OptiSolar Farms Canada Inc. will build two 10 megawatt (MW) solar farms in Tilbury, a southwestern Ontario community of 4,500 in the municipality of Chatham-Kent. These two farms will provide Tilbury’s Local Distribution Company, Chatham-Kent Energy, with an additional 20 MW of electricity generating capacity.

The solar farms will sell clean solar electricity to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) under the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program.

OptiSolar Farms has begun consulting with project neighbours and applying for local approvals. Construction is expected to start by 2009 at sites located in and near Tilbury’s industrial park.

OptiSolar Farms will install hundreds of thousands of ground-mounted solar panels that capture energy from the sun and convert it to electricity. The projects will generate several million dollars in local construction work and procurement contracts.

By 2010, the solar farms will be feeding high-quality solar electricity into Chatham-Kent Energy’s electricity system.

The proposed 20 MW of solar electricity in Tilbury supports the Ontario Power Authority’s long-term goal of bringing the total contribution of renewable energy to 15,700 MW on the provincial electricity system.