Canadian and provincial governments could spend $2.4 billion to
build a large scale solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant and
then give it away for free and still earn a profit in the long
run, according to a financial analysis conducted by the Queen’s
University Applied Sustainability Research Group in Kingston,
Canada. Queen’s University Mechanical Engineering Professor
Joshua Pearce conducted the study — to be published in the
August edition of the academic journal Energy Policy — to find
out if it makes economic sense for governments to support solar
cell manufacturing in Canada. He was surprised to discover the
answer is an overwhelming yes even in extreme situations and
feels governments should be aggressively supporting this
industry to take advantage of the financial opportunity. “This
study uses hard financial numbers. Everything we did is
transparent and all our equations are in the study,” says
Professor Pearce. “The benefits of encouraging solar
manufacturing in Canada are clear and massively out