Faster than the solar industry is built in Ontario, it begins to fall apart.

Today we lost over a million dollars in business because yesterday, the OPA proposed a rate reduction for ground mounted microFIT projects. This was no small drop, this was not an expected drop during their 2 year program review, this was over 26% out of the blue!

The claim is that in keeping with the spirit of the program, they needed to reduce the rate for the program to be sustainable. Translated this means that because you and I have worked hard over the last 9 months to bring the cost of solar down so that we can make a decent return on the second largest investment most will make during their lifetime (besides buying a house) that we would be earning too much. Because of our efforts, the OPA is reducing our potential income by 26% percent!

The ripple effects throughout the Ontario solar industry are expected to be huge. How can a manufacturer consider investing in setting up a manufacturing facility in Ontario, when they cannot even rely on the government to continue a program on the time-line they have laid out? How can a manufacturer plan to be in any long term business, that will really benefit Ontario, when the OPA along with the support of Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure have chosen to change the program in its infancy.

They will not. There will be no long term benefit to the people of Ontario. What will happen is that a few mobile manufacturing facilities will setup in the province to suck out as much business as they can, then when the program has been totally devastated by the OPA and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, they will leave. 

What we will have done is paid foreign companies for the products that we buy, and we will pay foreign companies for the green energy that they supply us for the next 20 years. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Brad Duguid the minister in charge of Energy and Infrastructure should rethink their proposal. Tell them what you think!

Hopefully it's not too late to salvage the industry, but I have my reservations.