Toronto-based renewable energy company, Atlantic Wind and Solar, Inc., announced a new deal that will help thecompany secure rural rooftop space in order to install photovoltaic panels. The company has already signed agreements with various real estate developers and property management companies to lease urban rooftop space for the installations, and now it plans to move into rural territory.
New Deal Brings Renewable Energy to the Farm
In a recent press release, Atlantic announced that it had struck a deal with Teeswater, Ontario’s Rooftop Solar Developments, Inc. (RSD) for assistance in recruiting rural landowners to volunteer their land. Teeswater is a rural community three hours’ drive from Toronto. RSD is owned and operated by the McKague family, who have farmed in the province for generations. Atlantic will benefit from the company’s “long-standing respected history in the Ontario farming community,” according to Charles Mazaccato, Atlantic’s Vice President of Business Development.
RSD runs a program offering owners of agricultural property a free barn or utility building built on their land, outfitted with photovoltaic panels and aligned in the direction most conducive to harnessing the sun’s rays. In addition to the free building, landowners also receive lease payments, insurance coverage for the structure, and equity options. In return, property owners agree to allow RSD and Atlantic to profit from the solar energy fed into the power grid.
Program Takes Advantage of FIT Rewards for Solar Power
Atlantic’s rooftop program takes advantage of the province’s generous rewards for renewable energy, and solar power in particular. The Ontario Power Authority’s feed-in-tariff program offers lucrative twenty-year contracts to producers of clean energy. Rooftop photovoltaic installations under 10kW earn some of the highest rates at 80.2 cents per kilowatt-hour.
While RSD will help build the structures and serve as liaison to the farming community, the solar technology will be owned and managed by Atlantic Wind and Solar. All parties involved stand to benefit from the deal, not least of all the province, which will add jobs to the economy and gain an edge in the emerging green energy sector.
