Bruce to Milton Line FIT contracts announced
Yesterday the Ontario Power Authority offered Feed-in Tariff contracts to 19 large scale on-shore wind projects and 6 ground-mount solar projects, totalling nearly 1,046 MW of new renewable energy projects. 750 MW of wind-based contracts were offered in the Bruce Area and the remaining 296 MW were offered in the West of London Area, 27.5 MW for ground-mount solar and 268.4 MW for on-shore wind.
The biggest winner of the contract offers is Boulevard Associates Canada, Inc., with 335 MW offered in the Bruce Area. International Power Canada, Inc. received offers for 198 MW in the West of London Area.
The Bruce to Milton Transmission Project is one of the largest transmission projects in Ontario in the past 20 years and will see the construction of more than 180 km of 500 kV transmission line between the Bruce Power facility in Kincardine to Hydro One’s Milton Switching Station. Although the earliest in-service date for the new line is the end of 2012, many renewable energy project developers have been eagerly awaiting any announcements on the implications of this additional transmission capacity on the availability of FIT contracts. The announcement follows the OPA’s June 3 announcement in which eligible proponents were granted five days to change the connection points of their projects in order to qualify for over 1,000 MW of capacity along the Bruce to Milton line. Contract offers were to be based on the results of DAT/TAT testing from the new connection points of all eligible projects, taken together with the priority ranking of projects in the Bruce and West of London transmission areas established in previous testing.
These contract offers are expected to be some of the last for large scale renewable energy projects prior to October’s provincial election.
Further information is available from the OPA’s FIT website: http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/
Many high profile business leaders have signaled their support for clean energy including former Premiers Mike Harris and Erne Eves. (http://bit.ly/r0NUfZ)
And now, the Pembina Institute, an independent organization, has released a study which says the wind, solar and biogas power producers under Ontario’s feed-in tariff program are being blamed unfairly for rising power prices.
The alternatives are no cheaper. The FIT program would never add more than 1.5 per cent, or about $2 a month, to the typical consumer hydro bill, the study says.
Read it here: http://bit.ly/r0NUfZ