After billions of dollars of Power Purchase Agreements were awarded by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in 2010, with many more anticipated in 2011, new innovative companies offering additional support services to now “locally established” solar and wind energy developers have begun to cleverly position themselves in the province for what is expected to be the next wave of green opportunity.
Over the last eighteen months companies like Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ), Siemens (NYSE:SI), SunEdison (NYSE:MEMC), Samsung (SSNLF) and others have exploded onto the scene, capturing an expected 15,000 MW of wind and solar energy contracts, as part of the Province’s mandate to alleviate itself off of coal generated energy by 2015.
As billions of dollars in renewable energy contracts move towards construction (to be executed over the next 48 months) secondary stakeholders like Grid Cloud Solutions Inc. (OTC:GRDC) have moved into position, offering what some describe as “eco-echo” products and services to larger energy developers.
Aside from the initial supply of necessary materials and the construction RE projects, Grid Cloud caters to a niche market, offering a variety of necessary services including; Environmental Assessment (EA) impact studies on vacant lands (scheduled to be used for large solar farms); Smart Grid compatible monitoring services that measure the amount of electricity generated before it is sold into the utility grid; security systems that monitor the power plants perimeter and interior for intrusions that may result in the disruption of energy production. In addition, the company recently announced they have launched an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) division that offers to clean dirty solar panels for Ontario solar park owners, assuring maximum energy output is maintained.
Grid Cloud representative, Mr. Thomas Brausteiner (a Renewable Energy developer originally based in Austria) comments; “Ontario is being regarded as one of the hottest RE markets since the launch of Germany’s Feed In tariff program in 2001…we look forward to possibly working with many of the same wind and solar developers who I have worked with in the past throughout Europe, but this time we will be employing all new local manpower, while implementing some of the newest technologies, manufactured in Ontario.”
Grid Cloud Solutions is one of many stakeholders who have been lured into the province from the Ontario Feed In Tariff program, bringing with them the expertise, the training and most importantly, the second round of green collar jobs - achieving exactly what the provincial government designed the program to do.
