company is comprised of sev-
en vertical groups, including
Outdoor Lighting, Aviation,
Obstruction, Marine, Traffic,
Solar EPC Services, and Go
Power!. The EPC group has
commissioned over 70 suc-
cessful projects with many
awarded through a stringent
procurement processes.
With nineteen years of ex-
perience in the solar indus-
try, General Manager of EPC
Services, Richard Wayte, has
watched the company prog-
ress throughout the years.
Wayte says that Solar EPC
Services was born out of an
acquisition of a previous com-
pany. They initially signed on
with a number of government
entities to complete small,
grid connected pilot projects
across Canada. The projects
were dedicated to educating
the public on the implementa-
tion and use of distributed so-
lar technology based energy
generation.
Canada’s solar grid-tie busi-
ness was effectively launched
by the introduction of Ontar-
io’s Renewable Energy Stan-
dard Offer Program (RESOP)
in March 2006. RESOP failed
in delivering what was intend-
ed, but the failure led to On-
tario’s Premier announcing an
improved initiative called the
Feed-in Tariff Program (FIT) in
2009. Wayte says Carmanah
saw this as a great opportu-
nity to grow their Solar EPC
business and began its focus
on small commercial scale
rooftop opportunities.
The FIT program is designed
for projects ranging from 10
kilowatts to 10 megawatts in
capacity and is managed by
the Ontario Power Author-
ity. The program includes a
20-year guaranteed electricity
price, which is reviewed every
two years, and is available to
government, businesses and
JULY 2013
H
business elite canada
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