The Ontario Technology Corridor is aggressively promoting at this week’s WINDPOWER 2010 conference in Dallas its $7-billion commitment to the development of alternative energy in Canada.
Earlier this year, the Government of Ontario signed a $7-billion green energy investment agreement with a consortium created by Samsung C&T Corp.’s Trading and Investment Group and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The Ontario renewable energy project, touted as the largest of its kind in the world, is being supported by Ontario Power Authority’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program.
“For the wind industry, our most compelling attraction is the Ontario Power Authority’s feed-in tariff. It features North America’s first comprehensive guaranteed pricing structure for renewable electricity production, offering stable prices under long-term contracts for on-shore and off-shore wind, solar photovoltaic, biomass, biogas, landfill gas, and waterpower energy,” said Heather Pilot, director, Business Development, with the London Economic Development Corporation, an Ontario Technology Corridor partner.
According to the terms of the green energy investment agreement, Samsung C&T and KEPCO will establish and operate a series of wind and solar power clusters over the next 20 years. The clusters, which will be built in several locations throughout the Canadian province, will eventually include wind turbines that will generate up to 2000 MW as well as solar power facilities that will generate up to 500 MW. The entire project will have a combined power-generating capacity of 2.5 GW by 2016, producing energy equivalent to four percent of Ontario’s total electricity consumption.
Ontario is home to 110 head office clean technology companies that are predominantly engaged in the development and marketing and/or use of their own proprietary technology to deliver products or services that reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts. Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) projects that by 2015, these Ontario clean technology companies will generate revenues in excess of $1 billion. In addition there are over 2,800 environmental industry companies in Ontario, generating approximately $7 billion in revenue and employing 65,000 people.
