May 29 2013
GDF SUEZ Canada Inc. and its joint venture partners Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Fiera Axium Infrastructure today announced that the 10 MW Brockville Solar project in the Township of Elizabethtown-Kitley, Leeds County, Ontario has entered commercial operation under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Ontario Power Authority.
The $50 million project, developed under Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program, consists of 42,000 panels on approximately 80 acres of land, and has the capacity to generate clean, renewable energy for approximately 1,700 homes in Ontario.
GDF SUEZ Canada and partners Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Fiera Axium Infrastructure currently operate 362 MW of wind-powered generation facilities in the Canadian Maritimes and Ontario, and have another 300 MW of wind generation projects under construction in Ontario and British Columbia. The Brockville project is the joint venture's first solar installation in Canada.
GDF SUEZ Canada's President Mike Crawley remarked, "With Brockville, we are diversifying our technology base and entering a new and exciting business area. We are proud to be providing another form of clean, renewable energy to the province and hope this will be the first of many solar projects in our portfolio."
The lead contractor responsible for engineering, construction, and performance of the project was a joint venture of AMEC Americas Limited and Black & McDonald Limited. The construction team consisted primarily of local laborers and electricians.