Light Bulb Change by Committee With just over a year left until the Ontario Solar Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) program expires, there were two significant announcements yesterday that have significant implications for how the program operates.  While that news was breaking, however, there has been no update on how many of the approximately 11,000 pending solar ground-mount applications affected by the recent tariff cut had re-applied by the...

The Solar Universe is Small The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) shocked the nascent Ontario PV industry on July 2 with plans to cut the tariff rate on small solar PV ground-mount systems by 27%, from 80.2 ¢/kWh to 58.8 ¢/kWh.     New Eligibility Criteria   Yesterday, August 25, as a follow-up to the finalized rate changes announced on August 13, the OPA provided a series of documents outlining New criteria developed to better define...

On Friday the 13th the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) finalized its Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) rate for small Photovoltaic (PV) solar ground-mount systems at 64.2 ¢/kWh, down from the original 80.2 ¢/kWh. In so doing, the OPA conceded ground on its original proposal to cut rates to 58.8 ¢/kWh.  Perhaps more significantly, the OPA reversed itself and will not force this rate change retroactively on the roughly 11,000 pending ground-mount...

Just sat through another buzzword-filled business plan presentation. The strategy involved developing a revolutionary new technology while cloaked in stealth mode (“what are you hiding from whom?”) then suddenly emerging from their new orbit to disrupt everything. Riker to Picard, “Captain, scanners are detecting signs of Disruptor fire!” Holy Star Trek, Batman, you can’t trust a Romulan! Coming soon: T-Shirts that exclaim “I...

The d-bits blog is now over one month old. Launched foolishly while boarding an airplane, there has been considerable compressed learning.  Thus far, I am more or less on track with my goals:  Discuss solar and general cleantech issues Write original copy, interest others in contributing Use original pictures Surprisingly, getting quality pictures that mesh with the content has turned out to be one of the bigger challenges.  As I...

Time to stop digging With the input deadline now a full week behind us, there has been little news from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) on their proposed changes to the Feed-in-Tariff for residential PV ground-mount systems. Resubmit deadline extended The only notice provided by the OPA thus far has been: “The deadline to resubmit microFIT applications has been extended to September 7, 2010, at 5 p.m.” This decision to...

In manufacturing, viability hinges on production yield. In energy devices, viability hinges on conversion efficiency.   Less is less   The notion that higher conversion efficiency is better than lower efficiency is intuitive. With higher efficiency, more is produced from the same resource. Higher efficiency does have higher inherent value. What is often counter-intuitive, however, is that low-price scenarios can produce dramatic...