Northern Ontario Business - Scoping the North for solar panel potential

By IAN ROSS

A Toronto renewable energy developer won’t confirm if Thunder Bay is in the running as the site for one of Canada’s first, and North America’s largest, solar farm.

But an official with SkyPower Corporation acknowledges the company has been scoping out prospective sites in Northern Ontario with major development plans to generate 50 megawatts (MW) of solar energy for the provincial power grid.

Thunder Bay may well be one of five solar farm sites developed across Ontario. In an e-mailed response to Northern Ontario Business, Michelle Chislett, projects director for SkyPower’s new solar division, SunPower Parks Corp.-- wouldn’t directly comment on any plans to build a large solar photovoltaic farm on the outskirts of Thunder Bay in 2007 except to say “viable sites are being explored for Northern Ontario...”

SkyPower, a well-known Canadian wind energy developer, signed a joint venture deal last November with a major U.S. solar energy company, SunEdison LLC.

The joint venture partners immediately revealed their ambitious plans to “develop, build, own and operate” five solar photovoltaic farms across Ontario of 10 MW each.

Chislett says their Ontario solar projects remain in development and wouldn’t comment on individual sites and construction timetables until the joint venture is ready to announce its lead project.

SkyPower Corp. president and CEO Kerry Adler said last November once the province’s 20-year Standard Offer Program is implemented – the scheme used for renewable energy producers to sell green energy to the Ontario grid – the joint venture will announce where it’s first facility will be located.

The fixed price for solar energy in Ontario is 42-cents-per-kilowatt-hour.

The projected cost of SkyPower’s Ontario projects are in excess of $6-per-kilowatt hour.

The company expects to create 250 construction jobs, 50 jobs-per 10 MW project and eventually one to two full-time positions per solar farm.

While SkyPower has its own network of preferred suppliers, Chislett says local suppliers are used where possible. It’s estimated 80 to 100 spinoff jobs will be created per project.

Upon completion of their first Canadian solar energy farm, Chislett says it will be North America’s largest.

At solar photovoltaic farms in California and Europe, typically hundreds of panels with sun tracking devices are installed over several hundred acres of marginal farmland.

“At this point, it is too early to speculate what type of panels or if trackers will be used,” says Chislett. “A system of this size would use around 50,000 panels.”

The world’s largest solar power system is Germany’s Bavaria Solarpark with a total of 10 MW of power capacity generated from 57,600 panels spread out over three solar parks.

The Thunder Bay area is already considered a good solar regime that Chislett says “compares favourably” to the Midwestern U.S.

Any concerns by SunPower about power transmission capacity in northwestern Ontario is under study.

While some Canadian wind farm developers have run into resistance in some small towns, Chislett says “in general, municipalities and communities across Ontario have been very supportive of solar farms.”

SkyPower is no stranger to Northern Ontario having studied the possibility of investing in a large wind farm project through a partnership with a First Nation community in the Sioux Lookout area.

The company is considered Canada’s leading independent renewable energy developer with interests in more than 27 wind and hydro projects at various stages of development in eight provinces.

It is also a well-connected firm with financial ties to RBC Capital Markets, National Bank Financial and Citizens Energy Corporation.

For SunEdison LLC, Ontario is their first cross-border venture. The Maryland-based company provides “turn-key” solar energy services for U.S. customers such as Staples, the State of California and Xcel Energy.