Ontario aims to strengthen feed-in tariff program

Ontario FIT Program strengthens feed-in tariffs with clarified rural land-use rules for ground-mounted solar, a points system favoring community and Aboriginal participation in Small FIT, reserved megawatts, and price cuts for solar and wind projects.

Ontario continues its renewable energy efforts by re-launching the Small Feed-in Tariff FIT program. The Ontario Power Authority started accepting applications in mid-December 2012 from proponents of renewable energy projects of more than 10 and up to 500 kilowatts.

Recommendations from the FIT Two-Year Review and the Land Use Working Group helped strengthen Ontario's FIT program to better respond to community needs and to ensure its economic sustainability, including:

- Clarifying land use rules for ground-mounted solar projects proposed in rural areas.

- Encouraging greater community and Aboriginal participation in Small FIT projects by using a new points system. Applications with more community or Aboriginal involvement would receive more points and be prioritized over other applications.

- Setting aside megawatts in the Small FIT Program for projects with more than 50 per cent community or Aboriginal participation.

- Helping ratepayers by reducing FIT program prices by an average of 20 per cent for solar projects and by approximately 15 per cent for wind projects, a move CanWEA has welcomed.

QUICK FACTS

- Since October 2003, more than 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity have come online, including clean energy projects across the province. By the end of 2018, Ontario aims to have 10,700 megawatts of power online from solar, wind and bioenergy projects – enough to power two million homes.

- Ontario has more than 550 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity online and has committed to more than 1,750 megawatts of additional solar photovoltaic capacity – enough to power up to 300,000 homes.

- The Ontario Power Authority has executed over 1,500 FIT contracts with companies such as Canadian Solar for new solar energy projects totaling almost 1,200 megawatts of generating capacity.

- More than 30 companies are currently operating, or plan to build solar and wind manufacturing facilities in Ontario, and firms like SunEdison continue to expand.

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