Sep 15, 2026 · 37 min · 11 segments
Tariffs, trade uncertainty, and changing global supply chains are once again shaking up Canada's solar industry—but if you've spent enough time in solar, unpredictability is nothing new. Chris is…
Rob MillikenGuest
Chris PalliserHost
In my experience, in my day job in the solar world, more and more questions are coming in about commercial.
Are you finding that as well? You guys seen some bigger projects coming in? Residential you know, it's kind of more discretionary.
And one of the things going into 2026 was, like we spoke about earlier, the curtailment or a little bit of a pullback on resi volume.
But also forecast an increase in commercial right and we've seen we've seen that we've seen installers that um have tried or are still actively trying to diversify you know that were purely residential maybe were commercial and resi when they started then you know sort of morphed to residential because that's where their their focus was and their business was to now um looking at also doing commercial projects.
And I do think with the commercial ITC available in Canada now, we're getting some more awareness out there for that.
I think inherently you're going to see commercial rates across the board, electricity rates across the board increase.
And I also think you're going to see utilities start to, and you are seeing it already, you're starting to see some tailwinds with utilities understanding that there's opportunity particularly not just for solar at these commercial facilities but load offset and you know for a business owner maybe peak load shaving and so there's I think there's lots of different opportunities inside the commercial market right now and I do think that that's a target area for growth in the Canadian solar market over the next three to five years for sure.
It's easier to ride the wave, I guess, as a business looking to go solar somewhat than your up-down residential.
Quickly, installers may be listening to the show thinking, how can I protect myself a little bit? Is there some steps? Is there something that you would recommend them to do to kind of protect their customer a little bit?
Yeah, short-term, I would say if you have any projects, be it residential or commercial, that do have products, even though, again, it is a small percentage of the overall supply chain, if you do have products that are going to be subject to tariff, Try to try to lock, get them now.
And, you know, who your preferred distributor is, try and find them and lock them down and get them because, you know, some, you know, most, most distribution companies are wholesale distributors.
I think, you know, everybody does things slightly different, but I think most work on, a cost basis where, you know, your inventory is impacted depending on, you know, what cost that product comes in at and what's left.
And so, you know, sometimes distributors can mitigate the full impact of a price change, whether it be from a tariff or a foreign exchange or just a raw material or manufacturer.
Sometimes they can mitigate that through inventory and, you know, delay it a little bit, but inevitably it will hit.
In my experience, in my day job in the solar world, more and more questions are coming in about commercial.
Are you finding that as well? You guys seen some bigger projects coming in? Residential you know, it's kind of more discretionary.
And one of the things going into 2026 was, like we spoke about earlier, the curtailment or a little bit of a pullback on resi volume.
But also forecast an increase in commercial right and we've seen we've seen that we've seen installers that um have tried or are still actively trying to diversify you know that were purely residential maybe were commercial and resi when they started then you know sort of morphed to residential because that's where their their focus was and their business was to now um looking at also doing commercial projects.
And I do think with the commercial ITC available in Canada now, we're getting some more awareness out there for that.
I think inherently you're going to see commercial rates across the board, electricity rates across the board increase.
And I also think you're going to see utilities start to, and you are seeing it already, you're starting to see some tailwinds with utilities understanding that there's opportunity particularly not just for solar at these commercial facilities but load offset and you know for a business owner maybe peak load shaving and so there's I think there's lots of different opportunities inside the commercial market right now and I do think that that's a target area for growth in the Canadian solar market over the next three to five years for sure.
It's easier to ride the wave, I guess, as a business looking to go solar somewhat than your up-down residential.
Quickly, installers may be listening to the show thinking, how can I protect myself a little bit? Is there some steps? Is there something that you would recommend them to do to kind of protect their customer a little bit?
Yeah, short-term, I would say if you have any projects, be it residential or commercial, that do have products, even though, again, it is a small percentage of the overall supply chain, if you do have products that are going to be subject to tariff, Try to try to lock, get them now.
And, you know, who your preferred distributor is, try and find them and lock them down and get them because, you know, some, you know, most, most distribution companies are wholesale distributors.
I think, you know, everybody does things slightly different, but I think most work on, a cost basis where, you know, your inventory is impacted depending on, you know, what cost that product comes in at and what's left.
And so, you know, sometimes distributors can mitigate the full impact of a price change, whether it be from a tariff or a foreign exchange or just a raw material or manufacturer.
Sometimes they can mitigate that through inventory and, you know, delay it a little bit, but inevitably it will hit.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
