By Kenyon Wallace

The City of Belleville is pushing ahead with its ambitious plan to capitalize on the provincial government’s lucrative feed-in-tariff program.

Mayor Neil Ellis sought – and won – city council’s approval to explore two new solar farms on the roofs of a water treatment plant and a downtown office building. The city is now working with a local firm to determine how best to place the solar panels to ensure a maximum return of investment.

Belleville currently has three MicroFIT rooftop installations plus one regular FIT installation on the roof of an arena complex. Since 2010 the projects have generated more than $250,000 revenue for the city from electricity distributor Veridian.

Ellis told QP Briefing that with the addition of two more FIT installations, he hopes the city will be able to collect $1 million annually for selling electricity into the grid.

When asked why Belleville is so keen to be a leader in FIT installations, Ellis said municipalities need to be creative because of the fact that they have a limited capacity to raise revenues under the Municipal Act.

“That’s one side of it. Then there’s the environmental side, the fact that we can improve our carbon footprint,” he said.

Ellis noted that many cities simply can’t afford to get in the FIT game because of the initial capital costs required.

“We’re all on pretty tight budgets and there are a lot of services we’re already providing that need capital dollars,” Ellis said. “Belleville, being in a pretty good financial situation, has been able to pay for the projects outright and not borrow on them. So any revenue has been able to go for future capital projects.”

The mayor added that if the government accepts the city’s new plans, it will have 18 months to complete the installations.

According to the Ontario energy ministry, there are almost 2,000 small and large FIT contracts in the province generating enough electricity to power 1.2 million homes.

Following a comprehensive review of the FIT program, the government has said it will reduce the price it pays for FIT electricity by more than 20 per cent for solar and about 15 per cent for wind.

The government came under criticism when the FIT program was launched two years ago because the program promised to pay producers as much as 80 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar energy – more than 10 times the going rate for electricity.

Belleville turns FIT into cash

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