Sunny days for Canadian solar power

[jpak]

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/15/f-tech-solarpower.html

The need for energy is growing, and rather than prospecting under the ground for more coal and oil to meet the demand, more and more Canadian companies are taking a serious look at the skies and seeing a golden opportunity in the sun's rays.

The dawn of large-scale solar energy is rising first over Ontario, judging by the deluge of applications the Ontario government has been receiving for new solar power projects. The industry was recently given a boost when a neighbour to OptiSolar Farms Canada's proposed solar farm megaproject in Sarnia, Ont., withdrew an objection that had been filed with the Ontario Municipal Board.

The OptiSolar Farms Canada project will be the largest approved solar energy farm in North America. When fully built in five segments of 10 megawatt (MW) arrays, the solar farm in Sarnia on 365 hectares will provide 50MW of electricity from photovoltaic panels angled south toward the path of the sun. One megawatt of power can supply about 400 average homes.

But bragging rights for the first shovel to break ground on a utility-scale solar project went to joint venture partners SkyPower Corp., a Lehman Brothers Company, and SunEdison Canada when the pair started construction on April 22 of "First Light," a 19MW solar park on 121 hectares in the Township of Stone Mills in Eastern Ontario.

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