Solar Belongs on Your Roof
There’s been much fanfare about Ontario’s commitment to green energy. Large companies are flocking to the province to take advantage of the new market, new jobs are being created and many Ontarians are pursuing the opportunities provided by the new Green Energy and Green Economy Act introduced last fall. Under the province’s new and highly acclaimed Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, you too can participate in the green energy revolution. If you are a home or building owner you could have the real estate needed to install electricity generating solar panels on your roof, allowing you to sell green power to the province.
The Ontario Power Authority will pay you 80.2 cents for every unit of solar electricity you produce – and that price is guaranteed for twenty years. This can be quite an opportunity if you know how to take advantage of it, and assuming you have the right roof.
“Not everyone has a good roof for solar,” admits Ken Traynor, the Our Power Coordinator at the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative (TREC). “Loads of people are interested, but they often don’t know where to begin,” says Ken. “That’s why we created the Our Power program, to help them sort it all out.”
The ourpower.ca website has a lot of solar resources. Most importantly, for a nominal fee individuals can get an online roof assessment. The assessment shows how a solar PV system could fit on your roof, how much money you’ll make, and how many emissions you’ll offset. Once your assessment is complete, an Our Power advisor will call you to go through it and to answer any questions you may have.
If and when you are ready to make a purchase, the advisor will connect you with a reliable vendor in your area. “One of the reasons that people like to get an assessment from us is that we’re an independent third party that doesn’t inflate the numbers” asserts Ken. “We don’t actually sell any systems and our production estimates are based on information from real world
monitored systems.”
There is also an option to lease your roof if you don’t want to deal with maintenance or put up the capital, however you make more money if you purchase your own system.
A $20,000 2kW system generates an average annual income of $1,740 for 20 years, a 6.8% return on your investment.
Get involved in Ontario’s solar revolution today.
A paid information supplement from the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative