by BETTER FARMING STAFF
There was a time Russell Elliott thought becoming involved in Ontario’s micro feed-in tariff program was a great opportunity to invest some savings.
That was before the cash crop farmer, who lives between Strathroy and Parkhill, learned it could take years to obtain a connection to the power grid.
Elliott had done everything by the book.
In April 2010, he applied to the program that offers small-scale power developers an opportunity to sell green power to Ontario’s power grid. By December, he had received a conditional offer to buy power from the Ontario Power Authority, which administers the program, installed a ground-mounted solar tracking unit and obtained — as the OPA required —Electrical Safety Authority approval.
Then he discovered his distribution company, Hydro One Network Inc., didn’t have the capacity to hook up his project.
“There’s a lot of frustration in this whole thing,” he says. “We’ve done exactly as we were supposed to; the government presented us with a program; we went ahead and did it.”
About five per cent of all microFIT program projects are stalled because the local infrastructure capacity can’t accommodate them. In February, Brad Dugout, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, responded by fast tracking three Hydro One transmission projects in southwestern Ontario and upgrading the distribution company’s transmission stations.
Elliott asked Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Maria Van Bommel to look into the issue. In early June, he received an email response from Helen Kwan, a senior project advisor with the ministry. That’s when he discovered it would take Hydro One 48 months to do the upgrades it had begun in March.
Elliott has obtained a year extension for his conditional offer, which otherwise would have expired in August. “But nobody has said they would go beyond that,” he says. “What’s going to happen the other three years?”
Mary Bernard, a spokesperson with the OPA, says there’s no policy decision yet for those in Elliott’s situation. “We don’t want to put additional hardship on folks who have followed all the rules and not been able to connect immediately.”
On Thursday, Elliott was among eight microFIT participants and solar contractors who met with members of Warwick Township council in Lambton County to discuss options and share their plight to local media.
Not knowing where Hydro One’s upgrades were taking place or when they would be complete was one of the group’s main concerns. How to obtain relief for project owners stuck in limbo during the interim was another.
“A timetable we can deal with,” says Dean Kulich, who represents Fritz Renewable Energy Services in Chepstow. “That way you can talk to your lenders.”
He says his company had to tear down 95 units because of delays and concerns they would not meet the province’s new domestic content requirement. (In January, the province raised its domestic content requirement in solar units to 60 per cent from 40 per cent). Kulich says he has another 317 potential customers dealing with constraints on their lines. His company is making interest payments for affected customers to compensate for the delay.
“The word class action has been mentioned everywhere,” he says. “We’re staying neutral.”
Frank Hogervorst, a sales representative with Penner Farm Services in Granton, says some people used retirement money to pay for the projects, thinking it would generate income, and now can’t connect. “It’s like a mutual fund gone bad.”
His company is giving customers an interest credit to help them cover their costs. He suggests the province should allow those who are affected to transfer their approvals to areas where there are no problems with capacity.
Todd Case, Warwick’s mayor, says representatives from the ministry, the OPA and Hydro One declined invitations to join the meeting.
Case has requested a meeting with Agriculture Carol Mitchell to discuss the issue. “As a municipality we are going to continue asking the questions,” he says.
With an election looming, Elliott expressed a desire to act quickly to find a solution. “The only bargaining chip we have now is the Liberal government,” he says.
On Thursday, the OPA announced that those who submitted their application before October 8, 2010 would be allowed to use the lower domestic content requirements of 40 per cent.
As of the end of May, the OPA had received 30,168 applications for the program. It had terminated 3,049, issued 21,255 conditional offers and had 5,093 projects executed.
Applications are terminated if they are incomplete, don’t meet eligibility requirements or are withdrawn by the applicant, says Bernard. “We know from our conversations with Hydro One and other LDCs (local distribution companies) that there’s a large number of people who are sitting on conditional offers who have not yet applied for a connection.”
A spokesperson for Hydro One could not be immediately reached for comment. BF
Comments
Everybody who greedily-jumped onto the sorry bandwagon of solar energy completely, and willingly, overlooked the basic business truth which is that you should never, never, never invest money in anything which has only one buyer, especially a buyer completely-dependant on legislative entitlement.
Should anyone feel the least bit of sympathy for those people who turned a blind eye to both common sense, and business sense, which is, in effect, exactly the same thing?
Absolutely not!
