PowerStream Solar awards Carmanah $2 million solar PV contract

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Carmanah Technologies Corp. has been awarded a contract by PowerStream Inc, to supply and install a 350 kW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system for the Thornhill Community Centre located in Markham, Ontario. The Carmanah rooftop solar PV system, valued at approximately $2 million (CAD), began construction in October 2011.

PowerStream is the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario, delivering power to more than 330,000 customers in communities located immediately to the north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. Jointly owned by the municipalities of Barrie, Markham and Vaughan, PowerStream established a solar division that develops, owns and operates grid-tied solar generation facilities on the roof-tops of commercial, industrial and institutional buildings in Ontario.

As the owner and operator of these PV generating facilities, PowerStream will receive revenue through the Ontario Power Authority’s (OPA) Feed-in-Tariff program (FIT). Carmanah will engineer, procure and construct a 350 kW (AC) capacity solar PV system at the Thornhill Community Center. Since 2001, Carmanah has completed more than 55 solar grid-tie systems and their portfolio includes more than 20 completed FIT projects in Ontario.

“Carmanah is excited about the opportunity to work with PowerStream,” comments Bruce Cousins, Carmanah CEO. “Combining Carmanah’s expertise with PowerSteam’s knowledge of the energy industry, and their deep roots in Ontario, puts PowerStream in a strategic situation to make significant in-roads in the FIT rooftop marketplace for PV.”

To ensure that the project meets the FIT program’s 60 percent domestic content requirements, Carmanah is constructing a solar array featuring 300W solar modules from Heliene of Sault Ste. Marie, a SolarDock ballasted racking solution from SunRise Power of Peterborough and a pair of PowerGate inverters from Satcon of Burlington. This project between Carmanah and PowerStream is scheduled to be commercially operational in early 2012.