Sarnia, Ontario will be the future site of the largest solar installation in North America. This solar installation will be a 40 megawatt field of panels. This installation will not be the largest solar installation in the world, currently Germany is building their own 40 megawatt solar farm. The solar farm in Canada, OptiSolar Farms Canada Inc. will cover about 900 acres. The main reason behind building the solar farm in Ontario, is the Ontario government is offering 42 cents per kilowatt hour! OptiSolar Farms Canada Inc hows to start construction in 2008 after getting the right zoning and building permits. The estimated completion date for this solar farm is 2010!
Although 2010 is far away, starting January 2009, Southern California is planning on building a 500 MW solar farm with possible expansion to 850 MW. The news broke back while the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was still being worked out.
Indiantiger says 20th May @ 21:09
Optisolar and others have 3 years to build these solar facilities from the day that they obtain approval from the OPA. This means that most of these systems probably won’t be fully operational until 2010.
The job creation coming from solar power is higher than any other renewable energy technology. This prompted many anti-solar officials in Germany to change their mind about the solar program there when they came into power. It is about time that Canada benefited from the cleantech boom.
The main reason folks support large scale solar support programs is that they are frustrated that the other technologies cannot be ubiquitous. Wind Energy is wonderful but at a certain penetration it is alot of trouble because it often produces power when residents don’t use it. Also it is almost always central generation, limited by transmission capacity. Biomass is fraught with long term risk. Over a 40 year time period the sources and uses of fuel changes. There are only a limited number of projects that make sense from a risk perspective. In Texas they estimate only 500 MWs can come from Biomass, ever!
Solar may be expensive today, but for Ontario to be prepared for the lower cost solar coming in 2010, this subsidy pays for the training of local workers and education of local permitting and utility officials.
Starting in about 2010, the solar program will result in a maximum cost increase of about 1% for Ontario residents. Probably much less. . .