Colin Andersen, CEO, Ontario Power Authority

Toronto, ON, Canada --- (METERING.COM) --- December 23, 2009 - The first seven hundred Ontarians from Ottawa to Windsor to Thunder Bay have been given the go ahead to generate renewable electricity under the province’s new feed-in tariff (FIT) program.

The new microFIT program encourages the development of small-scale renewable energy (10 kW or less) from a diverse range of producers, including homeowners, schools, farmers and small businesses. It is part of a broader Ontario FIT program, which is also aimed at encouraging community-owned and aboriginal-led projects.

“The tremendous initial response to the feed-in tariff signals a strong future for renewable energy in Ontario,” said Colin Andersen, CEO of the Ontario Power Authority, which administers the program. “We’ve cut the red tape and made it simpler for ordinary Ontarians to become electricity producers and they’ve raced to embrace green energy.”

The Ontario Power Authority has received nearly 1,200 microFIT applications since the program began accepting applications on October 1, mostly for residential roof-top solar power systems. These proposed projects have a combined capacity of about 8.6 MW.

Between October 1 when the program launched and December 1, the Ontario Power Authority also received about 1,000 applications for projects over 10 kW. This large number of applications ensures there will be more than enough high quality projects to deliver the 2,500 MW of renewable energy earmarked for the first round of the FIT program. These larger scale FIT applications are still being assessed.

The Ontario Power Authority estimates that the first FIT projects will generate in excess of $5 billion in investments in manufacturing, design, construction and engineering and lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs.