Ontario's Solar Potential

This page is a work in progress on so it may not be absolutely accurate

According to professor Joshua Pearce of Queen's University, Kingston, South East Ontario has the potential to generate over 90 GW (90,000 MW) of Solar PV on barren land. This is over 3 times our anticipated requirements.

The following maps are from Professor Pearce's report

Ontario Solar projects

From http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/energy/renewable/index.php?page=new-energy-projects

Project

Capacity (MW)

Status

Sunflower

0.02

In Service

Earth Rangers Aviary Solar

0.03

In Service

Preformed Line Products

0.25

In Service

Towcon Holdings Inc.

0.25

In Service

Tilbury Solar 2-- First Solar Development (Canada)-- Inc.

5.00

In Service

First Light Solar Energy Park (SunEdison / SkyPower Corp)-- Stone Mills (near Napanee)

9.00

In Service

PGG1-- Starwood SSM1 Canada Incorporated

9.96

In Service

PGG002-- Starwood SSM1 Canada Incorporated

9.96

In Service

Bluewater Solar 1

10.00

In Service

Bluewater Solar 2

10.00

In Service

Parkers Corners' Solar Farm-- EDF EN Canada Solar St. Isidore A Limited Partnership

10.00

In Service

Sarnia Solar 1

10.00

In Service

Sarnia Solar 3

10.00

In Service

Sarnia Solar 4

10.00

In Service

Sarnia Solar 4

10.00

In Service

Smith Falls A-- EDF EN Canada Solar Elmsley East Limited Partnership

10.00

In Service

Arnprior Solar Project (EDF EN)-- Arnprior (near Ottawa)

20.00

In Service

Sarnia Solar 2 and 5 (Enbridge / First Solar)

20.00

In Service

Total solar projects

154.47

 

 

Solar hot water

coming sometime

Solar thermal

coming sometime

Solar photovoltaic

Concentrated photovoltaic

Concentrated photovoltaic panels perform best in areas with high insolation, particularly high Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI).  DNI is a measure of the rate of solar energy that falls at the earth’s surface in beams exactly perpendicular to the direction of the sun.

Photovoltaic potential and solar resource maps of Canada https://glfc.cfsnet.nfis.org/mapserver/pv/index_e.php

Most of Ontario has photovoltaic potential (kWh/kW) as follows: South-facing, tilt=latitude Annual between 1100 - 1200 kWh/kW - the South West Ontario has more - between 1200 - 1300 kWh/kW

Concentrated solar thermal (CST)

Solar potential is measured in kWh/m2

Mean daily global insolation (MJ/m2, kWh/m2) In Ontario  South-facing, tilt=latitude Annual is between 4.2 and 5. Australia has evaluated sites with an average of 7.95 kWh/m2/day