Solar Power Partners, Inc. (SPP), and JCM Capital (JCM) recently announced that they have started a venture called the Ontario Solar Fund to develop, finance, own, and operate 200 MW worth of solar panel installations in Ontario. The province is home to a number of renewable energy projects, manufacturing plants, and green job training classes and programs.

“We’re excited to bring such strong team qualities to Canadian projects,” says SPP’s President and CEO, Bob Powell. “The venture is representative of SPP’s expansion into international feed-in-tariff markets.”

Ontario instituted North America’s first feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy projects in 2009, following its creation of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (Green Energy Act) in May. The program creates clean electricity and jobs by paying high prices to renewable energy producers who tie projects into the provincial grid. It also opens the door to educational opportunities, such as solar panel installation classes, that prepare students and workers for the new realities of the green job market. The program has received more than 22,000 applications, but according to SPP’s Vice President of Project Development for Canada, Roy Schwartz, “Financing can be a bottleneck for projects.”
New Fund Will Help Ontario Create Renewable Energy, Jobs

SPP is a California-based independent solar energy producer that develops, owns, and operates distributed facilities in the continental US and Hawaii. The company promises “clean energy without the hassles or costs of solar facility ownership and maintenance.” JCM is a financial advisory company with head offices in Toronto and London, England. It provides start-up capital exclusively to solar projects and has worked extensively in Ontario in the past. The pair will use the new fund for SPP’s projects as well as to aid other companies with projects already in the pipeline.

The injection of capital is a welcome addition to Ontario’s economy, which still feels the effects of the recent global recession, and it will reassure students of the province’s solar panel installation classes and green engineering programs that there will be plenty of work for them in the future.