The sun is shining on Ontario

The Green Energy Act, and the related Feed-in Tariffs proposed last week, are helping to make Ontario a hot destination for big solar developers. As reported in the Toronto Star, several players have very recently acquired big stakes in the province (or have indicated that they are considering doing so). Transactions of note include the following:

• First Solar's acquired a 2,000 MW project pipeline from OptiSolar, including 200 MW of projects in Ontario;
• Recurrent Energy's acquired a 350 MW pipeline from UPC Solar, including many Canadian projects;
• Nanosolar Inc. indicated to the Toronto Star that it is considering establishing an assembly plant for its thin-film solar modules in Ontario and may be planning Ontario solar farms with EDF Energies Nouvelles (which already has a big wind presence in Quebec and just did a turbine deal with SkyPower Corp.);
• SunEdison Canada has co-ventured with SkyPower Corp. on several projects (a 9 MW project in Lennox-Addington county, 10 MW project in Thunder Bay and a 9.2 MW project in Norfolk County), but would like to see an even higher tariff for ground-mounted solar
• Axio Power, formerly Greenlight, is also developing projects in Ontario.
• The Star reports that at least two other firms - one of them domestic - are planning to set up solar-cell manufacturing operations in Ontario.

While some of these deals pre-date the annoucement of the Green Energy Act, it is clear that the Act makes the province an even more attractive destination for solar investment dollars. As the CEO of Nanosolar told the Star, the proposed feed-in tariff "makes the market predictable and thus investible for the kinds of long-term, fundamental technology improvements and investments that will ultimately make solar a mainstream energy source."

Tagged as: Ontario - renewable energy