June 11, 2008

Wal-Mart plans test of Menova solar-roof technology

SAUL CHERNOS

correspondent

Wal-Mart, the behemoth retailer known for aggressive growth and low prices, plans to test solar roof technology at one of its Ontario stores.

Wal-Mart Canada and Menova Energy have been working on plans, including blueprints, for two years with a view to installing Menova’s Power Spar-brand solar concentrator system.

Menova president David Gerwing describes the system, designed to provide heat and electricity, as a series of 64 parabolic concentrating mirrors, each measuring 30 by 117 inches, sitting in ring-like formation with receiving heads some 15 inches higher.

“We concentrate the sun into those heads, where the solar cells are, and we pump the heat with a mixture of water and propylene glycol,” Gerwing says.

Unlike Wal-Mart merchandise, the solar technology isn’t on discount.

The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation has provided a $2.8-million forgivable loan through its Innovation Demonstration Fund and Wal-Mart Canada plans to contribute an additional $3 million.

The idea, the companies say, is to assess the potential benefits of the Menova system as a candidate technology to help Wal-Mart Canada meet its long-term sustainability goal of being fully supplied by renewable energy.

Karin Campbell, manager of corporate affairs with Wal-Mart Canada in Mississauga, confirmed the project.

“This is a planned venture and the store on which this technology might be tested has yet to be determined,” she said, adding that “it is premature to discuss construction” and declining any further comment.

Gerwing says Menova and Wal-Mart Canada have signed a letter of intent. “We think we’re going to be able to start to churn dirt this fall — we’ll be on the roof early next spring, and we should have a store opening midsummer next year.”

The two years it’s taken to get to this point might seem a long time, but Gerwing says the project involves “big-money decisions” and no one wants to stumble. “We’re meeting with them every week, and we’ve been to Bentonville (Arkansas), to their U.S. headquarters, to interface with their people there. It’s a long sales cycle.”

Gerwing says Ontario is particularly attractive for a project like this because the provincial government maintains a standard offer program — currently under review — for renewable energy projects.

The U.S. has capital-based incentives, which only served to raise prices, but Ontario followed the lead of Germany’s production-based incentives.

“These things need to be long-term. Germany’s is 25 years, and it has the second biggest (solar) industry in the world,” Gerwing says.

“Payback takes time, and this provides surety that the payback, the business case, isn’t going to vaporize or change. Solar right now doesn’t make tremendous sense without a feed-in tariff in a place where we only get on average 4.2 kilowatt hours per square metre per day, compared to 8 or 9 kwh in the southwestern U.S.”

Gerwing concedes the system won’t fully supply the energy a Wal-Mart store will require but explains this will improve over time, as the technology develops.

“Wal-Mart will get the next-generation unit, which produces heat and electricity,” he says, adding that Menova has offered a precursor technology — concentrating solar thermal — for about two years, with about 200 installations, including a school and a hospital.

Gerwing says Wal-Mart was publicizing various environmental efforts, including a commitment to renewable energy, cuts to energy consumption, waste production and greenhouse gas emissions, and reductions in diesel used by its fleets, and Menova decided to make a sales call.

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