The data contained in “A Progress Report on Electricity Supply, Fourth Quarter 2009” by the OPA shows that in just a few short months, Ontario has become a major market for solar PV in North America.
The early Autumn 2009 addition of the 9.1-MW First Light project 50 km northwest of Kingston put Ontario on the map of solar PV in North America. The SunEdison-SkyPower joint venture was soon followed by Giant French utility EDF's first big solar PV project in Ontario toward the end of 2009. EDF's 23.4-MW Arnprior project within the city limits of Ottawa, Canada's capital, pushed Ontario to the top of the solar charts.
With completion of one of several 10-MW projects near Sarnia by year end, Ontario reached an AC capacity of 40 MW. Several more First Solar 10-MW projects are scheduled for completion in 2010. Ontario's new solar capacity was installed under the province's Standard Offer Contract program, the forerunner of its current feed-in tariff (FiT) program, enabled by the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 which was passed into law on 14 May 2009. The FiT program establishes tariffs of between $0.44 CAD/kWh (€0.31/kWh) and $0.80 CAD/kWh (€0.57/kWh) for solar power fed into the grid, depending on the type and size of the solar array.
The solar panels are expected to generate 46 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year for the next twenty to thirty years. This is enough electricity for some 4,000 typical Ontario homes.
510 projects and 50,000 jobs
The Ontario FiT scheme has given rise to 510 projects, which will be built in 120 communities across Ontario by farmers, municipalities, local distribution companies, commercial businesses, industrial customers, public institutions, such as schools and hospitals, a winery and even a church. The projects range from 10 kilowatts to 500 kilowatts and have a total generating capacity of 112 megawatts - enough energy to power more than 13,000 homes. About 95 percent of the projects are for solar generation. The remaining projects are biogas (20), water (4), onshore wind (3) and biomass (1).
The OPA reports that “the FiT and other initiatives under the Green Energy Act will support the creation of 50,000 ‘green collar’ jobs.”
In other Canadian developments, New Brunswick will soon launch a limited FiT of $0.10 CAD/kWh (€0.07/kWh) for community wind power.
And in Nova Scotia the government's interest in a program of FiTs led to the creation of Nova Scotia Sustainable Electricity Alliance (NovaSEA) on 2 March 2010. NovaSEA's founding members represent agriculture (Nova Scotia Agricultural College), labor (United Steelworkers - Atlantic Canada), First Nations, a host of national and local environmental organizations, and several commercial renewable energy developers.
Editor’s note: This article is a slightly edited version of an article provided by author, advocate, and renewable energy industry analyst, Paul Gipe. His most recent book, “Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Home- and Community-scale Wind Energy Systems” was published by Chelsea Green in May 2009.
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