Ontario's solar energy industry creating jobs: minister

The Ontario government is committed to rebuilding the province’s electricity system and has made Ontario a global leader in the clean energy economy, according to Ontario’s energy minister, Chris Bentley.

Speaking to more than 5,000 delegates from across Canada and around the world at the annual Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) conference today, Bentley said that the government’s commitment to building a clean energy future is attracting renewable energy investment and creating thousands of clean energy jobs.

The solar energy industry plays an important role in rebuilding the electricity system. Today, Ontario is home to the ten largest solar farms in the country and is the leading solar energy producer in Canada. The solar industry employs over 8,000 people.

Since launching the Green Energy Act in 2009, over $26 billion of private investment has been committed to Ontario and over 20,000 clean energy jobs have been created, Bentley said. The province is on track to create 50,000 clean energy jobs by the end of 2012, according to the minister. Since 2009, more than 30 companies have invested in Ontario's clean-energy economy including, manufacturers of solar and wind energy components, companies generating energy, and specialist engineering and service firms.

Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program has also helped strengthen the province's manufacturing sector, bringing more solar power online. To date, the Ontario Power Authority has awarded over 2,000 FIT contracts for new solar energy projects and 99 per cent of smaller microFIT projects are solar. Ontario has more than 350 MW of solar PV capacity online and has more than 1,600 MW of additional solar PV capacity under contract. This is enough electricity to power up to 250,000 homes.

Enbridge's 80 MW Sarnia Solar is presently the largest operational solar PV farm in the world, supplying enough solar power for about 12,000 homes a year.

According to CanSIA's Solar Vision, by 2025 the solar industry will be supporting more than 35,000 jobs and displacing 15 to 31 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.