The Sault Ste. Marie Solar Park near

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in 2011 became Canada's

second largest The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...

photovoltaic plant A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building- ...

with an

installed capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,

of 68 MW_p. In 2009, Ontario introduced a

feed-in tariff A feed-in tariff (FIT, FiT, standard offer contract,Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., (2010)Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy advanced renewable tariff, ...

for

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

payments program paying up to CDN 44.3 cents per

kilowatt-hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

(kW·h) for large ground arrays such as Sault Ste. Marie. This makes Ontario's one of the top feed in tariff programs in the world. All of the power produced will be sold for CDN 42 cents per kW·h for the first 20 years. Consisting of six 10 MW Ac projects, the first two were completed, by the POD Generating Group, in October, 2010 – the Baseline Road Facility on the west side of the city , also known as SSM1, using 87,000 Q.BASE modules from

Q-Cells Hanwha Q Cells (commonly known as simply Q CELLS) is a major manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, after being founded in 1999 in Thalheim, Germany, where the company still has its eng ...

. The project was acquired by Starwood Energy, in June, 2010. The remainder of the project was completed by Q-Cells. SSM2 is 30 MW Ac, and SSM3 is 10 MW Ac, both near Black Road on the east side of Sault Ste Marie The total electricity peak demand for Sault Ste. Marie is 90-100 MW in summer and 140-150 MW in winter. The instantaneous demand is displayed on the SSM PUC website. The project was completed in 2011, with about 270,000 panels. Energy generated from each of the three stations will be sold to SSM PUC through 20-year

Power Purchase Agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

s using Ontario Power Authority's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program. 8 km northwest is the

Prince Township Wind Farm Prince Wind Farm is a large wind farm in northern Ontario. Prince Wind Farm is owned by Brookfield Power Prince Wind LP, a subsidiary of Brookfield Power. It is located north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, mostly within the township of Prince but ...

, Canada's 3rd largest

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

, rated at 189 MW, which along with 203 MW of hydroelectricity, further makes Sault Ste. Marie a

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

city.Starwood nears completion of massive solar farm in Sault Ste. Marie
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References

{{SaultOntario Buildings and structures in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Solar power stations in Ontario Energy infrastructure completed in 2011 2011 establishments in Ontario

See also

References