It may be years before Canadian companies see the light in terms of solar energy's business potential, industry experts and analysts say.

"Canada is way behind in the adoption of renewable energies," says Dave Egles, vice-president of business strategy for Victoria-based Carmanah Technologies Corp., which offers renewable and energy-efficient technology services.

While many countries in Europe and several U.S. states have developed solar programs and products, "Canada is still thinking that electricity and energy is too cheap," he adds.

That issue is one of many likely to be discussed at the national Solar Conference 2007, a three-day event Nov. 19-21 in Toronto staged by the Ottawa-based Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA).

CanSIA executive director Elizabeth McDonald says the conference should be well attended. "Each year it's growing," she says. "Five years ago, our counterparts in the United States had 1,000 people. This year they had over 9,000. We expect that kind of growth (in the future)."

Even though Canada is considered to be lagging when it comes to widespread adoption of solar energy, McDonald says the conference will look at more effective ways to offer various technologies such as solar heating or cooling and incorporate them into buildings.

"The business community is starting to be open to it - it's a business that's growing, and there's a lot of interest from the financial community (as conventional energy costs continue to rise)," says McDonald. "It's a totally clean energy. It's a secure energy.

"In some cases there may need to be retrofitting and finding out whether a building is appropriate for it. The more that it's used the price will go down - in most countries there are solar incentives to compete with the less clean and non-renewable technologies."

Overall, solar could provide between 15 and 20 per cent of Canada's energy, if not more, says McDonald. However, she adds, "you need the incentives to get the people going."

Carmanah's Egles says there are tremendous growth opportunities in many areas. The company's solar products include solar airfield lights, pedestrian and 24-hour beacons, programmable school-zone flashers and construction hazard markers, marine lights for the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as solar LED bus stops and bus-shelter lighting kits.

In addition, it provides customized solar electric systems for remote oil and gas applications, and standalone solar electric systems designed for industrial or telecommunications applications.

"We've had a bunch of successes because we've found a core customer who realizes what advantages solar brings," says Egles.

Worldwide, demand for solar power is hot.

Photovoltaic (PV) solar power, which directly converts the sun's radiation into electricity, is expected to grow by 40 per cent a year by 2011, according to a report from RBC Capital Markets called Investing in Solar Now.

Even though the argument for solar energy is powerful, it's just not cheap enough yet, says Stuart Bush, lead alternative energy equity analyst for RBC Capital Markets and author of the report.

"PV solar electricity production is pollution-free, does not produce greenhouse gases, does not tap into finite fossil-fuel resources and can be easily integrated into the urban infrastructure, close to major demand needs," Bush writes in the report. "However, despite the positive qualities, solar electricity costs are currently higher than electricity generated by a natural gas or coal-fired facility."

Silicon-cell PV solar technology installations, which currently account for almost 95 per cent of the market, will book gross profits of about US$7.7 billion in 2007, growing to $11.5 billion in 2011, says Bush.

His estimate does not include profits from the alternative thin-film PV technology, which is projected to grow from 6.5 per cent of the market in 2007 to 19 per cent in 2011, and excludes equipment makers and derivative industries.

Bush says the primary driver in the global demand for solar-energy development is the increase in government incentive programs.

"Japan and Germany have led the way, but we believe several other countries will likely be starting or expanding similar incentive programs," says Bush.

"We believe profits in the solar industry are here to stay, as both public and government support will likely remain strong until product costs organically compete with grid electricity," Bush adds, stating it could take anywhere from six to eight years for PV to rival traditional electrical grid rates.

It's the kind of news that businesses such as Calgary-based Sustainable Energy Technologies like to hear. The company, which makes inverters - devices that take solar energy, convert it into power and adjust voltage levels to optimize that power - launched its solar product just under two years ago.

"We're focusing our resources where the biggest growth and biggest potential is, and that's in Spain, in Italy and Greece," says Sustainable Energy CEO Michael Carten. "We don't sell it in Canada - there's a very small market here. The only potential market is Ontario, and that's only been a real market for the past 12 to 18 months and it's still just emerging."

Carten is referring to Ontario's standard offer program, where the provincial government set a fixed price for small renewable energy projects. For solar, the fixed price is 42 cents per kilowatt-hour and it's designed to spur new solar energy projects.

For solar to succeed in Canada, Carten says there must be a strong push from the public.

"There are some companies like ourselves who have created technologies and are creating products based on those technologies, which will sell, but there's an interesting dichotomy. I think the average man on the street wants to see solar, but the politicians, with the exception of Ontario, are generally opposed," says Carten.

You can't ask the business community to take on the challenge of developing solar energy if the community itself isn't ready to support it, he adds.

"The message I try to get across to people is you have to take responsibility for your own life; it can be done at the community level, at the municipal level, at the provincial level - they have the legislative authority."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)