Markham, Ontario has stepped up its use of alternative energy by awarding a contract to B.C.’s Carmanah Technologies Corp. to install a photovoltaic grid tie-in system on the town’s Emergency Operations Centre. The 250kW solar installation will sell electricity to the local energy utility and provide jobs in manufacturing and installation.
Carmanah has more than a decade of experience in alternative energy. It has provided solar lighting solutions both domestically and abroad for nearly fifteen years, with clients ranging from NASA to the U.S. Coast Guard. Carmanah has also designed and installed more solar energy tie-in systems than any other contractor in Canada - a fact that likely contributed to Markham’s choosing Carmanah for the $1.5 million job.
Solar Project Brings Jobs to Town
Funding for the solar project will come out of the town’s budget, with additional money from federal and provincial infrastructure stimulus spending. This funding creates jobs at a time when employment is low and helps keep the country’s energy infrastructure up to date.
When complete, Markham’s solar project will benefit from another Canadian program, the Ontario Power Authority’s feed-in-tariff (FIT). This incentive allows small and large-scale producers of renewable energy to feed electricity into the province’s power grid. Approved projects receive 20-year contracts that guarantee premium prices for clean energy sold back into the system. The Carmanah-Markham project, for example, will receive 71.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, significantly higher than the current market rate which tops out at 9.9 cents. In addition to high prices, FIT’s domestic sourcing requirements mean that 50% of the project’s labour and materials will come from Ontario.
The town expects to recover its investment in the installation within five years, and money generated for the remaining fifteen years of the contract will be re-invested into other alternative energy projects.
Markham is no stranger to renewable energy. In 2007, it converted its fleet of vehicles to biodiesel, and last year, it proposed to install 500 solar water heaters through Bullfrog Power’s Solar Water Heating Program. The town of Markham has demonstrated its commitment to building a more sustainable future, and with the help of federal and provincial stimulus spending, Carmanah, and the FIT program, the town is one step closer to that goal.
