It has been one week since Siliken Canada Corp., a solar module manufacturer, announced it will be closing the doors of its Windsor, Ont., manufacturing plant, citing a drought of six months without new contracts as the primary reason for closure. But are other players in the industry also feeling the heat?

May 15, 2012 - Speaking at the 2012 Forum on Hydropower, sponsored by the Canadian Hydropower Association, David Anderson (parliamentary secretary to Joe Oliver, minister of natural resources) emphasized the importance of responsible energy development to Canada’s economic growth.

May 11, 2012 - Siliken Canada Corp., a solar module manufacturer, today announced it is closing its manufacturing plant in Windsor, Ont. It was just over a year ago that we announced “Siliken leases building in Windsor, Ont., for PV modules production”.

May 1, 2012 - Hydro-Quebec Distribution launched a call for qualification to preselect companies interested in submitting a bid to a call for tenders for the purchase of a wind power integration service.

April 27, 2012 - Aecon Group Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary, Miwel Construction Ltd., has been awarded a contract by Northland Power to construct six 10-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) generation projects in Ontario.

April 25, 2012 - As part of its SunShot Initiative, U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu announced up to $5 million available this year to develop plug-n-play photovoltaic (PV) systems that can be purchased, installed and operational in just one day. This effort is part of the Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) broader strategy to spur solar power deployment by reducing non-hardware (i.e. soft) costs, such as installation, permitting and interconnection.

April 25, 2012 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed and launched new tools to test underutilized sites and contaminated land for solar and wind energy potential. The tools aim to give local communities and landowners ways to evaluate sites for renewable energy potential without the need for technical expertise.

April 18, 2012 - Ontario is proposing to merge the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) into a single organization that “would save ratepayers millions of dollars a year and better meet today’s electricity supply needs”.

April 17, 2012 - GE wind turbines will power a new wind project in Ontario that will add 100 megawatts of energy to the region’s electricity grid. The Dufferin Wind Farm, located in Melanchthon County, is being developed by Longyuan Canada Renewables Ltd. (a subsidiary of China Long Yuan Power Generation), a China’s largest wind power developer.

April 17, 2012 - Today, Canadian Solar Inc. and SkyPower Ltd. entered into a purchase and international joint venture agreement, which creates a team “comprising one of the world’s largest solar companies and Canada’s largest owner and developer of solar projects” to build and deploy solar energy solutions in Ontario, and jointly develop solar projects internationally in “select emerging markets”.