OPA set to offer 500 renewable energy contracts under FIT program

TORONTO—Enough new renewable energy to power about 15,000 Ontario homes could come online in the coming years after a series of projects were approved under the province’s Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is set to offer 500 renewable energy contracts under the third installation of the FIT program, most of which are solar photovoltaic (PV) projects.

The contracts represent a combined 123.5 megawatts of power, according to the OPA.

FIT-eligible projects generally have a capacity of between 10- and 500 kilowatts.

The latest batch of approved projects include one water, one wind, eight bio-energy and 490 solar installations.

The OPA said it is also ready to offer 63 contracts for projects under the Unconstructed Rooftop Solar Pilot (URSP).

With a separate procurement target of as much as 15 megawatts of capacity, URSP-eligilble projects must meet the general FIT requirements and be be located on an unconstructed building.

Earlier this month, the OPA announced it had terminated 11 FIT-approved contracts across the province.

While the OPA didn’t disclose the reasons for cancelling each project, it said it “will terminate a contract if certain contract conditions have not been met or the project has experienced significant delays due to force majeure events.”

A force majeure is generally considered an event that is the result of a force of nature, not human behaviour.

According to the OPA, it received 1,779 applications to the FIT program in the third round, with a total generation capacity of about 436 megawatts.