Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant near

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, is Canada's largest photovoltaic plant with an

installed capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,

of 97 MW_P (80 MW_AC). In 2009, Ontario introduced a

feed-in tariff A feed-in tariff (FIT, FiT, standard offer contract,Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., (2010)Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy advanced renewable tariff, ...

renewable energy payments program paying up to CDN 44.3 cents per kW·h for large ground arrays such as the Sarnia plant. This makes Ontario's one of the top feed in tariff programs in the world. Phase I (for 20 MW) was completed in December 2009. Phase II (60 MW) was completed in September 2010 at a cost of C$300 million. The project was developed by

Enbridge Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

First Solar First Solar, Inc. is an American manufacturer of solar panels, and a provider of utility-scale PV power plants and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses rigid thi ...

developed, engineered, and constructed the facility, and it will operate the Sarnia Solar Project for Enbridge under a long-term contract. Enbridge will sell the power output of the facility to the Ontario Power Authority pursuant to 20-year

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

s under the terms of the Ontario government's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program. The plant covers and contains about of modules, which is about 1.3 million thin-film panels. At the completion of Phase II it was the largest solar power station in the world,Sarnia Becomes Largest PV Farm
/ref> a title it held until the 2011 opening of Huanghe Hydropower Golmud Solar Park in China. The expected annual energy yield is about 120,000 MW·h, which if produced in a coal-fired plant, would require emission of 39,000 tonnes of CO₂.

References

{{Reflist Solar power stations in Ontario Buildings and structures in Sarnia Energy infrastructure completed in 2009 2009 establishments in Ontario Enbridge

See also

References