Today, the OPA announced 40 new contracts for over 870 MW of
renewable energy under the Feed-in Tariff Program. These new
contracts include 257 MW of solar projects and 615 MW of onshore
wind projects. Applicants who were not awarded contracts because
transmission capacity is not currently available have been added to
the OPA's priority ranking list and will proceed to the
OPA's Economic Connection Test. In the coming weeks, the OPA
also expects to begin awarding phase three contracts for smaller
capacity allocation exempt projects. As announced earlier this
month, the OPA will not proceed with proposed offshore wind
projects while further scientific research is conducted.
Applications for offshore wind projects will no longer be accepted
and current applications will be suspended.
Last week, the McGuinty government also issued its Supply Mix
Directive to the OPA, which sets the goals to be achieved through
the OPA's long-term energy plan. This directive includes
increasing hydroelectric generation to account for 20 to 25 percent
of Ontario's supply mix, increasing renewable power generation
to account for 10 to 15 percent of Ontario's supply mix (by
2018) and maintaining nuclear generation at 50 percent of
Ontario's supply mix. This will require the procurement of two
new nuclear units at Darlington to generate an additional 2,000 MW.
Yesterday, the Joint Review Panel for Ontario Power
Generation's proposed new nuclear units at Darlington confirmed
three weeks of public hearings starting on March 21, 2011.
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