The Ontario minister of energy has issued a directive to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to finalize the rules and contracts for the province's feed-in-tariff (FIT) and microFIT programs, the Canadian Solar Energy Industries Association (CanSIA) reports.
According to CanSIA, the minister of energy has directed the OPA to make the following changes to the draft FIT 2.0 rules and contracts:
- Begin to award 50 MW of microFIT and 200 MW of small FIT projects as soon as possible.
- Add a new"priority points," category, with one point offered for being in the queue before July 4, 2011, and 0.5 points for being in the queue since July 5, 2011; these eligibility points can be added to existing project-readiness points, making a total of two points now possible.
- Organize a Ministry of Energy-led working group, in which CanSIA will have a lead role, to provide information and recommendations to accommodate ground-mounted installations on residential lands.
- Allow ground-mounted projects on CLI-mapped Class I, II and III lands that are contaminated or have a historical use that prevents the land from being used for agricultural production to qualify for the FIT. The exemption list includes airports, contaminated sites, industrial sites where energy is a secondary use, closed landfills and military facilities. Development on Class III lands will also be allowed if a municipality owns the land or an approval is granted.
