The new rules for MicroFIT 2.0 have been posted to the OPA website -

http://microfit.powerauthority.on.ca/

Highlights of Changes

The Minister of Energy has directed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to make the following changes to the Draft FIT 2.0 Rules & Contracts:

Begin to award 50MW of microFIT and 200MW of small FIT projects as soon as possible.

The microFIT rules/contract and application window will be available on the OPA's website this week - potentially as early as tomorrow.

The application window for small FIT will open at the same time as the rules/contract are posted. The OPA is committed to completing this task before the end of the month.

The OPA will provide further information on the timeline for the large FIT application window at a later date.

The contract termination clause has been returned to the language used in the FIT 1.0 rules, and other financing concerns addressed.

New Priority Points category: One point is now being offered for being in the queue before July 4, 2011 and 0.5 points for being in the queue since July 5, 2011. These Eligibility points can be added to existing project readiness points making a total of 2 points now possible.

Specific to ground mount projects:

The Ministry of Energy will be organizing a Working Group, in which CanSIA will have a lead role, to provide information and recommendations (e.g. set-backs) to accommodate ground mount installations on residential / abutting residential / rural with zoned residential lands.

FIT solar ground mounted projects on CLI-mapped Class I, II, III lands that are contaminated or have a historical use that prevents the land from being used for agricultural production, will be allowed. The exemption list includes: airports; contaminated sites; industrial where energy is secondary use; closed landfills and military facilities. Development on Class III lands will also be allowed if a municipality owns the land or an approval is granted.

Development on mixed soils permitted with soil study with no restriction on amount of Class I, II, III soils provided you avoid these soils.

Here is the press release from the OPA issued on July 12, 2012:

A key change from the draft to the final version of the microFIT Rules is on the timelines for the microFIT process. Applicants will be required to seek an Offer to Connect from their local distribution company (LDC) within 30 days of the OPA confirming that their application is complete. This will be followed by a 90-day period during which the applicant must receive an Offer to Connect. This change is to provide sufficient time for LDCs to process Offer to Connect requests from microFIT applicants.

We are pleased to advise that the window for microFIT applications is now open.

Existing microFIT applicants (those who applied on or after September 1, 2011) will be subject to the revised microFIT Program Rules and pricing and need to resubmit their applications by August 10, 2012. If they do so, they will maintain their original timestamp, and their application will be processed in the order in which they were originally received. New microFIT applicants will need to be patient, as their applications will not be processed until after all resubmitted applications from existing applicants have been processed.

More information on resubmitting existing microFIT applications can be found here.

The final FIT Rules and Contract will be posted shortly, and information on the small and large FIT application windows will be provided when details have been finalized.

Thank you for your interest in the clean energy economy.

Contact Us at Clearly Solar for more information on the MicroFIT program.