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Mr. Thompson do you believe we should try and do eveything we can to provide a safe source of electricity for us and our children? Would you rather pay more money to build new nuclear reactors and have the same problem as Japan?
To call everyone who invested in solar energy greedy is very closed minded.
Solar energy is here to stay and will only get better!!!!!!
One of the first things taught in the business school I attended, was that it is always dumb, dumb, dumb, to invest in any business where there is only one buyer, particularly when government subsidizes paying up to ten times more to produce something, than what it retails for.
Therefore, by definition, the only people who invested in solar power production, have a financial death-wish.
Consequently, since solar power is, again by definition, little more than a government-sponsored Ponzi (pyramid) scheme, not only will I call everyone who invested in solar energy greedy, I'll call them dumb too.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Unfortunately, you have no vision for the future.
Solar power provides jobs and clean electricity.
IF you want to start talking about greed, lets start talking about the oil companies.
This will get resolved. I sense that you are sorry you didn't jump on this wagon. Thousands of producers have been connected and are being paid.
Anyone left hanging by Dugout and McGoofy by trying to cash in on these FIT programs, without doing reasonable research, should not be classified as "victims". I call it "just deserts" for being greedy and "bad neighbours"!.......looks good on ya!
It clearly states in the Micro Fit rules not to install anything until you have approval from your LDC to do so.
Don't blame Hydro or the Government for your own ignorance. Its a great program.
Follow the rules the next time.
This whole FIT program is going to come crashing down. Once these people get set up, maybe if at all, they will be in for a big shock when they find out their output from these panels will be less than 20% they were told it would be (a typical system produces only enough power in one year to power a home for a month). The solar panels won't produce enough power to make your interest payments. That's what happens when you get into something too good to be true.
The power system is not some kind of slush fund for people thinking they are going to get rich. Ask their neighbours if they like the 3 and four times increase in power bills just so these FIT owners can "get rich".
BTW, the conservatives will kill the FIT program in Oct.
Please educate yourself. Your post is totally wrong.
Do some reading, or go visit an actual install.
BTW microfit is a great program. The only killing the conservatives will continue is that of our troops.
Our small eleven panel system produces between 20 and 40 kwhs per month depending on the time of year. This was to help defray our hydro costs which were slightly over $4,000 this year to run a 1400 square foot home and nothing else! Rural people have been screwed over by Hydro for years. Ask why your meter has a multiplier of 20 or higher when residential homes have a multiplier of ten? You pay for double the consumption you use. Why? If you are running hydro to several out-buildings and it is all run through one central meter, why the difference in multiplier? Hydro has given me at least a dozen excuses, each more stupid than the first. My favourite is "you are only paying for 1/20th of the Hydro you consume. When I asked who was paying for the other 19/20ths I was told "you don't understand". Yep, I guess I don't.
Nuff said.
With a shortage of food looming worldwide - food prices rising - some farmers in Ontario are more worried about a micro fit and selling electricity into the grid. Hello - that's for big players!
It's hard to feel "Luvvish" towards a farmer.
As Ontario citizens scream out against the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (Bill 150); we witness a farmer gone mad.
Example: With an election looming, Elliott expressed a desire to act quickly to find a solution. “The only bargaining chip we have now is the Liberal government,” he says.
If all farmers thought like this farmer, maybe the McGuinty Liberals could use this mindset to the party's advantage; courier more "conditional" promises.
Of course, you'd have to prove you voted Liberal to take advantage of the "conditional" promises - because - are you ready - not even the Liberals would believe you voted for them. A lot of liberals - are jumping ship.
Sometimes when you gamble - you lose. That's why you should stick with investments - you fully understand.
Too bad for your unfortunate loss.
I'm voting for the Conservatives - and so should the farmers.
....then it probably is.
I don't feel the least bit sorry for these folks....their greed overlooked the fact that the rest of us will be paying for this Green Energy Dabacle for generations to come.
Stoney Point, Ontario
Greed had absolutely nothing to do with it. Canada is running out of natural resources. We are slaves to the oil companies if we have to heat our homes with oil. We are slaves to Hydro if we heat with an electric furnace or electric baseboard which many rural homes have. If you begrudge a farmer from making passive income from his solar investment while he is getting nothing for his cattle then I suggest you educate yourself to the plight of farmers. View the movie Food Inc and then Beef Inc. Your availability to food, heat and hydro is being gradually eroded by affordabililty. You should be cheering these farmers on because they may be your salvation in the future. The government certainly won't look after you.
