Toronto: Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator announced June 29 it will offer 936 long-term contracts for 241.43 megawatts of small-scale renewable generation, including solar, wind, hydroelectric and bioenergy projects. These contracts constitute the latest procurement under the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, known as FIT 4.
FIT projects have an installed capacity between 10 and 500 kilowatts and are connected to local distribution systems. As was the case in previous application periods, most of these contract offers are for solar photovoltaic projects, many of which are located on industrial, commercial, institutional or municipal rooftops. Contracts are being offered for:
• 907 solar PV projects for 232.258 MW
• 14 bioenergy projects for 3.45 MW
• 6 onshore wind energy projects for 3.00 MW
• 9 waterpower projects for 2.722 MW.
Of these, 96 projects (representing 41.45 MW) have Aboriginal participation, 413 projects (representing 67.26 MW) have municipal or public sector entity participation and 186 projects (representing 60.24 MW) have community participation. More than 92 percent of the successful applications received municipal council support resolutions. The minimum number of priority points obtained by projects receiving contract offers was two.
The FIT program was officially repealed with the passage of Bill 135, although existing procurement processes are being completed. The list of FIT 4 contract offers is available here.