By: Joe Castaldo

Toronto-based company Everbrite Solar came out of nowhere yesterday to announce plans to build a $500-million thin-film solar manufacturing facility in Kingston, Ont. The plant’s construction, if it’s indeed completed, is significant. Solar manufacturers are next to non-existent in Canada, and Everbrite’s facility would be the first thin-film plant in the country.

The plan is to start construction by this fall at the latest, and to start selling modules 9 to 12 months after that. The plant would employ 300 people directly—around 1,200 if spin-off jobs are included—and produce 150 megawatts worth of modules each year. In addition, Everbrite wants to build a $25-million thin-film manufacturing and research centre with Queen’s University in Kingston.

The company is an offshoot of Everbrite Industries, an electrical contracting firm founded by Karl Scherre in 1984. Scherre says he’s always been an avid follower of renewable energy and decided last year to form a solar division (of which he’s CEO) with two partners.

But just how is a company new to the solar field going to raise $500 million in this dreadful economy? Scherre says Everbrite is nearly there. “Financing is already lined up,” he told me. “We have three brokerage firms that are out there getting money. Two of them already have letters of intent, and we’re just finishing up the term sheets. And with that, we’ll have enough to proceed.” Scherre said everything could be finalized in a matter of weeks, and that not all of the financing is coming from Canadian investors.

There are a couple of other things the company cannot divulge just yet, such as who is developing the technology and at what cost per-kilowatt-hour the thin-film panels will generate electricity. But Scherre will say the company’s technology converts sunlight to electricity at a 12% efficiency rate, around the industry average, but hopes to boost it to 14%. Thin-film has some advantages over traditional photovoltaic solar panels, such as lower cost and less dependence on silicon price swings. Scherre says the modules are also better suited to Canada’s climate.

If the company manages to pull this off, it would be quite an accomplishment. But I’ll wait until construction is well underway before getting too excited.