Common issues of the 1990's and 2000's. People meet a few dealers and blindly trust that the one they chose has a clue.
I take my car to the shop, I take pictures of the engine, good thing because a common issue the your dealership letting Freon out of the AC system in the winter. Sleazy but it gets better, they pull it out and store it, you get to summer and your AC does not work, they put your old Freon back in and charge for a new compressor, they don't replace a thing.
This is the same, people have to wise up. I work in the industry, I was sold on working for a crap company for three months, I made many sales and the realized they were not installing and not a decent company. I personally sat with over 30 dealers to find one who made sense to work for.
Ask for more than refrences, the less reputable company I worked for is on the edge of bankruptcy and even with that they are still collecting money from unsuspecting people. I called suppliers pretending to be clients knowing that this company was into the suppliers and all I got was they are a great company.
Ask for ESA certification, WSIB certification, liability insurance. Ask if they have done commercial work and ask for references.
One thing is right, there is 90% or more sleaze in the game selling for rock bottom price, I like to call it a LADA. The guy who is a bit more expensive will 10/10 times do a better job with better product.
The green energy act will eventually save billions of dollars and the short sightedness of people like you is mind numbing.
Nuclear costs more that Microfit KW to KW to produce. The only sources of cheap power are SUN, WIND and WATER
If green energy is so affordable then why is it so heavily dependant on government subsidies to survive. Also, the only reason wind turbines are forging ahead is because of carbon credits where in Suncor (sunoco) for example, must erect turbines(and at any cost) in order to keep mining oil, and we can thank our government for that.
All these installers knew that until an offer to connect from hydro one was offered, the customer was warned "not to incur any major costs". The installers knowing and willingly installed these units and in most cases did the applications on behalf of the customer without the customer being aware that a deniel could take place. The installers greed and the lack of proper due dilegence on the customers side created this problem. Its a shame because if they had followed the proper procedures, nobody would have any money invested in these units that are delayed.
Both installer and customer share this blame.
Actually when the program was first introduced in 2004 and then implemented in 2009 there was very little information available other than Mr. McGuinty pounding his chest and saying that this was the way to go and if we had any thoughts of saving the environment that we would produce power to help our neighbours as well as ourselves, get as much of the grid as possible, reduce the need for dangerous nuclear power plants and stop the pollution from coal fired generating stations. Look at what happened to Japan's nuclear plant during the earthquake and tsunami. Bruce nuclear plant sits on a geophysical fault line.
Having interviewed four contractors before signing four MicroFIT array contracts, I can assure you that McGuinty/OPA has created an industry that has drawn some of the sleaziest, least-principled bottom-feeders out of the woodwork chasing "easy money". As a customer, caveat emptor reigns- assume that the contractor is lying, incompetent and/or negligent, and then work from that assumption... good ones are out there (I eventually chose it based on two interviews, legal and bank references and past customer references)but check references minutely.
in the end more money will be generated from the jobs created then will be paid out. Read this: http://blueway.ca/category/joseph-pollak/ ...or keep living the way you do, its only your children at stake.
Had all of the people who are currently stalled read the rules before investing thousands of dollars they would have seen that you needed to apply to both the OPA and the local power company. If they got trigger happy and installed upon OPA approval without getting LDC approval that is their own fault.
This program is a pain to apply to but once applied and approved as specified it is a 1-3 week wait to be connected.
I have no sympathy for those who are sitting on thousands of dollars of panels when they tried to cut corners. I have heard of people who actually pushed to be installed assuming they would be connected anyways.
Government programs are never easy but the end result is read, study and contract an installer who will do everything for you. Solar, Wind and Water are the safe, clean and easy way to make power to run all the devices we keep adding to daily life. When power in Ontario follows the curve in the USA we will all be paying out of pocket to do these projects to save a few bucks.
Originally only the FIT (50kw and up) required an offer to connect and OPA approval at the same time. All microfits originally were guaranteed hookup, but because of the overwhelming response the government changed the microfit rules to obtain OPA approval and offer to connect at the same time, a few months after initiating the program. I know this because I went through the process and have been accepted by the OPA for a payout and deconstruction of the unit at no cost to me.
Post new comment