Company to Provide Green Energy to Ontario
Samsung C&T successfully completed the 270 Mega Watt portion of the first phase of its solar and wind power cluster farm project in Ontario, Canada. Global renewable energy markets, after years of stagnancy, are turning the corner just in time.
According to the related industry on April 16, the company got the green light from Canada’s Ontario Province government in relation with completing the initial part of the first phase, and further approvals are anticipated to come in stages.
The Ontario project is a global scale solar and wind power farm, reaching the total capacity of 1,369MW and costing 5 billion Canadian dollars (US$4.5 billion).
Each phase of the project will add more wind and solar power capacity to the plant.
The company launched its solar and wind power business starting with signing the Global Emissions InitiAtive (GEIA) with the Ontario provincial government in 2010.
In 2011, the company swiftly signed the electric power sales contract, regarding electricity generation that amounts to the first and second phase of the project (total of 1069MW wind 869MW and 200MW solar) with the Ontario Energy Board.
Thereby, the company is to garner a long term profit by selling electricity to the Ontario Energy Board, after forming a big scale renewable energy cluster.
The project’s success this time sheds light on the future of global solar and wind power markets. One company associate says, “The Ontario project distinguishes itself from others in that it is a proposal type project and will open a new horizon to overseas new renewable energy development business. The company will pro-actively explore new overseas renewable markets.”
Global new renewable energy markets are gradually getting out of a long slump. According to the statistics recently published by The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), newly-installed energy power capacity worldwide in 2013 rose 24 percent year-on-year to 37 Gigawatts (GW).
Seo Jae-hong, senior manager of Korea Photovoltaic Industry Association (KPIA) was quoted as saying, “Oversupply situation in the global solar power market since 2011 is gradually being alleviated, and the supply and demand will balance in 2014. The market is anticipated to grow 14 percent annually till 2017.”
The global wind power market also seems auspicious. According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), last year’s global wind power installed capacity rose on-year 12.4 percent to 318,137MW, posting about a 200,000 MW increase over the last five years.