RIDGETOWN, Ont. – Ontario farmers and other investors are hot on solar.Don Hilborn, engineer with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, isn’t surprised. He said the potential for 11 percent return on investment is within reach.“I understand there are more than 13,000 applications, mainly out of rural Ontario.”Hilborn, along with Swiss engineer Thomas Bohni and Hydro One representative Erin Henderson, spoke to a packed room of interested farmers in Ridgetown on June 28.Like Hilborn, Bohni isn’t surprised at the interest. The Ontario Power Authority’s Feed-In Tariff program pays 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour for installations with a peak capacity of 10 kilowatts or less.These can cost anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 and are expected to generate returns of more than $200,000 over the 20-year contract.“You’re lucky to get 80 cents at the moment. We’re getting 40 to 45 cents Canadian (back in Europe),” he said.Bohni is representing a farmer in Eastern Ontario who’s installing a 200 kilowatt installation on his barn roof. While that farmer is getting less for the electricity, his returns will still be considerable.Bhni, with 18 years and five megawatts of installation experience under his belt, said that while solar technology is proven, investors still need to be cautious.They need to watch for poorly designed solar panels, work with reputable companies and make sure systems are engineered to maximize the energy yield.Bhni said there are three main types of panels. The polycrystalline and monocrystalline types are both proven, with monocrystalline panels being more efficient.Newer to the market are thin film panels. While less efficient in direct sunlight, they’re better able to convert diffuse light into electricity.Installations where panels can safely be accessed should be de-signed to allow for cleaning and snow clearance.Panel arrays should be balanced with inverters. An array that is 20 percent larger than the inverter, as measured in peak kilowatt capacity, will result in a five percent yield loss.The direction that roof-top installations face is important, but is not as important as some people think. Bhni says that while due south is ideal, relatively little efficiency is lost if an installation faces southeast or southwest.Hilborn says a much larger consideration is an obstruction casting a shadow on your panels. If, for example, a single panel in a system is partially shaded, the shaded solar cells will act as resisters and will compromise the efficiency of all the panels.
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