Town of Newmarket and SunEdison announce solar panel sustainability program
The Town of Newmarket and SunEdison announced an agreement to deploy four municipal rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. The four municipal facility rooftops will be leased to SunEdison to install solar panel, and once completed, the systems are expected to generate more than 23 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy over 20 years. This is enough to power 2,199 average Canadian homes for one year, and has the potential to offset an estimated 4.8 million kilograms of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which equates to removing 1,036 cars from the road for one year.
“This is a significant step forward for our sustainable story in the Town of Newmarket,” said Mayor Tony Van Bynen. “By partnering with SunEdison, we have achieved another major sustainability goal with a ‘triple bottom line’ impact. Through this program, we are generating green jobs, delivering on clean green energy, and contributing to the financial sustainability of the community. It is truly a triple-win project.”
The project will be financed, deployed, monitored and maintained by SunEdison and is expected to total 1.17 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity. Once installed, the Town of Newmarket will earn revenue from the leased rooftops, and the energy produced by the rooftop panels will be purchased by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) under the terms of Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff Program (FIT).
“Not only are we helping to provide a cleaner environment for our families by reducing Ontario’s reliance on traditional energy sources,” said Jason Gray, vice president and Country Manager for SunEdison Canada. “We are also helping to create jobs here in Newmarket through the local manufacturing of solar modules, and the deployment of these solar power plants. SunEdison commends the efforts of Newmarket’s leadership, and looks forward to serving their renewable energy needs.”
SunEdison’s affiliate MEMC Singapore partnered with Flextronics, a multi-billion dollar electronic manufacturing services provider to manufacture solar photovoltaic panels to meet domestic content requirements. Through this partnership, the solar PV panels used for the Newmarket project along with other SunEdison deployments in Ontario are expected to generate approximately 400 green jobs for the community.