The Sault Ste. Marie Solar Park near
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, in 2011 became Canada's
second largest photovoltaic plant with an
installed capacity of 68
MWp.
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, ...
for
renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
payments program paying up to CDN 44.3 cents per
kilowatt-hour
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a comm ...
(kW·h) for large ground arrays such as Sault Ste. Marie. This makes Ontario's one of the top feed in tariff programs in the world. All of the power produced will be sold for CDN 42 cents per kW·h for the first 20 years.
Consisting of six 10 MW Ac projects, the first two were completed, by the POD Generating Group, in October, 2010 – the Baseline Road Facility on the west side of the city , also known as SSM1, using 87,000 Q.BASE modules from
Q-Cells. The project was acquired by Starwood Energy, in June, 2010. The remainder of the project was completed by Q-Cells. SSM2 is 30 MW Ac, and SSM3 is 10 MW Ac, both near Black Road on the east side of Sault Ste Marie The total electricity peak demand for Sault Ste. Marie is 90-100 MW in summer and 140-150 MW in winter. The instantaneous demand is displayed on the SSM PUC website. The project was completed in 2011, with about 270,000 panels. Energy generated from each of the three stations will be sold to SSM PUC through 20-year
Power Purchase Agreements using Ontario Power Authority's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program.
8 km northwest is the
Prince Township Wind Farm, Canada's 3rd largest
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
, rated at 189 MW, which along with 203 MW of hydroelectricity, further makes Sault Ste. Marie a
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
city.
Starwood nears completion of massive solar farm in Sault Ste. Marie
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See also
* List of solar farms in Canada
References
{{SaultOntario
Buildings and structures in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Solar power stations in Ontario
Energy infrastructure completed in 2011
2011 establishments in Ontario