After the Ontario government passed an aggressive Feed-in Tariff program last year, companies have been pouring into the province, hoping to take advantage of the generous rates for renewables. In yet another utility-scale solar development a groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this week to celebrate the launch of two solar-PV parks totaling 18 megawatts (MW) of capacity in Norfolk County, Ontario.

The solar parks, called SunE Sky Norfolk I and II, are being developed under a joint venture between SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials and SkyPower Limited. SunEdison and SkyPower will own and finance the solar parks and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) will purchase the energy produced under the terms of the contract.

Together, the two solar parks are expected to generate over 19 million KWh in their first year of operation and almost 400 million kWh over 20 years. To put this into context, the initiative will generate enough electricity to power 33,000 homes and cut over 250 thousand metric tons of CO2 emissions from the environment. This is the equivalent of taking almost 60,000 cars off the road for one year after 20 years of production.