Solarization

Ontario, Canada is not the first place one typically thinks of when renewable energy comes up. The province does not have the insolation of sunny Spain or the offshore breezes of England, causing many to overlook Ontario as a place to invest in sustainable, green technologies.

Neither geography nor climate, however, seems to be hindering the province in its bid to outdo typical wind and solar energy standouts like Germany, China, or Spain. Just this week, Ontario announced several historic investments that, when completed, could produce nearly 2,500 megawatts of clean energy from a range of green technologies.

Spearheading this ambitious push is the Green Energy Act Alliance - a “diverse coalition of Ontario groups committed to furthering green power.” The Alliance is partially responsible for a number of landmark pieces of legislation, including the province’s Green Energy Act, which lays the foundation for long-term renewable energy growth, and the feed-in-tariff (FIT) program, which helps to stabilize alternative energy prices, allowing homeowners and businesses to more affordably install green solutions.

Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence and current member of the Alliance, offers “with this announcement, Ontario has flicked the switch on a new era of green energy prosperity.” Alluding to the untapped potential just south of the border, he adds that “Ontario is the first jurisdiction in North America to adopt a feed-in-tariff, and it’s working even better than we had hoped.”

Renewable Energy Projects: Who Made the Cut?

The 2,500 MW of renewable energy will come from a number of different sources. At the current count, there exist 184 projects in all, with solar accounting for 77, wind - 48, hydropower - 46, biogas - 7, landfill - 4, and biomass - 2.

Such a diverse mix is fairly standard in many government-mandated renewable energy portfolios, but what sets this particular arrangement apart is how the investments will be distributed. Unlike previous proposals, many of which favored larger-scale power producers exclusively, the Ontario plan includes at least 20 smaller projects at the community level. According to Brent Kopperson, Chair of the Community Power Fund, “by granting contracts to community power projects, the government has ensured the people of Ontario can directly share the financial benefits of these renewable energy investments.”

Promises of new investments and incentive programs, like the feed-in-tariff, are nothing new to the solar industry, but quite often, technical, political, and economic details delay their fulfillment. Even Ontario’s entrance into the game has not been without its setbacks. However, with this most recent round of contracts, plus last month’s announcement from the Ontario Power Authority regarding another 510 medium-sized renewable energy projects, signs of encouragement are cropping up throughout the province.

According to David Gower, Associate Director of the Ontario Solar Academy,

It is significant that a large number of the solar projects in this announcement are ground-based. These projects are generally larger in size and so likely had to pass both the hurdles of capacity allocation for projects over 500kw as well as environmental impact assessments, which apply to ground projects over 10kw. This is a sign that application approval processes and intergovernmental cooperation are becoming more efficient. This expedited growth is good for gaining momentum as we work collectively towards making clean energy ubiquitous.

Echoing such claims, Ken Neumann, National Director of the United Steelworkers Canada, adds that “investment in renewable energy on this scale, combined with the domestic content rules, should create green jobs and help get the economy going again.”

The ultimate goal, as Gower puts it, is to “educate homeowners and businesses, create excitement, and establish a clear vision for where Ontario needs to head in the future.” If the province continues to unveil new renewable energy projects with the same speed it has done thus far, Ontario’s “future” is likely to become cleaner, greener, and more profitable.