The Ontario Power Authority on Friday finalized a lower feed-in tariff (FIT) price for solar power produced by small, ground-mounted systems.
Ontario’s FIT, created last year, has created a boom in that province’s renewable energy sector. There has been much speculation as to what a reduction in the microFIT (for small, customer-owned systems) will do to the rapidly growing market.
The new price will be set at at 64.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh)–down from 80.2 cents.
Ontario Power Authority said the price strikes the right balance between providing a reasonable rate of return to electricity generators and protecting ratepayers from higher than necessary electricity prices.
“The microFIT program has been tremendously successful since it was launched in October 2009,” says Colin Andersen, Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Power Authority. “With these changes, it has been made even stronger going forward.”
The new price category is effective immediately for eligible projects with applications submitted after noon on July 2, 2010, when a new price category was proposed.
Small rooftop solar systems still will still receive 80.2 cents per kWh for their power under microFIT. And rates for larger, utilty-scale projects have not changed under teh FIT.
Commercial aggregators (e.g., businesses that lease land or rooftops from individuals for multiple renewable energy projects) will no longer be allowed to participate in the microFIT program. This will ensure that the microFIT program is focused on its original purpose–encouraging homeowners, farmers, farm co-operatives, First Nations, small businesses and institutions such as schools, to own and develop small renewable projects.
The OPA has received almost 19,000 microFIT applications since the program was launched less than a year ago. More than 6,100 conditional offers have been sent to applicants and almost 800 microFIT projects are now feeding clean energy into Ontario’s grid.
Loading...