The Ontario Feed-In Tariff Program (FIT Program) was enabled by Green Energy and Green Economy Act 2009 which was passed into law on May 14, 2009. The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is responsible for implementing the program. The FIT Program offers solar PV project developers and owners with 20 year contracts at tariff rates that provide investors with stable utility level returns on investment.
Ontario FIT Program is North America’s first comprehensive guaranteed pricing structure for renewable electricity production. It offers stable prices under long-term contracts for energy generated from renewable sources, including biomass, biogas, landfill gas, on-shore wind, waterpower, and solar photovoltaic (PV). The developments of renewable energy in Ontario will help the province phase out coal fired power generation by 2014, boost economy, and encourage renewable energy technology research and development. The maximum capacity of each solar PV Project is 10MW that can apply for FIT Program, Solar PV project with less than 10KW can apply for microFIT Program. Every FIT Contract with OPA requires minimum domestic content level.
Effective on June 03, 2011, the contract price for solar PV projects is $0.713/kWh for rooftop solar power systems with capacity less than 250kW, $0.635/kWh for 250 to 500kW, $0.539/kWh for more than 500kW, $0.443/kWh for ground mounted solar power systems with capacity less than 10MW.As of June 10th, 2011, 1,567 FIT Contracts with capacity of 1,192 MW are offered by OPA to developers in terms of 6,521 applications with capacity of 6,472 MW for solar PV project developments. For more details about Ontario FIT Program, please refer to website http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/.
