Newmarket, Ontario: MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. and SunEdison, its solar energy subsidiary, along with manufacturing partner Flextronics, announced on July 18 the creation of approximately 400 jobs to ramp up production of MEMC solar panels being manufactured at Flextronics’ facility in Newmarket, Ontario. The announcement was made during a dedication ceremony of the new line, which produces MEMC photovoltaic (PV) modules that will be used by SunEdison and its channel partners for solar PV projects.
The companies welcomed the Honourable Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade, to Flextronics’ manufacturing facilities to see the modules being built and to speak with the employees who are benefiting from the new green economy.
“Companies such as MEMC, their SunEdison subsidiary and Flextronics are creating real green jobs in local communities such as Newmarket, and are helping to build a renewable industry in the province through their investment in solar manufacturing,” said Minister Pupatello. “With each investment, Ontario is building toward an energy economy that will contribute to cleaner air and sustainable jobs for today and tomorrow.”
The job creation is a direct result of the 60 percent domestic content requirement of Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff Program. MEMC and Flextronics’ panel manufacturing facility signals a long-term investment in the region to help facilitate a sustainable green economy for the foreseeable future, the partners said.
The 400 jobs will be accounted for by the newly-operational panel assembly line, plus a planned second line, explained Jason Gray, Vice President and Country Manager for Canada at SunEdison, in a telephone interview July 20. The facility will provide panels mostly for SunEdison's projects, he said, but can also produce panels for sale to other developers.
SunEdison has just completed its fourth solar project under Ontario's earlier RESOP program, Gray said, making a total of just over 36 MW, with another RESOP project to be completed by the end of the year. Construction will be starting as well on some utility-scale solar farms under the FIT program, using single-axis solar tracking mounts also manufactured in Ontario. The tracking mounts allow an increase in output of 10-15%.
Where some have expressed concern over the Tory pledge to scrap the FIT program, should the PCs take power in the fall provincial election, Mr. Gray is unfazed.
"Globally, solar is still at a maturing stage," he said. "That's created volatility in a number of jurisdictions – the questions being asked in Ontario are questions we've also seen elsewhere, in Europe, Asia, the US. Increasingly, globally, no one is in dispute that solar is going to be part of the energy mix. How much is still to be determined; the real question is what is the most effective way to procure it. We've seen lots of mechanisms in other places – renewable portfolio standards, renewable energy credits, and tax credits, for example, and a lot of jurisdictions in the US use net metering. Our focus is to work with whatever party forms the government, and share the lessons learned in the other types of programs we've seen globally."
More recently, on July 28, SunEdison and the Town of Newmarket announced an agreement to deploy photovoltaic systems on four municipal facility rooftops that will be leased to SunEdison. The project will be financed, deployed, monitored and maintained by SunEdison and is expected to total 1.17 megawatts of capacity, and generate a total of more than 23 million kilowatt-hours of power over 20 years.
Once installed, the Town of Newmarket will earn revenue from the leased rooftops, and the energy produced by the rooftop panels will be purchased by the Ontario Power Authority under the Feed-in Tariff Program.