Raw material supplier Canadian Premium Sand is considering building a high clarity flat glass plant in Winnipeg.
The Calgary-based company will look to create the plant through an already owned facility in the greater Winnipeg area that already utilises the high-quality silica sand from its wholly-owned Wanipigow silica sand deposit.
It engaged glass consulting firm glassglobal to refine its previous market research into architectural and solar grade flat glass markets in North America.
The company determined that the demand for low iron flat glass used for architectural and solar panel glass in North America is growing rapidly.
Supply of low iron glass for these purposes will be challenged, with the greatest need for low iron solar glass (patterned low iron solar glass is currently installed in ~80% of solar panels manufactured).
With no current patterned solar glass manufacturing capacity in North America, it sees an opportunity to utilise its low iron, high silica purity sand resource to manufacture patterned low iron solar glass to supply North American solar panel manufacturers.
