Joe Crevits recently traded one green job or another. After taking a government buyout to walk away from the family’s decades-old tobacco farm, which he took over from his parents in 1992, Crevits took a trip south of the border to obtain solar PV training in the US. With his wife Teresa, he is now the owner of Lake Erie Solar, based in Union, Ontario.

The Crevits now sell grid-tie solar PV systems designed to capture and feed clean energy into the grid under the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program. The FIT program, which offers lucrative 20-year contracts to producers of renewable energy, has led to substantial growth in the green job market, especially with respect to solar training, manufacturing, and installation. Lake Erie Solar’s installations meet the domestic content requirements of the FIT in which at least 50% of all parts and labour for any solar project must be locally sourced from within the province.

Retired businessman Doug Bell is one of the Crevits’ customers. Bell recently hired Lake Erie Solar to install a 4.1kW system on the roof of his London, ON home. The installation cost $30,000 and Bell expects to earn just under $3,500 a year from the energy he feeds into the grid using the FIT program’s incentives. Current rates for rooftop projects of this size pay around 80 cents/kW-hour - well above the standard utility rate for electricity generated from fossil fuels.

The Crevits still live on the family farm, and the land has not gone to waste. “We have 125 acres that we mostly lease now to cash croppers who grow corn and beans,” explains Joe. However, with solar PV training under his belt, this particular farmer has decided to turn his attention to an entirely different type of cash crop worth harvesting - clean energy from the sun. With the help of his wife and his brother Dennis, who has taken on sales and installations within the company, Joe is creating a new family business in which they help Ontario make the switch to “green” energy, one roof at a time.