Posts Tagged ‘solar network’

New Plant Will Bring Green Energy, Jobs to Ontario’s Green Economy

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Eclipsall Energy Corporation (Eclipsall) has announced plans to invest $10 million into Ontario’s green economy with a new solar panel manufacturing plant in the Greater Toronto area.  The plant will initially produce 64 MW worth of solar panels per year, and the company hopes to expand operations in the future.

Eclipsall is an Ontario-based corporation founded in 2009 to coincide with the provincial government’s signing of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (the Act).  The Act allowed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to institute the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, the first of its kind in North America.  Eclipsall has recruited the Netherlands’ Rimas BV to outfit the new plant with its state-of-the-art equipment.  Rimas BV produces assembly line, solar production, and test equipment for the international market, including for parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the US.  Switzerland’s 3S Modultec, a member of the Meyer Burger Group, will also provide its expertise throughout the project’s construction.  The facility is scheduled to begin operations early in 2011 and will initially create as many as ninety green jobs.

Company to Provide Ontario-made Materials for Workers with Solar Job Training

The plant’s Ontario location will allow Eclipsall to help the province’s solar projects take part in the FIT, which pays producers of green energy high prices to feed environmentally friendly electricity into the grid.  The program requires participating projects to use up to 50% Ontario-made materials – 60% as of 2011.  This provision helps to keep jobs in the province and gives a boost to solar job training programs such as Ontario Solar Academy’s five-day PV design and installation course.

The Ontario solar industry is flourishing thanks to the FIT and companies like Eclipsall who call the province home.  According to a study by ClearSky Advisors, if the FIT continues to approve applications at the current rate, Ontario will have 3 GW of energy capacity from solar, wind, and biomass online by 2015.  This could create employment for thousands of workers with solar job training and other forms of green energy education, and a head-start toward a greener future.

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Solar Energy Industry Flourishes in FIT’s First Year

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Ontario’s solar energy industry has made great progress.  Just over a year into the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, the Green Energy Act Alliance (the Alliance) has released a report on the Green Energy and Green Economy Act’s successes.  The Act was signed into law in May of 2009 and opened the door for the creation of the FIT later the same year.  The FIT pays above-market rates to owners of projects that feed solar, wind, and biofuel energy into the power grid.  In only a year, the program and the industry have succeeded in creating thousands of renewable energy jobs and have opened the door to new educational opportunities, such as photovoltaic (PV) installation courses.

In its first year, the FIT approved more solar and wind capacity than a similar program in France did in its first year and more PV energy than Spain’s industry, the second biggest solar market in the world.  “The response to the Green Energy Act is overwhelming,” says Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Canada’s Environmental Defence.  “To be in the same league as France and Spain,” he adds, “is beyond our wildest dreams.”

Program Creates Renewable Energy Jobs for PV Course Graduates

The Alliance’s report also shares good news about energy independence.  The FIT has helped spur a long-awaited democratization of the energy supply.  Ontario already has the most community ownership of renewable energy on the continent; more than 22,000 people have applied to receive the government’s incentives for “green” projects.

The FIT program’s domestic content requirements (DCRs) add an extra element of empowerment.  By 2011, up to 60% of the parts and labour used in participating projects must come from within the province.  This provides added incentive for workers to upgrade their skills with PV design and installation courses like the ones offered by Canada’s only ISPQ-accredited solar training school, Ontario Solar Academy (OSA).  According to a recent report by ClearSky Advisors (ClearSky), if approvals for FIT applications continue at the current pace for another four years, Ontario will add the equivalent of 70,000 new jobs to its renewable energy sector.

It is clear that renewable energy, in one form or another, is here to stay.  Solar power continues to make great strides in efficiency and cost.  Moreover, it spreads the wealth, offers greater energy security, and helps Ontarians become more involved in processes that shape their futures.  “Renewable energy isn’t left versus right,” says Dr. Smith, “it’s about choosing the future over the past… Ontario isn’t just shutting (down) polluting coal plants.  We’re transforming as a province and spreading the benefits that clean energy brings.”

