A California company will build Canada's largest solar farm near Sarnia,
Ont., installing more than one million panels on the ground to generate 40
megawatts of power that it will sell to the provincial government.
The Canadian Press has learned OptiSolar plans to have the clean electricity on
the Ontario power grid by 2010.
OptiSolar will be paid 42 cents a kilowatt-hour for the solar power, much more
than the 11 cents a kilowatt-hour paid for wind power.
Sources say the solar farm is the largest of 14 projects that Energy Minister
Dwight Duncan will announce Thursday under Ontario's standard offer program,
which pays companies a premium for electricity generated by wind, solar and
other forms of renewable energy.
The 14 projects will add more than 107 megawatts of power to the provincial
grid, and will include two new water-power projects with Ontario First Nations.