Duane Hicks
The town began generating power to sell yesterday as the first of four solar projects came on-line.
The solar panels at the Public Works garage recently had been connected to the grid by electrical subcontractor M.L. Caron Electric.
Then yesterday, the Fort Frances Power Corp. installed the smart meter for the panel array and the power inverters inside the building were switched “on.”
The solar panels at that site now will begin to generate revenue through the feed-in tariff (FIT) program under the Ontario Green Energy Act, which guarantees specific rates for energy generation from renewable sources paid by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
Corey Bolton, sales manager for Solar Logix of Thunder Bay, noted the town has a contract with the OPA, where the town is guaranteed 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour produced for the next 20 years.
This contract will kick in at each of the four sites as they go live.
Back in May, town council chose Solar Logix to install 10-kilowatt microFIT solar power generating systems on top of four municipal buildings—the Public Works garage, water treatment plant, Memorial Sports Centre, and Fort Frances Children’s Complex.
All four were installed in less than two weeks (between July 25 and Aug. 7).
The other three sites should go on-line in the next few weeks, said Travis Rob, the town’s sustainability co-ordinator intern.
He believes M.L. Caron Electric will be wiring the day care and arena sites next week, followed by the water treatment plant the week after.
Bolton said the sites already have been tested, and the amount of energy generated by solar power has been “bang on” with predicted numbers.
All of the panels on all of the buildings are south-facing and aligned at a 30-degree angle.
The solar panels cost about $375,000 in all, but they are projected to generate $11,632 in annual income as the town pays off a 10-year loan from its own reserves to buy them.
Once the 10-year financing term is over, the annual revenue is expected to jump to $49,000.
The town will handle the maintenance of the solar panels, cleaning them and removing snow each winter.
