Questions About Harnessing the Power of our Sun to Power our World

By Daiem Mohammed
(Daiem is a journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre)

In the third episode of Climate Conversations, a show where young people from Regent Park discuss various aspects of environmentalism with experts, organizers, and artists in the field, our hosts, Jabin Haque and Victoria Nannetti, sit down and have an engaging conversation with Michelle Bird, the Operations Manager and Project Manager with RESCo Energy. They discuss the company’s role in the solar power industry, barriers the industry has faced, who their target audience is, and the upsides and downsides of using solar power in our modern day world.

In this interview, Michelle Bird describes RESCo Energy as a “one stop shop” for all of your solar energy needs. Created in 2006, RESCo has been providing solar PV services to commercial and industrial customers across Canada, on their website, they describe themselves as “setting the bar for turnkey expert level solar photovoltaic services”. They have received numerous awards through the years, given to them by a multitude of organizations, including (but not limited to): the Canadian Solar Industries Association, the Toronto Construction Association, and the University of Toronto. Some of their clients include the Great Circle Solar Management Corporation, Humber College, Metrolinx, Toronto Hydro, and the University of Toronto.

At the top of the show, hosts Jabin and Victoria describe their day, and Victoria mentions her stress over the incredibly specific but simultaneously universal stress about her math class. This perspective shapes the lens of Climate Conversations as a whole, as the aim of the show is for young people to attempt to understand environmentalism not on a large, corporate or systemic scale, but how they can make change on an individual level in their day to day lives.

The show covers ideas like solar PV in major city centres, with Solar PV generally seen in areas with large flat rooftops, yet in major city centres the varying size and flatness of roofs make it difficult for solar panels to be more effective. We also learn that Ontario, as a province, is very well equipped to facilitate solar PV, as it is a province that receives a large amount of sunshine, as opposed to provinces like British Columbia which receives a large amount of rain on average.
 
We also learn that a number of years ago, the Ontario Government created a program that formed incentives for companies to invest into the solar power industry. This idea was largely modelled after what was done in Germany. A number of years after this program was introduced, it was discontinued, but it proved effective nonetheless. Without the program to incentivize businesses to invest in solar panels, one would think the industry would trend downward, but the program was so effective that the industry was, and is now able to stand on its own legs.