N.A.’s biggest solar PV farm planned for Ontario
I have an article in today’s Toronto Star about a California startup called OptiSolar that has just received approval from the Ontario government to build a sprawling 40-megawatt solar farm in Sarnia. Hundreds of thousands of OptiSolar’s proprietary thin-film panels will be used to cover nearly 900 acres of farm and industrial lands — the equivalent of about 680 football fields (NFL football fields). The project will be build in four 10-megawatt phases and is expected to start in 2008 and finish in 2010. OptiSolar Farms Canada Inc., a subsidiary of the California company, has struck a 20-year contract with the Ontario Power Authority to sell the power from the farm into the provincial grid at 42-cents per kilowatt hour, the established rate for solar power under the province’s new standard offer program. OptiSolar said it chose Ontario for this enormous project because of the standard offer program, which is unique to North America. The Sarnia farm, when complete, is expected to be the largest PV farm in North America and one of the largest in the world, championing other projects underway in Germany and Spain.
Perhaps most interesting is that the power authority, in its 20-year power system forecast, only counted on 40 megawatts of solar power in total being added to the Ontario grid between now and 2025. We’ve already surpassed that goal after just a few months of the standard offer program being introduced, assuming of course these projects actually get built. Obviously, and I’ve pointed this out in previous columns and posts, the power authority low-balled the potential of solar power in Ontario.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I totally support the PV on the grid SOP of the OPA, I already have 1.5 kW of grid connected PV at home, but OPTISOLAR does not have a product yet, so let’s see what actually happens here.
Hopefully as these kinds of projects get rolling, the Ontario government will look for old industrial land and other land areas that are of little value and are not useful for food production. These are the places we should put PV farms, in that department, the OPTISOLAR project looks on the right track.
I am aware of several other large PV projects in the embryonic stage, so very exciting times for Ontario.
It is interesting that when I attended the OPA supply mix public meetings, they totally panned the idea of grid connected PV as having any impact, that was in the fall of 2005 (winter 2006?). How things can change. I was even heckled by pro-nuclear people in the audience for suggesting PV could be a major force for generation on a 50 year basis.
cheers
April 26th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Nice to see this front-page story break the same day that Colombia’s national power grid went dark for unknown reasons. Which is also the same day that children born during the Chernobyl meltdown turn 21 years old. Happy birthdays!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
At this cost of power, maybe it will be cheaper to buy throw away batteries from China (a little sarcasm).
I know it is a bit early in the technological developement, but still 40 cents per KWH is an obscene price. It will attract all of the quick buck artists.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I wish the issue of concentrating solar had not been left out entirely. While I realize that the second paragraph of the Star article can be read that this would be merely the largest PV solar installation in North America, it certainly dwarfs in comparison to the 350MW SEGS (concentrating solar thermal) plants in California, part of which have been operating for over two decades.
Another issue I find interesting is the lack of discussion as to whether this level of subsidy for solar in Ontario is necessarily the best use of global and local resources. Given that currently the world is constrained by production capacity of solar cells might it make more sense to have these deployed in more solar rich regions of the world, such as California. Might it make more sense for Ontario to spend subsidies on things like combined heat-power cogeneration that are much more beneficial as average heating days go up. “Think globally, Act locally!” Seems like this new development is strong on the latter, but possibly missing the former.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
According to some newly released research, PV solar panel use in homes is due to soar in the next five years:
The Growth of Photovoltaic Solar Energy for Home Use
Not quite the same as a PV-based farm, but it’s all connected to the inevitable growth of this important technology.
David