Eclipsall Energy Corporation (Eclipsall) has announced plans to invest $10 million into Ontario’s green economy with a new solar panel manufacturing plant in the Greater Toronto area. The plant will initially produce 64 MW worth of solar panels per year, and the company hopes to expand operations in the future.
Eclipsall is an Ontario-based corporation founded in 2009 to coincide with the provincial government’s signing of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (the Act). The Act allowed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to institute the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, the first of its kind in North America. Eclipsall has recruited the Netherlands’ Rimas BV to outfit the new plant with its state-of-the-art equipment. Rimas BV produces assembly line, solar production, and test equipment for the international market, including for parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the US. Switzerland’s 3S Modultec, a member of the Meyer Burger Group, will also provide its expertise throughout the project’s construction. The facility is scheduled to begin operations early in 2011 and will initially create as many as ninety green jobs.
Company to Provide Ontario-made Materials for Workers with Solar Job Training
The plant’s Ontario location will allow Eclipsall to help the province’s solar projects take part in the FIT, which pays producers of green energy high prices to feed environmentally friendly electricity into the grid. The program requires participating projects to use up to 50% Ontario-made materials – 60% as of 2011. This provision helps to keep jobs in the province and gives a boost to solar job training programs such as Ontario Solar Academy’s five-day PV design and installation course.
The Ontario solar industry is flourishing thanks to the FIT and companies like Eclipsall who call the province home. According to a study by ClearSky Advisors, if the FIT continues to approve applications at the current rate, Ontario will have 3 GW of energy capacity from solar, wind, and biomass online by 2015. This could create employment for thousands of workers with solar job training and other forms of green energy education, and a head-start toward a greener future.