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Ontario Solar Energy Company Receives CSA Certification

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Solar energy company, Lumin Solar, Inc. (Lumin), has announced that it has received certification from CSA International (CSA) for its LS-240 PV panels, which also meet standards set out by Underwriters Laboratories.  The CSA certification assures regulators and customers that Lumin’s new state-of-the-art panels comply with national and international standards for safety and performance.

The Lumin team brings more than thirty years of manufacturing experience to its business.  According to a press release, the Thornhill, Ontario-based solar energy company’s goal is to be “the best in its class, emphasizing quality and customer service while helping to bring a greener vision to Ontario.”  Lumin’s 240W panels are designed for household use in both on- and off-grid applications.  The company’s modules use a layout of sixty high-efficiency monocrystalline cells and are made using premium components that ensure a high energy output.  Lumin guarantees that its modules are free from harmful materials such as cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide and that they are made in Ontario, which qualifies them as domestic content under the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program.

Green Energy and Green Economy Act Boosts Industry, Creates Careers

The FIT is a product of 2009’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act (Green Energy Act).  One of its stated purposes is to “help Ontario phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2014.”  The FIT works to achieve this by providing financial incentives to energy producers who feed into the electrical grid from “green” sources, and the many spin-off benefits of the program include new green careers for an economy devastated by the decline in manufacturing.

Lumin is enthusiastic about the opportunity to become part of the toolkits that the next wave of solar designers and installers will use in their new green careers.  “We are very excited to have achieved this important milestone,” says Mr. Brian Read, the company’s CEO.  “I am very grateful and appreciative of our dedicated staff and their commitment to making Lumin Solar an Ontario success.  We are now poised to provide the residential and commercial industry with our Ontario-made solar panels that meet the FIT and microFIT requirements.”  To help boost awareness of its products, the company will participate in this year’s Solar Canada exhibition, which takes place in Toronto from December 6-7.

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Green Energy Act Surpasses Expectations

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

With the price of everything seeming to go up, as well as a slow economy and escalating public debt, Ontarians can be forgiven for any negative reactions they may have expressed toward the Green Energy Act and the provincial government’s commitment of public money to renewable energy generation.  However, less than two years after the Act was signed into law, it has already shown success.

Passage of the Act in May of 2009 allowed the province to introduce its feed-in tariff (FIT) program later the same year – a historic renewable energy incentive designed to help Ontario phase out coal-fired power generation in the province by 2014.  The FIT pays producers of clean energy high prices for feeding clean electricity into the power grid, prices for which hydro customers will have to foot the bill.  The trade-off, of course, is that the program has created, and continues to create, green jobs, revenue for the province, and educational opportunities such as photovoltaic training classes – not to mention the obvious benefit: clean air.  Ontario Solar Academy is an example of a successful institution whose classes prepare workers for the green jobs of the future.

Photovoltaic, Wind Energy Up, Fossil Fuels Down

Keith Stewart, who currently works for Greenpeace, predicted in 2005 that energy use in Ontario would drop 10% by 2010, while power planners predicted a 5% rise in demand.  During this period, demand dropped from 157 terawatt-hours to 140, a reduction that exceeded Stewart’s predictions.  “We think we can do a lot more to bring per capita demand down faster,” he says.  Meanwhile, renewable energy is now roughly on par with natural gas and nuclear in terms of new power brought online, thanks largely to the FIT.  In fact, rather than rushing to build more fossil-fuelled plants, the provincial government cancelled plans for a gas-fired generating station in Oakville and shut down four coal-fired plants in Nanticoke.

As for the costs, they were bound to escalate.  Ontario power rates had already begun to climb before the FIT, in response to mounting utility debt.  You might think of some of the money as long-term stimulus funding, as it creates green jobs at a time when the province, in the midst of a financial crisis and declining manufacturing sector, needs sustainable employment most.  The truth of the matter is that Ontario is doing its part to protect the environment for future generations.  We are entering a new world where solar panels are the new investment, photovoltaic classes the new education stream, and solar installers the new oil rig workers.  Thanks to the Green Energy Act, it is a sunny day in Ontario.

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