Contents, Acknowledgements, Executive summary

Abstract

The Canadian solar thermal industry experienced a decrease in terms of top-line revenue and collector area in 2017 versus 2016. From a revenue standpoint, domestic revenue dropped 37% while export revenue decreased 47%, resulting in a total market decline of 41%. Total industry revenue in 2017 was $6.2 million compared to $10.6 million in 2016. Collector sales dropped from 69,645 m2 in 2016 to 45,083 m2 in 2017. It should be noted that the small size of the Canadian solar thermal market is making it increasingly susceptible to the fortunes of individual companies and projects, particularly for technologies that focus on the commercial sector. Moreover, the residential sector is susceptible to a myriad of factors and most residential technologies experienced declines in both 2016 and 2017. When the Canadian domestic market is analyzed by collector type, it becomes clear that all technologies were impacted by the industry downturn. All collector types experienced declines in 2017. The air glazed market segment experienced a continued weakness, showing an 86% decline (collector area). Liquid glazed declined at 50% (vs. 51% in 2016). The liquid evacuated and air unglazed market segments decreased at 52% and 36% respectively, and the air unglazed segment experienced a 36% decrease in domestic revenue. The liquid unglazed market also experienced a significant decline at 25% when compared to 3% in 2016. All figures in this paragraph refer to collector area. On a national basis, Ontario remained the largest market in 2017, representing 34 % of all domestic revenue generated by the industry in 2017, a decrease from 51 % in 2016. The Atlantic region maintained its position as the largest market in terms of revenue per capita, however, at $ 0.34 per capita. The Prairie and Atlantic provinces both accounted for 20% domestic revenue, with Quebec following at 19%. Industry optimism was not high. Most respondents felt that the industry is continuing to decline and there is not much lower to go, although it should be noted that similar sentiments were expressed in previous years. Indeed, 94% of respondents expect no growth or small declines over the next two years. It should be noted that many of those respondents had experienced declines of the vast majority of their business in previous years and now consider themselves at the bottom of the market. iii