the U.S.’s solar cell manufacturing capability. OptiSolar has remained in stealth mode, saying little about its plans or business. (Though company representatives did show up at PG&E’s (PCG) bidder’s conference in April where the California utility solicited offers to build renewable energy power plants.)