Posts Tagged ‘renewable energy classes’

Joint Green Energy Venture to Create Career Options, Jobs for 2,300 in Ontario

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Toronto’s Celestica, Inc. (Celestica) and San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy have recently agreed to enter into a joint venture to produce components for solar installations in Ontario.  The partnership will support the region’s rapidly-growing green economy by creating up to 2,300 jobs and manufacturing domestically-produced materials for its career solar workers and students of renewable energy classes.

Celestica is a global provider of design and engineering expertise, electronics manufacturing, and supply chain management services with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia.  The company’s previous work in Ontario includes making components for the BlackBerry smartphone.  Recurrent Energy is a subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corporation that develops, builds, finances, and operates solar power systems in North America, Europe, and other emerging markets.

Celestica will manufacture Recurrent Energy’s solar panels at its facilities in Toronto.  Recurrent Energy plans to use the modules in nineteen photovoltaic projects for which it has signed contracts with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to participate in its lucrative feed-in tariff program (FIT).

Photovoltaic Industry Number Two in N. America, on Course to Number One

The FIT pays producers of electricity from solar, wind, and biomass installations above-market rates to tie their projects into the provincial power grid, but it requires participating solar projects to include 60% made-in-Ontario materials and regional labour.  The program creates enormous opportunities for green energy production as well as new career options.  It also opens up new educational streams like photovoltaic system design and installation classes and other courses that train Ontario’s workers and students for today’s energy jobs.

Ontario saw a boom in its solar industry following its institution of the FIT.  This growth culminated in the province ranking second in North America for installed photovoltaic capacity in 2010, and a recent analysis revealed that the region may be on course to surpass California and take first place in the coming year.  In addition to creating green energy and jobs, Recurrent Energy and Celestica’s contributions to this thriving industry will include materials to help the region’s developers and solar class graduates meet the FIT’s domestic content requirements.  The joint venture joins a number of partnerships operating in the province that capitalize on the demand for solar power while they help Ontario make the switch to more environmentally-friendly forms of energy generation.

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Posted in Solar Business, Solar Social, Solar Training | 1 Comment »

Minister Tours Plant on First Anniversary of Its Entry into the Solar Industry

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Ontario’s Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, recently completed a tour of the SunRise Power Corporation (SunRise Power) facilities in Peterborough during the first anniversary of the company’s entry into the province’s solar industry.  The city’s MPP, Jeff Leal, accompanied the Minister on the tour of the plant, where they received first-hand looks at the solar panel-making process.

The Ontario solar industry has grown quickly since the provincial Liberal government created its feed-in tariff (FIT) program near the close of 2009.  The program creates clean air and renewable energy job opportunities by paying high rates to producers of solar, wind, and biomass electricity who feed their projects into the grid.  It also supports the creation of solar installation and other renewable energy classes and curricula that help train the next generation of energy workers.  Investment in clean power projects has so far created at least 13,000 jobs in the province and Minister Duguid expects that it will add as many as 50,000 by the end of 2012.  These jobs are welcome additions to an economy hit hard by the 2008/2009 recession that gutted the North American auto industry, on which the province relied heavily.

Company Creates Fifteen Renewable Energy Jobs, Parts for Solar Class Grads

SunRise Power is a retailer and manufacturer of solar products that include inverters and racking systems for photovoltaic installations.  The company currently provides jobs for fifteen people and specializes in FIT-compliant systems that meet the program’s requirements for made-in-Ontario components and local labour.  These requirements help to keep both money and jobs in the province.

In addition to the FIT incentives, Ontario offers a number of other benefits to solar power producers and the businesses they serve.  The province’s solar PV classes bring much needed expertise to the industry as the local economy transitions from traditional manufacturing to greener and cleaner ways of doing business.

“We have the ability to take on the world,” says the Energy Minister, who adds that Ontario plans to terminate operations at all of its coal-fired power plants by 2014.  With the help of companies like SunRise Power, the province can meet this goal while it creates jobs and inspires green education and innovation for years to come.

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Posted in Solar Legislation & Politics, Solar Social, Solar Training | No Comments »