SunEdison, a division of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE:WFR), announced its purchase of two ground-mount solar photovoltaic (PV) development projects in Ontario from TransAlta (TA.TO), Canada's largest publicly traded generator and marketer of electricity and renewable power.
Under the terms of the sale, SunEdison acquired more than 300 acres of land across two sites near Sandhurst, Ontario (south of Napanee). The first site will be used to develop and construct a 10-megawatts (MW) Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) project. The second site will be developed for Ontario's Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program.
SunEdison will finance, build, own, operate, monitor and maintain the solar energy systems. The Ontario Power Authority will purchase the energy produced under the terms of Ontario's RESOP and FIT programs, both enabled by Ontario's Green Energy Act.
SunEdison will work with Hydro One, Greater Napanee officials, and the local community to begin construction on the RESOP project in early 2011.
The timing for the deployment of the FIT project will be determined at a later date.
In March, SunEdison announced plans to build up to 14 roof-top solar projects with a real estate developer in Ontario.
And in May, the busy solar developer announced a joint venture with private equity firm First Reserve Corporation that could fund up to $1.5 billion in photovoltaic projects.
