Solar issue flares on eve of protest meeting

Ontario microFIT solar rate cut trims the feed-in tariff for ground-mounted systems to 58.8 cents/kWh, while rooftop stays at 80.2, sparking rural-urban backlash, OPA scrutiny, and energy policy debate ahead of elections.

Ontario’s environmental commissioner is demanding that the Ontario Power Authority release the financial case for a cut in the subsidy farmers and small businesses are paid for generating solar power.

“We need the full financial details used to justify this price cut,” Gord Miller said. The move will chop the rate paid for power from ground-mounted solar projects by 27 per cent to 58.8 cents per kilowatt hour from the original offer of 80.2 cents. The 80.2-cent rate will still apply to power from roof-mounted solar installations owned mostly by city dwellers, which is creating an urban/rural split.

The unexpected cut, announced July 2, has been a lightning rod for criticism against Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government, with Liberal MPPs from rural areas getting an earful from constituents and sparking fears that up to a dozen ridings could be in play in the October 2011 election.

“You should see some of the letters I’m getting,” Miller said, noting many applicants to the province’s renewable energy feed-in tariff program, known as “microFIT,” made investments in solar systems based on the higher price.

“Now they feel it’s not viable and they feel violated.”

The power authority has been trying to come up with more detailed numbers since Miller’s first request for the information, said OPA vice-president Ben Chin, even as the province told utilities not to ask for increases pending review.

“We started to analyze which of that information we should make public… some of it is hard for us to share.”

Chin, who will face critics of the rate cut July 22 at a town hall meeting called by Ontario’s solar industry and growing Ontario solar sector uncertainty this month, said he is not surprised by the backlash after the OPA trimmed the rate because the 16,000 applicants to the program vastly exceeded expectations.

“I understand why people were troubled by the way we did it.”

The meeting will take place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Vaughan.

The high interest in the program made it too expensive to pay for the electricity at the higher rate of 80.2 cents per kWh — 20 times the price paid for nuclear power — as the price of power jumped 12 per cent that year, and would have cost electricity ratepayers an extra $1 billion over 20 years, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid has said.

The OPA argues ground-mounted solar panels are cheaper than roof-mounted, but others disagree, saying the extra costs of wiring and concrete foundations require additional tradesmen, which makes the installations more expensive.

About 11,000 of the applicants, many of them homeowners in rural communities, proposed ground-mounted solar systems and would be affected by the cut – with some spending as much as $100,000 on solar systems only to learn their revenue will be much lower.

“It certainly doesn’t surprise me that farmers and small business people are really angry. They’ve made all kinds of investments and decisions based on one price and now the ground is being pulled out from under them,” said New Democrat environment critic Peter Tabuns.

“It will really affect Ontario’s credibility when people find they can’t rely on any commitment for prices the province declares, especially after news that time-of-use bills were incorrect for many customers earlier in the rollout.”

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