By Paul Morden, www.theobserver.ca The Observer
As many as 650 construction workers are expected to be employed by September at a pair of solar farms being built in St. Clair Township.
Peter Carrie, a vice-president with First Solar Inc., said provincial approvals for the two 20-megawatt facilities came later than expected, leaving the company rushing to get construction completed by the end of the year.
Between 80 and 100 people are now at work now on the company’s Moore Solar Farm, north of Rokeby Line and west of Highway 40. It received the final provincial approval just a few weeks ago, Carrie said.
Crews are building construction roads and installing fences.
“We’re ramping up quite quickly on that,” he said. “Within the next two or three weeks, we should have over 300 people working on the Moore project.”
Crews will be installing 330,000 solar panels on 140 acres of the property, which is about 300 acres in total, he said.
The company had expected to get the green light in the spring and proceed at a more “measured pace,” he said.
“But we’re trying to get the project completed this year, so we’ll be using a lot of people between now and October.”
First Solar has also recently received approval to proceed with construction of the similar-sized Sombra Solar Farm, and has about 20 people on-site on about 350 acres south of Bentpath Line and east of Baseline Road.
“It’s a little behind the Moore project but we have started on that one as well,” Carries said.
The company aims to begin producing power by Christmas, Carrie said.
The two projects in St. Clair Township were the first large solar farms approved under Ontario’s new Renewable Energy Approval process, implemented as part of the Green Energy Act.
“It always take longer when you’re the first,” Carrie said.
Power generated by the sun at both farms will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority under long-term contracts. Each are expected to produce enough power for about 2,800 homes, Carrie said.
First Solar announced earlier this year the two projects were being sold to NextEra Energy Inc., a Florida-based company.
That follows the practice of First Solar, a manufacturer and developer of solar projects.
The 80-megawatt solar farm it built in Sarnia, currently the world’s largest, was later sold to Enbridge Inc.
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