Solar power – a guaranteed high-return investment for the ordinary home and business, and a huge bonus for the environment.
When most people think of a house with solar power, they may imagine an off-grid house with minimal electricity use and batteries charged by the sun.
This type of house requires a very careful lifestyle using very little power, and that is rare in Caledon. There is now a program that allows anyone in Ontario to sell solar power back to the electricity grid at a premium, guaranteed rate.
When my wife and I were researching a clean power system, we wanted to find one that would work with our 40-year-old house. Six years ago it became possible to install a grid-tie system in our area. In those days, people did this for the environmental benefits, not because they ever expected it to be profitable. In a grid-tie system like ours, power from solar panels is fed into an inverter unit about the size of an electrical panel. The inverter converts solar power into AC electricity which is either used in our house or fed to the power grid.
When we first installed our system, we simply got credit on our electricity bill for any excess power generated; this was known as the Net Metering Program. We installed 1320 Watts of solar panels. Because it was a grid-tie system, we didn’t need to purchase expensive batteries which would need to be replaced before other system components. However, in the event of a power failure our system must shut down to avoid any risk of shocking repair technicians working on the grid, so we are without power like everyone else.
Since then, a much better program has become available in Ontario. Under MicroFIT (Feed-In-Tariff), you can install up to 10 kilowatts (kW) of solar panels on your roof and sell the power straight to Hydro One via an inverter and second electricity meter for a premium price of 80.2 cents per kW-hr, guaranteed by contract for 20 years. We had doubled the size of our home solar system before this program was implemented and fortunately were permitted to convert to a MicroFIT contract. I was so impressed by the program that I recently installed a 7.5 kW solar system on my office building as well.
Steve Eng from Enviro-Energy Technologies managed our installation and provided expert help with the paperwork and administration as well.
The paperwork for the large office system was relatively simple and the installation took only one day. While the capital cost is not cheap, the system will pay for itself under MicroFIT in 9 years, and the rate is guaranteed for 20 years. It’s an investment with a guaranteed 9-10% annual return for 20 years – far better than my RRSP. There is also an HST rebate.
Despite the economic logic, we installed these systems to reduce our impact on the environment. We produce the most clean power on hot sunny days when electricity demand and coal-burning smog are also highest. This year my office system will prevent emissions of over 5 tonnes of CO2 per year, more than taking a large vehicle off the road.
This MicroFIT offer is not indefinite. Right now the premium rate only applies to rooftop systems under 10 kW. Ground mounted systems are cheaper to install, and get a lower but still generous rate of 64.2 cents per kW-hr. There is also a FIT program for larger systems that use solar, wind and biomass.
Right now the demand is so high it can be hard to get solar panels. A significant percentage of Ontario content is required in the solar systems for them to be eligible for the program. This should grow the local solar power industry. As the industry scales up and prices drop, so will the price paid for the clean power. This generous program is still a pittance compared with long term taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power in Ontario. A similar program in Germany turned that country into a solar superpower where the renewable power industry is now greater than the auto industry.
If solar power systems like these were placed on one in ten homes, we could shut down the coal burning generators in Ontario – the biggest single smog sources around.
For more info visit microfit.powerauthority.on.ca