The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in Canada has published draft rules for the next round of its feed-in tariff (FiT) programme, which opens for bids in the autumn.
Bidding for Ontario’s so-called FiT 3 programme will open in November and close in December, with 30MW of PV capacity on offer.
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A key change from the previous FiT round is that, in response to a previous ruling by the World Trade Organization, the local content requirement of the programme has been reduced.
Previously it was 60% for PV installations, but after the WTO ruled in May that this violated global trade rules, this level has now been reduced to 22% for crystalline and 28% for thin-film PV systems.
The draft rules cover Ontario’s so-called ‘micro’ and ‘small’ FiT programmes, which are for sub-10kW and 10-500kW-sized systems respectively.
Rooftop PV systems under 10kW will receive C$0.396/kWh, while ground-mount projects of the same size will receive C$0.291/kWh. Rooftop systems of between 10 and 100kW, and above 100kW will receive C$0.345 and C$0.329/kWh respectively, while ground-mount projects larger than 10kW will receive C$0.288/kWh.
The overall procurement target for the micro FiT programme will be 30MW for 2013, with a further 50MW available in both 2014 and 2015.
The target for the small programme was not announced.
Final details of FiT 3 will be published on 7 October, OPA said.
