Solar utility Mondial Energy sells heat to Toronto
The City of Toronto has awarded contracts to equip 20 municipal facilities with solar thermal equipment that will provide heat to buildings. But instead of owning the systems, the city is only purchasing the heat energy to offset the use of fossil fuels. Fifteen of the sites will have systems built, owned and operated by Mondial Energy Inc., while the remaining five go to CC Solar Inc. – both companies from Toronto. These “solar utilities” have struck 20-year heat purchase agreements with the city, replicating a model that has worked for companies like SunEdison for the deployment of solar PV systems. It’s believed to be the largest solar *thermal* utility contract signed with a major North American municipality.
This just in: Mondial has also announced it is one of two solar utilities chosen by the State of Wisconsin to supply solar heat energy to government buildings, including sites at the University of Wisconsin and state correctional institutions. It’s being touted as the first initiative of its kind at a state level.
Tags: solar thermal, solar utility, Toronto
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.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Ahh- this is why I like to visit your site- you touch on a lot of facets of our would-be green energy-driven world. Congrats to Mondial for the contracts, especially in these tough economic times. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to harness the Sun’s power. Using Solar thermal to heat our water and our living spaces is such a way- I do not recall seeing any figures, but I would imagine utilizing the heat from the Sun in this way is a very efficient transfer of energy, much more so than PV panels- which are needed for electricity-driven devices, but are still very cost-prohibitive. Solar Thermal used in this manner however, makes economic sense today, and I am glad some entities have the cents, er, sense, to make use of it;-)