Alberta (Canada) slaps punitive tax on solar panels

Sep 06, 2026 10:14 PM - 1 week ago 5

Never fto it beryllium said that the Alberta’s United Conservative Party authorities isn’t successful favour of recycling worldly – astatine slightest arsenic agelong arsenic that tin beryllium utilized to create higher costs and much reddish portion to thief strangle the improvement of renewable energy. 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, still loyally treading the Trump way connected renewable power (Photo: Alberta Government/Flickr).

Yesterday, the UCP opened a caller beforehand successful its War connected Renewable Energy by adding a $14-per-panel “recycling fee” to the costs of star panels.

Naturally, the authorities framed the effort arsenic an illustration of biology responsibility, claiming piously successful a news release that “Alberta’s authorities will not let star panels to heap up successful landfills crossed the province.”

With the caller interest group to travel into effect quickly, connected Oct. 1, the state will besides prohibition star panels from landfills and “ensure they are directed toward reuse and recycling erstwhile they scope the extremity of their useful lives.” 

If we could spot the UCP connected biology initiatives, this mightiness beryllium a convincing pitch, but the grounds of Premier Danielle Smith and her authorities connected this beforehand is not reassuring. 

The Business Renewables Centre-Canada condemned the “punitive tax” arsenic “the latest successful a drawstring of arbitrary costs the state has placed connected the renewable power manufacture without the study to backmost it up.”

Jorden Dye, head of the Business Renewables Centre-Canada (Photo: BRC-Canada).

“While BRC supports the preamble of a recycling fee, we cannot support a punitive taxation acold exceeding immoderate different jurisdiction,” said the organization’s director, Jorden Dye, successful a news merchandise yesterday.

“While governments worldwide are opening to found end-of-life recycling programs for cleanable power infrastructure, Alberta’s projected interest is 139 to 3500 per cent higher than immoderate different jurisdiction successful the world,” the merchandise said. Well, of people it is! This is the UCP we’re talking about. 

BRC-Canada  – which was group up by the Calgary-based Pembina Institute to thief businesses entree renewable power to trim emissions, beautiful overmuch making it Public Enemy No. 1 successful the eyes of the UCP – called the imposition of the interest portion of a acquainted pattern. It cited its June 2025 study that recovered costs higher than successful immoderate different jurisdiction we reviewed, “imposed without benchmarking to warrant them.”

According to the government, “by 2045, much than 95 per cent of the star panels presently installed successful Alberta are expected to scope the extremity of their lives, generating arsenic overmuch arsenic 72,700 tonnes of material.”

Alberta Environment Minister Grant Hunter (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

But according to BRC-Canada, since nary of the panels sold now are apt to require recycling for 25 to 35 years, “no near-term discarded watercourse justifies the urgency, and the Alberta Recycling Management Authority has not published a breakdown explaining really the $14 fig was calculated.”

Never mind, the UCP had a colourful canned quote for Environment Minister Grant Hunter: “We will not hold until mountains of dormant star panels are piling up successful our landfills earlier acting. We are putting the strategy successful spot now to retrieve valuable materials, pull backstage finance and build a caller recycling manufacture present successful Alberta.”

An image of a stack of dented star panels was included to lend verisimilitude to the claim. 

“Responsible star power maturation intends considering biology work passim its life cycle, said RJ Sigurdson, whose unintentionally ironic title is curate of affordability and utilities, successful the aforesaid authorities news release. “We’re protecting taxpayers from early cleanup costs and keeping powerfulness affordable and sustainable for generations to come.”

Alberta Utilities and Affordability Minister RJ Sigurdson (Photo: Alberta Government/Flickr).

In different words, I guess, the UCP is not only picking winners, it’s trying to guarantee an manufacture that has the imaginable to trim into lipid and state profits is simply a loser. 

Well, this is the Trump path, which Premier Smith makes an evident effort to travel intimately moreover arsenic she spars pinch critics of the U.S. president’s anti-Canadian waste and acquisition policies. 

So yesterday’s announcement was evidently connected marque considering the aforesaid government’s 2023 prohibition connected renewable power projects and consequent imposition of costly and analyzable reddish portion connected renewable power projects that was estimated to person driven arsenic overmuch arsenic $33 cardinal successful renewable projects retired of the state – though that fig is people disputed by the government. 

Just successful lawsuit you were reasoning star panels mightiness beryllium a bully measurement to insulate yourself and your family from the further $460 a twelvemonth successful energy costs you tin expect to consequence from the government’s sweetheart woody pinch Meta Platforms Inc., they’re going to costs you a small much now. 

That Meta woody will fto the California-based corp hook into the provincial powerfulness grid for a mates of years to tally its planned energy-sucking hyperscale AI information centre northeast of Edmonton earlier a natural-gas fired power-generation works is brought connected line, if it ever is.

That is wide forecast to thrust up energy costs for almost everyone successful Alberta. 

As has been observed successful this abstraction before, cipher loves reddish portion arsenic overmuch arsenic Premier Smith and the UCP, particularly if it tin beryllium weaponized against the government’s enemies, existent and imagined, and made to thief its friends. 

More