A new joint venture between Celestica and Recurrent Energy, subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, is anticipated to bring 300 manufacturing jobs and around 2,000 construction positions to Ontario, Canada, many of them renewable energy jobs requiring solar energy training. The new partners will manufacture the solar components for their upcoming solar projects at the Celestica facility in Toronto.
“Celestica is pleased to deliver innovative supply chain solutions to the solar market to meet the demand for new energy-generation alternatives and enable a strong solar industry in Ontario,” says Celestica’s Mike Andrade, Senior VP. “We look forward to working with Recurrent in this emerging marketplace.”
“The economic policy leadership in Ontario makes it an attractive market for renewable energy investment and is a foundation for this agreement between Recurrent Energy and Celestica,” adds Recurrent Energy’s Sheldon Kimber, Senior VP of Development.
The recent partnership is reflective of solar activity throughout the province - “Building Our Clean Energy Future,” the energy plan pioneered by Ontario, has received over $16 billion in investment from the private sector, and already, nearly 3,000 solar projects are currently feeding their power into the grid. As a result, the province has already shut down eight of its noxious coal power generating plants, with closure of all plants by the year 2014. Alternative clean energy sources, linked to the feed-in tariff program, will generate over 10,700 MW by 2018, enough to meet the power requirements of about 2 million homes.
Feed-in Tariff Program and Solar Energy Training Push Ontario to Top
Excluding large-scale hydro, Ontario currently generates over 1,300 MW of renewable electricity, enough to power more than 300,000 homes - or a city the size of Windsor. The province’s feed-in tariff program, its position as a hub of solar energy training, and its ability to attract renewable energy jobs has made it among the top 10 solar hotspots in North America, ranking it even higher than sunny Florida and Texas. Continued domestic and international investment in the province’s emerging green economy will only encourage this development.
