SkyPower, a Canada-based owner and developer of solar energy projects, is seeking $100 million from the Ontario government for damages associated with changes to the province's feed-in-tariff (FIT) program, according to documents submitted by Gilbert's LLP and Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP, the law firms representing SkyPower in the case.
The firms issued an application for judicial review in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the minister of energy and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
The company also notified the minister and the OPA of a claim for damages in excess of $100 million. The application concerns the minister's recent directives to fundamentally change the province's FIT program, which would retroactively affect existing applications for FIT contracts that had previously been deemed complete and eligible by the OPA.
The application for judicial review asks the court for, among other things, an order that the OPA has a legal duty to process, in good-faith, applications to the FIT program that were submitted in accordance with the existing FIT rules, the firms say.
In its application materials, SkyPower states that it spent considerable resources identifying eligible properties, securing rights to land and meeting the government's timeline for application.
The company also claims that the OPA has held $20 million in security from SkyPower for over two years, during which time SkyPower has waited for the OPA to complete the connection availability testing that was required by the existing FIT rules and to issue FIT contracts.
Furthermore, SkyPower says the minister's directives apply retroactively and render SkyPower's pre-existing applications ineligible.
The notice of application can be viewed here.
