Pricing and Rules are Up in the Air Yesterday, the OPA announced that the official review of Ontario’s FIT and microFIT programs is finally underway. The results of the review may have broad-reaching implications for the solar PV, wind, biomass, micro hydro industries and the overall Cleantech sector. As part of the review process, the OPA has scheduled a teleconference for tomorrow morning, 2 November 2011, at 10 am EDT. The...

Ontario Legislative Building - the Pink Palace is seeing red Just a few weeks ago, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party was a no show at the Ontario Feed-In Tariff Forum. The Party provided a written statement instead of joining their political counterparts at the large gathering of industry executives. This Tuesday, however, the party leader spoke up and it is not good news. According to the Globe and Mail, “Ontario Progressive...

Toronto Horse Palace - Time to Hitch Up the Wagons The Ontario Feed-In-Tariff Supply Chain Forum, bringing together key executives from virtually all industry interest groups on April 19-20, is barely a month away. There will be lots to discuss.   Last week one of the leading solar industry analysts, Travis Bradford, observed that “Ontario has used every procedural trick in the book to slow down the (PV project approval)...

California - Palm Trees and Solar Forests Just four years in, the California Solar Initiative (CSI) is racing ahead of its plan. The CSI PV program is already half subscribed and accelerating.   If this pace continues, the CSI PV program could be fully subscribed almost four years ahead of schedule.   Reservations now at Step 8 of 10   Originally conceived as a ten year project, with ten discrete steps, most CSI service territories...

Ontario Power Authority Headquarters On Tuesday the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) expanded the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) Program to allow formal participation of Commercial Aggregators. In so doing, the OPA has added another FIT rate class. More importantly, this move makes the microFIT program and its benefits more accessible to Ontario homeowners. When asked for comment on the change, Bernie Li, VP Finance and Co-Founder of PURE Energies,...