On August 10, 2012, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) released
the final feed-in tariff (FIT) 2.0 program rules and contract,
which are now available on the OPA website. One key change from the
draft rules, based on the July 11, 2012 Ministry of Energy
directive,1 is the overall priority that will be given
to projects with 50% Aboriginal or community equity participation;
such projects will receive higher ranking than all other
applications.
The OPA advises that several updated rules currently only apply
to small FIT projects (≤ 500 kW), including the
requirement that any non-hydroelectric project must be located less
than 50 km from its proposed connection point on the Distribution
System or IESO-Controlled Grid. The Ministry of Energy intends to
meet with pre-existing large FIT project (> 500 kW) applicants
before the application window for large FIT contracts opens and
consider how to improve this rule for large FIT projects. The
Ministry has also established a
