Toronto: SunEdison, the solar energy subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., and GE Capital Real Estate announced the activation August 30 of the first two of fifteen solar rooftop systems under Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff program.
SunEdison is building and operating fifteen photovoltaic solar energy systems, all hosted by GE Capital Real Estate on its commercial buildings in the Greater Toronto Area, with additional systems located in London, Ontario. The first two systems are expected to generate more than 3.2 million kWh over a 20-year period. In total, the fifteen projects planned by GE Capital Real Estate and SunEdison represent over 2.3 MW of capacity.
“GE Capital Real Estate joins a growing list of SunEdison customers who have discovered that our solar offering provides building owners with a low-risk green initiative that provides a new revenue stream with no upfront capital outlay,” said Jason Gray, Canada Country Manager for SunEdison. “We are pleased to help GE Capital Real Estate achieve their sustainability goals, while continuing to help create hundreds of green jobs in the region through the local production of our solar equipment.”
The implementation of many projects under the FIT program are still in the early stages: only approximately 3% of the nearly 2,085 solar rooftop contracts offered to date have reached commercial operation, the companies noted.
As part of the domestic manufacturing requirement, the racking materials used in the project were manufactured in Scarborough under a relationship SunEdison established in 2010.