Canada's renewable energy sector hopes to gain strength with the launch of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. Both, the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) and Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) will unite once the new entity formally comes into existence from July 1, 2020.
The Canadian Renewable Energy Association with its corporate office in Ottawa will act as the new multi-technology association that will provide a unified voice for solar energy, wind energy and energy storage in the country, stated CanWEA. It will be focused on stakeholder advocacy and public engagement ensuring that renewable energy and storage get to play a central role in the country's energy mix.
"We're launching a new association not only during an ongoing energy transition, but also during the massive challenge of managing through a pandemic and ensuring recovery from its economic impacts. More than ever, Canada's policy focus must remain on a transition to a clean economy powered by renewable energy," said Jason Chee-Aloy, Interim Board Vice Chair of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association and Managing Director of Power Advisory LLC. "A unified voice for solar energy, wind energy and energy storage will help navigate the way to Canada's emission reduction targets while creating good jobs and economic opportunity in urban centres, rural areas and Indigenous communities across the country."
The current President of CanWEA for nearly 17 years now, Robert Hornung will lead the new member-based association as its founding president and CEO.
Currently, the collective grid connected installed capacity of wind and solar power in Canada exceeds 16.5 GW as these are considered cost-competitive with conventional generation. At the end of 2019, the state of Ontario had over 2.67 GW of solar PV installations in residential and commercial installations.
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