S-5! PV-Kit
In April of this year, the first batch of S-5! PV attachment clamps manufactured in Canada will roll off the assembly line, ready for sale. S-5!’s new design brings good tidings to a market hungry for innovation but somewhat restricted by domestic content limitations. For although S-5! is headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, it also has a manufacturing plant in Toronto, Ontario, making it easier for solar panel installers and power producers in the province to take advantage of the Ontario Power Authority’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) program. Under these incentives, homeowners and businesses receive guaranteed payment per kilowatt of solar energy delivered back into the grid - provided that 50% of the labour and materials originated in Ontario.
As the first solar mounting solution for standing seam metal roofs manufactured in Ontario, S-5!’s innovative design is likely to have an immediate and lasting impact on how installers, investors, and manufacturers view the future of solar energy. Many homeowners and businesses are already sold on the economics of solar power, but they become skittish after learning of the extensive drilling and structural changes required to affix PV systems to rooftops. The S-5! clamp changes this, allowing for seamless integration with minimal effort.
Long a leader in mounting solutions for metal rooftop installations, S-5!’s patented technology permits nearly any solar system to be attached to seam metal roofs without piercing the paneling. Keith Lipps, VP of Marketing and Sales for S-5! proudly asserts that the “S-5-PV Kit is the easiest, most cost-effective way to install solar panels on rails or directly to standing seam metal roofs, and is by far the most popular choice for solar panel installation worldwide.”
A bold statement for any company to make, but thus far, the reaction has been very promising. Lipps adds that “there are a lot of potential solar power producers standing by, hoping to jump in…. We began manufacturing in Toronto specifically to help them out and be a part of this great effort.”
Assisting with this drive are Ontario distributors, like Pro-Bel Group, an Ajax-based firm that has agreed to carry the S-5-PV Kit as early as April of this year. However, power producers and distributors are not the only links in the value chain excited about the S-5! designs. When Keith Lipps sent a batch of clamps for the Ontario Solar Academy to use in their monthly 5-day PV installation and training courses, the results were telling. During the March class, students were broken up into three separate groups, each using a slightly different mounting system. Associate Director of Solar Academy, David Gower, recounts how the team using the S-5! clamps installed their panels in half the time as the other two groups. “The process couldn’t have been easier - these clamps save time, energy, and make installing on metal roofs a snap”
Steve Ray, Business Development Manager of Essex Energy in Windsor, Ontario echoed such claims after experimenting with the S-5! designs. “We’ve done extensive engineering tests on the S-5 PV clamps and found they hold up remarkably well in both rail-mount and direct-mount installations.” Ray added “we plan to use them on our first three major FIT projects scheduled to begin this spring.”
Cornering an Old Market with New Technology
However “limiting” the domestic content requirements are now, they will only become more restrictive starting in January 2011 when the minimum threshold goes from 50% to 60%. With its manufacturing shift from Colorado Springs to Toronto, S-5! appears to be cognizant of the opportunities that await it and its customers as solarizing the province with local resources becomes a greater priority. Lipps concludes that “after January, solar providers will need to buy locally-produced PV panels in order to qualify for a contract…. Hopefully the solar panel manufacturers will be joining us here in Ontario soon.”
