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SteelTown
Mar 27, 2010, 5:51 PM
Horizon unveils ambitious solar energy plan
McMaster, Mohawk also involved

March 27, 2010
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/743585

The people who distribute electricity in Hamilton have an ambitious plan to turn the area into "Ontario's Solar Sunbelt" by installing solar panels across the city.

The newly formed Horizon Energy Solutions Inc. -- a sister company to Horizon Utilities Corp., which distributes electricity in the area -- has stepped forward to take advantage of provincial incentives for solar energy projects.

"Horizon is currently negotiating agreements for solar installations on dozens of commercial, institutional and industrial sites in this area and beyond," Max Cananzi, CEO of Horizon Holdings, told a media conference yesterday.

Horizon plans to rent rooftops around the city and shoulder the costs of installing and maintaining solar panels that would feed power into the province's electrical grid.

Horizon is taking advantage of a program established by the McGuinty government's Green Energy Act that provides guaranteed pricing to make the projects profitable for investors.

"It provides both a ready market and fee structure that will nurture solar power to the point that it will be commercially viable through economies of scale," Cananzi said.

Horizon is entering a marketplace that has all kinds of upstart businesses trying to take advantage of the government program.

The Horizon move is part of an alliance that involves the cities of Hamilton and St. Catharines, as well as McMaster University and Mohawk College, and aims to maximize the benefit to the community.

Horizon Energy and Horizon Utilities are both 100 per cent owned by Horizon Holdings Inc.

Horizon Holdings is owned by Hamilton Utilities Corporation and St. Catharines Hydro Inc., which are respectively owned by the cities of Hamilton and St. Catharines.

"The placement of more local sources of generation throughout the system, close to the customer, reduces our reliance on centralized generation sites," Cananzi said.

In Mohawk's case, the emphasis will be on helping students learn the skills they need to work in the emerging green industry.

McMaster will be devoting research efforts to further develop materials and techniques to more efficiently harvest energy from the sun.

McMaster is also in discussions about how the program could be best applied on campus.

Tony Cupido, director of the university's physical plant, says McMaster is looking at a plan that could produce 250 kilowatts of power. But it's not clear yet, he said, what the plan would mean in revenue for McMaster.

SteelTown
Aug 2, 2012, 1:32 PM
City powers its treasury with big new solar project
1,400-panel plan will feed energy to grid

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/772287--city-powers-its-treasury-with-big-new-solar-project

The city has given the go-ahead for solar panels to be installed on the central Hamilton building which houses its operations centre.

The city has signed an agreement with Horizon Energy Solutions to allow the company to install a 1,400-panel, 250-kilowatt solar power system on top of 330 Wentworth St. N., which is north of Barton Street East.

Horizon Energy is a local developer of renewable energy projects that is 79.9 per cent owned by the City of Hamilton. It will be a tenant of 330 Wentworth.

Horizon will pay rent to the city, which is expected to generate $250,000 over the course of 20 years. The city will also be paid dividends, but Horizon will not reveal its revenue projections for competitive reasons.

The project will use about 50,000 square feet on the building's 250,000-square-foot roof, said Tom Chessman, manager of energy initiatives for the City of Hamilton.

He said the panels will most likely be installed next spring.

The Wentworth site was chosen because of its location, structural stability, and how it is situated, said Horizon Energy vice-president Scott Knapman.

Horizon is responsible for the installation and operation of the panels.

“We install these systems and then the power we produce off them, we sell back to the Ontario Government under the Feed-in-Tariff program,” Knapman explained.

The Feed-in-Tariff program from Ontario Power Authority was introduced in 2009 by the Green Energy and Green Economy Act as a way to reduce coal-fired electricity and boost the renewable energy business.

According to Horizon Energy's annual report for 2012, last year the city reaped more than $8.9 million in dividends from the company, said Sheri Ojero, spokesperson for Horizon Utilities Corporation, sister company to Horizon Energy Solutions.

Revenue from the Wentworth project rent will go to the energy reserve fund, which pays for salaries for the city's office of energy initiatives.

The office pursues projects and initiatives that save the city money on its energy costs, Chessman explained.

The city's energy initiatives webpage says projects and initiatives in Hamilton's corporate facilities have saved taxpayers $23 million since 2006.

thistleclub
Aug 2, 2012, 5:05 PM
Will be interesting to see how this impacts hydro bills.

The Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) review was going to dial down the incentivized rates but it's not clear where the new prices will stand, or even what the approval process will look like. (That's possibly another reason why they're not revealing revenue projections.)

Rooftop arrays of this output level were pegged at 71.3 cents/kwh in June 2011. The peak TOU rate is now 11.7 cents/kwh. Maybe this kind of comparative payday will buy Horizon customers a bit of immunity from hydro price spikes. Something that's 50,000 square feet is still a relatively small array, all things considered (probably the size of the rooftop array on top of the Main West student residences plus the one on the building across the street), but it's nice to see the city changing up its thinking.