Comment by dismalaf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dismalaf | Hacker News Reader

This is an insane take. A $14 recycling tax per $1000+ panel comes to <1.4%, which is around a quarter of federal sales tax for example, or 1/10 of combined GST and PST somewhere like BC.

Alberta has no provincial sales tax for the record and is the ONLY province without provincial sales tax. Solar panels are still more expensive in every other province in Canada based on sales tax rates alone.

<1.4% to fund the proper recycling of a solar panel seems more than reasonable.

Edit - also Alberta already has the lowest cost per installed watt of any province due to generally lower taxes and more vibrant construction ecosystem. Plus no PST. Complaining about a recycling fee is completely brain-dead and/or propaganda.

Edit 2 - https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/06/05/solar-panel-recycling...

$14 per panel seems pretty good. This link estimates the cost at $15-45 USD, I've heard of costs as high as a couple hundred euros in France (except it's billed directly to the manufacturer so it's hidden). Complaining about $14 in the only Canadian province without PST is ridiculous.

$1000 panel? I’m pretty sure 600 watt panels are coming in at <$100 on the global market. Prices have come down a lot in the past decade.

High quality 500-600w bifacial n panels are between $200-300 in Canada at normal install sizes (12-32). We do lag behind the costs elsewhere, but still nowhere close to $1000 per panel.

They’re cheaper than you think. Here are Longi 505w for $190 [1]

And 605w bifacial for $220 [2]

That’s full retail, not buying quantity. they’re cheaper wholesale.

[1] https://www.pioneersolarenergy.com/shop/solar-panels/longi-5...

[2] https://www.pioneersolarenergy.com/shop/solar-panels/longi-6...

Really? That's more expensive than I would've guessed. The US has substantial tariffs, and you can get a pallet of panels for $0.20-$0.30/watt. You can also pay a lot more, but I'm not sure why you would.

I'm cool with cleanup costs up front...

Can Alberta apply it to oil and gas companies too?

There is a very underfunded https://www.orphanwell.ca/ program but I agree with your point.

They probably should increase the levies. On the other hand, the province does get $20 billion+ in direct oil revenue per year (royalties), so it's not like oil companies are just straight up robbing us.

Except that revenue doesn't go towards well cleanup. Not really.

Also it goes up and down drastically. After Trump is finished making a mess in Hormuz, the number will go down again, and Alberta finance ministers will go back to ranting about reigning in excessive spending.

> Except that revenue doesn't go towards well cleanup

Well it's a hard problem because companies that are still in business clean up their own wells. Only bankrupt companies leave orphan wells. So guesstimating the costs is difficult. Yes there should be more planning perhaps, but if it does have to come out of general revenue it's still a net win.

I mean you're kinda leaving out the part where companies deliberately transfer assets then go out of business to avoid cleaning up their wells. That's often how they've become orphaned.

Conventional oil is legacy at this point in Alberta though -- the broader concern is how much we can expect oil sands facilities to be properly decommissioned and closed up once it becomes uneconomical to sell the stuff in 30-40 years. That has a rather more concerning footprint.

Provide sources for your $1000+ panel.

https://solarpowerdepot.ca/canadian-solar-450w-mono-bifacial...

https://solarshoppingmall.com/products/renesola-450w-mono-so...

Those numbers point more towards 5-10% cost per panel.

I think your “$1,000+ panel” is conflating the hardware with its share of the entire installation. I don't know how else to explain it.

Also the "$14" number was put out by AMRA (the government's body) without any explanation of how they arrived at that number.

TFA is biased, yes, but its bias is frankly justifiable in the current context. While your "take" seems profoundly dishonest.

Unless you've got the relevant licenses to install the panel up to code and hook into the power grid properly, yes, the cost of the installation is the cost.

Also, 5% would still be lower than the lowest PST of any province lol.

You're moving the goal posts. We are talking about material / per-unit costs.

$14 is still less than the provincial tax of any other province on a $350 panel.

But bulk buyers of panels aren't the end consumer. Passing that on as part of a $15000 installation over 15 years is nothing.

Two and a half years ago I bought 18 405w panels for $3,312 out of Saskatchewan. Have to add 5% GST to that.

Full retail.

Now 605w bifacial are $220 full retail, no bulk buy discount. I bet you can find cheaper.

My entire 7290w install all finished was $13k in BC. Much cheaper now.

https://www.pioneersolarenergy.com/shop/solar-panels/longi-6...

Presumably you can install your own and have the electrician to the final connection to the grid/your house? Solar panels are much, much cheaper than you seem to think.

Spare me. Even if the tax itself is whatever, saying that UCP didn't mean this at the very least as empty propaganda is purposefully glib.

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