New solar glass manufacturing facility coming to Selkirk, first of its kind in North America

The water tower in the City of Selkirk. (Source: City of Selkirk. Dec 10, 2021)

WINNIPEG -

Selkirk will soon be home to the first solar glass manufacturing facility in North America.

Canadian Premium Sand Inc. (CPS) announced on Thursday that it has chosen to make Selkirk the new home of the facility.

CPS said this will provide around 300 jobs in the area once the facility is operating and the plan is to mainly produce solar panels in North America.

“Every piece of (glass) comes from China or some other Asia-Pacific country, largely owned by the Chinese glass manufacturers,” said Glenn Leroux, who is the president and CEO of CPS.

CPS chose Selkirk due to the proximity to its silica sand quarry, which is around 160 kilometres north of Selkirk.

Leroux said the company looked at several options for where to set up the plant, but determined Manitoba, and Selkirk were the perfect fit.

“Manitoba is very underrated for its benefits to a manufacturing facility. We are going to enjoy very low-priced hydro … but what’s really cool about Manitoba is that, if it’s not 100 per cent renewable, Manitoba Hydro is heading in that direction. That’s not common.”

He added there is also a supply of natural gas in the area and this is something the City of Selkirk wanted.

“We wanted a community that would welcome an industry like this. A very large, yet sustainable industry and that fit right into Selkirk’s vision of how they want their community to develop.”

Tim Feduniw, the director of sustainable economic development for the City of Selkirk, said the city is extremely excited that it will be home to this new project.

“The more and more we work with (CPS), the more and more it becomes apparent that there’s an alignment of their values and where they want to go with those of our community,” said Feduniw.

“When you look at solar and solar glass and the whole world trend, it gives us an opportunity at Selkirk to become a real meaningful player in diversifying Canada’s energy future.”

Feduniw added this will be the largest industrial investment in Selkirk in the last 100 years.

He notes this project is what Selkirk is all about – character, culture and alignment.

Leroux said if the company is able to secure enough capital for the project, the hope is shovels will be in the ground to start building the facility near the end of 2022 and it would be 24 months after that to make the facility fully operational.