Toronto: The Ontario Power Authority released a list of 951 new Small Feed-in Tariff (FIT) renewable energy contract offers July 3. The contracts represent 146.5 megawatts of power.
Over 98 per cent of the successful applications received municipal council support resolutions. Most of these contract offers are for photovoltaic projects: they include 934 PV projects, 16 bioenergy projects and one waterpower project. In total, project developers are expected to invest over $750 million in the Ontario economy, and the projects are expected to result in 2,200 jobs for Ontarians, the OPA said.
The projects include 46 MW or 219 projects with Aboriginal participation and 27.8 MW or 136 projects with community participation.
The contracts are being offered to successful applicants who applied during the small FIT application period from December 14, 2012, to January 18, 2013. The OPA was authorized to offer up to 200 MW of contracts to these applicants; the remaining 53.5 MW of capacity will be added to the procurement target for this fall’s Small FIT application period. Details for this next window will be posted on the FIT website when they are available.
“This is a big moment for community power in Ontario and beyond,” said Judith Lipp, President of the Federation of Community Power Co-ops. “After struggling for 10 years to participate meaningfully as power generators, we finally have a volume of projects that will demonstrate the value of community power to this province.”
Small FIT projects are generally those with a capacity of more than 10 kilowatts and up to 500 kW.
As of the OPA’s most recent FIT program quarterly report, updated March 31, 2013, the OPA had contracts for 1,706 FIT projects, representing 4,541 MW. Of these, 616 projects had been completed and were delivering clean electricity to Ontario’s grid, with the rest in development.