Last month, I wrote about how Ontario, North America’s 6th largest
jurisdiction by population, had tabled a
Green Energy Act to boost the alternative energy industry’s growth in the
province. In that post, I mentioned that officials would soon release the rules
for a feed-in tariff (FIT)
system. FITs, which pay fixed rates for renewable power, are all but absent
in North America, although they are popular incentive in Europe.
Germany’s FIT is
largely responsible for that country’s dominance in solar PV today despite
mediocre sun conditions.
Ontario released the
draft rules and proposed prices for its FIT a few hours ago. Proposed prices
are as follows:
| Fuel Type | Size Tranches | C$/kWh | US$/kWh (x0.79) |
| Biomass* | Any size | 12.2 | 9.6 |
| Biogas* | ≤ 5 MW | 14.7 | 11.6 |
| > 5 MW | 10.4 | 8.2 | |
| Waterpower* | ≤ 50 MW | 12.9 | 10.2 |
| ≤ 2 MW (community-based or aboriginal) |
13.4 | 10.6 | |
| Landfill gas* | ≤ 5 MW | 11.1 | 8.8 |
| > 5 MW | 10.3 | 8.1 | |
| Solar PV | ≤ 10 kW (rooftop) | 80.2 | 63.4 |
| 10 – 100 kW (rooftop) | 71.3 | 56.3 | |
| 100 – 150 kW (rooftop) | 63.5 | 50.2 | |
| > 500 kW (rooftop) | 53.9 | 42.6 | |
| ≤ 10 MW (ground mounted) | 44.3 | 35.0 | |
| Wind | Any size onshore | 13.5 | 10.7 |
| Any size offshore | 19.0 | 15.0 | |
| Community-based or aboriginal (≤ 10 MW) |
14.4 | 11.4 | |
| * 35% premium during weekday on-peak hours (11am to 7pm) and 10% discount during off-speak hours |
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The suggested pricing levels are relatively high and, as discussed in my
original article on this topic, should benefit the clean energy independent
power producers active in the province. Of special interest is the fact that
Ontario is proposing to implement a tariff for offshore wind, and could thus be
the first Great Lakes jurisdiction to see significant offshore installations go
up (that is, if they get the tariff right!). The solar PV tariffs are based on
the tiered German approach and should trigger significant installations if
credit doesn’t prove to be a problem for households and businesses.
To be continued…