Markham’s Solar Program Energy Matters May 28, 2012
Graham Seaman, P.Eng, LEED AP, CEM Lead, Sustainability Office Town of Markham
Agenda 1. The Greenprint, Markham’s Community Sustainability Plan 2. Energy and Climate Priority 3. Program summary 1. 2. 3.
Owned Investment Rooftop Leases
4. Lesson’s learned
Markham’s Sustainability Journey Inaugural Speech Click with Markham
Building Markham’s Future Together Social Sustainability Workshop
Community PresentaCons DraH for ConsultaCon Sustain-‐a-‐licious Sustainability Fair
Youth Engagement Social Media
Sustainability Fair Stakeholder Workshops
Final Greenprint
World Café Community FesCvals
ImplementaCon
Markham’s Sustainability Vision
Leading the way together to liveable neighbourhoods, healthy people and continuing prosperity
Sustainability Priorities ECOSYSTEM INTEGRITY
SHELTER WATER EFFICIENCY
ACCESS & MOBILITY ECONOMIC VITALITY INDIVIDUAL HEALTH
MATERIALS MANAGEMENT SOCIAL EQUITY
EDUCATION & SKILLS IDENTITY & CULTURE ENERGY & CLIMATE FOOD SECURITY
ENERGY & CLIMATE Carbon neutral, resilient and responsible Objective – Netzero energy, Water, waste and emissions by 2050 Indicators • GHG emissions by source • Energy consumption by fuel • Dollars spent on energy • Energy production by fuel • Dollars earned from energy production • Inventory of Vulnerabilites Associated with Changing Climate
Select Priority Recommendations 84. Create an energy descent strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, transportation, waste and agriculture 95. Identify energy and water conservation/ generation and carbon reduction/ sequestration opportunities based on geographic conditions
Markham Solar Program Summary • One owned microFIT • One owned FIT • Significant investment in PowerStream Solar • Six rooftop leases with PowerStream Solar • All planned buildings to have solar or be “solar ready” 860kW installed to date 1.5MW planned in next two years
9.6kW microFIT at Markham Civic Centre •
Championed by Former Councillor Erin Shapero prior to the microFIT program – no payback expected • $100,000 budget funded by the Markham Environmental Sustainability Fund (MESF) – MESF is a Town funding program for community and corporate environmental projects • Project management provided by Asset Management
9.6kW microFIT at Markham Civic Centre •
Specification of 10kW system developed and request for proposals to meet microFIT released • Three proposals received • Fall of 2009 selected Dasd Contracting in partnership Trillium Solar to supply a turn-key system including: – 44 Canadian Solar panels – Two 5kW SMA inverters – Wiring, racking, and web based monitoring system – Engineering and project management
9.6kW microFIT at Markham Civic Centre • • • • •
microFIT application was made in Nov 25/09 Conditional offer received Dec 16/09 Construction to started early Mar/10 Planned commissioning April 28/10 Road block – series vs parallel connection –
• •
Invested an additional $25,000 to make parallel
Connected Dec 16/10, completed the microFIT contract shortly thereafter Over $12,000 revenue to date
Live system information
http://www.markhamcc.solarvu.net/
250kW FIT System at 8100 Warden •
Championed by CAO and Markham Energy Conservation Office • $2.5M funding by Fed/Prov/Town stimulus funds and Town reserve set aside • Applied for FIT contract in Dec’09, received conditional contract in first batch of 500 in March’10 • Released our RFP in March’10 as well – Spent much time developing RFP spec to ensure quality and productive system proposals would be received – happy to share
250kW FIT System at 8100 Warden • • • • • •
Recieved four bids, all very close Selected Carmanah Technologies Corp as winner for $1.67M based on their experience, 2nd lowest price Expected annual revenue is $178,000 Replaced the roof first to ensure +20 year roof life Commissioned and achieved Commercial Operation Date (COD) on Dec 22/10 – on schedule and under budget! Public launch by Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid and Mayor Frank Scarpitti on Jan 26/11 to celebrate the first municipal owned FIT project – only one of 15 FIT systems connected at the time
PowerStream Solar Investment • • •
• • • •
New division within PowerStream Inc. to take advantage of GEGEA enabling LDCs to generate with renewables Focused on solar rooftop projects, but open to other opportunities Equity invested by PowerStream shareholders – City of Vaughan – Town of Markham – City of Barrie Projected returns are better than other investment instruments available to Municipalities Leverage the equity to issue debt with Infrastructure Ontario Experienced solar development team in place and growing – 62 projects completed to date In it for the long run, with history to prove it
Roof top leases •
Markham has signed leases for six facilities rooftops with PowerStream our LDC to develop 1.2MW of solar PV • Benefits of rooftop leases are: – No capital investment, risk is transferred to developer – Staffing needs are significantly reduced • Drawbacks are: – Annual revenue is reduced – Some loss of control – Good due diligence by both parties is a must
Thank you gseaman@markham.ca 905-477-7000 x 7523