Our first project was a community-owned solar rooftop array at Kew Beach Junior Public School in the Beach area of Toronto.
We became the first renewable energy coop licensed to install a solar project on a Toronto public school roof.
Solar panels have been mounted on the roof of the school to convert the sun’s energy to electricity.
The solar array generates approximately 72 kilowatts (kW) of electricity and helps reduce the carbon footprint of the school.
See the Live Data Feed for this project.
How does it work?
The Kew Beach solar panels supply electricity to the grid, and in return, the Independent Electricity Supply Operator (IESO) provides us a fixed, guaranteed rate of 34.5 cents / kW for a 20-year term. The IESO is a Crown Corporation owned by the Ontario government.
This guaranteed rate makes the BCEC Kew Beach solar project a profitable financial investment.
A portion of the funds we receive from the FIT are paid to the Toronto District School Board to help support eco-initiatives that benefit the school and community.
Project Timeline
2012
The Ontario government announced an Ontario Power Authority (OPA) FIT 2.1 application window from Dec 14, 2012 – Jan 18, 2013. The OPA declared that it would approve a maximum of 200MW worth of “small FIT” solar projects (projects between 10 kW and 500 kW in size).
January 2013:
With membership growing, BCEC submitted its smallFIT application to OPA for a 60k solar array on the roof of Kew Beach School.
April 2014:
BCEC became the first renewable energy coop licensed to install a solar project on a Toronto public school roof.
BCEC accepted a smallFIT 3.0 power purchase contract offer by the IESO with our Commercial Operation Date extended to September 2, 2016. The fixed rate offered is 34.5 cents per KwH for 19.5 years.
BCEC has also executed a 20 year roof use license agreement with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to install, maintain and collect income from the solar array.
September 2014:
Our OPA application was approved on September 2, 2014.
The OPA had received over 4000 applications totaling approximately 825 MW! We were the only Toronto-based Renewable Energy co-op with school ties to win a contract offer.
Our project completion date (COD) was set at September 2, 2016.
August 2016
The solar panels were installed.
September 2016
Documents were submitted to start our FIT 3 contract with the provincial electricity agency (IESO).
Community leaders gathered to officially launch the project on Sept. 10. See press release and video.
2017
The Beach Community Energy Co-op (BCEC) won the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association’s (OSEA) 2017 Powering Prosperity Award for ‘Community Developer of the Year’.
The Suzuki Foundation visited and wrote an article about BCEC and the Kew Beach School project.
2018
Inverters on the solar array were updated and a live data feed installed, with a panel inside the school so that students can be aware of the energy generation activity on the roof.
Today
See the Live Data Feed for this project to see how the sun is working for us!
Project Gallery
