Swinerton Renewable Energy Wins EPC Contract for Canadian Solar Sites

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Swinerton Incorporated (San Francisco, California) was selected by Recurrent Energy (San Francisco) to build 21.5 megawatts (MW) of fixed-tilt solar energy generation on three sites near Waubaushene, Ontario, which is about 90 miles north of Toronto. The first site will generate 10 MW, the second 8 MW and the third 3.5 MW. The third site originally was planned to generate 5 MW, but plans were amended earlier this year.

The components for these projects will be sourced in Ontario, and they will feature FlexRack mounting, advanced energy inverters, and owner-furnished Celestica modules. All three sites are set for completion at the end of the year, and will tie into 44 kilovolt (kV) Hydro One transmission lines that will be energized by year-end 2012.

Recurrent Energy signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) covering all three sites under OPA's feed-in-tariff (FIT) program. Recurrent engaged Hatch Limited (Mississauga, Ontario) to conduct environmental studies last year prior to selecting Swinerton, and permitting is now complete for all three sites.

Swinerton previously was focused on delivering turn-key solutions for solar projects, but recently created a new division, Swinerton Renewable Energy. This move has expanded Swinerton's capabilities to allow the company to provide full plant life-cycle management, starting with design and build, and now including operations and maintenance. Swinerton's capabilities include new automation of plant service processes.

"Automating solar plant service processes is the key to driving down the cost to serve," said Swinerton's recently hired Technical Services Manager Joe Brotherton. "Inverters are the brains of a utility site and are capable of sophisticated diagnostics. We needed to leverage remote diagnostics to minimize truck rolls. The custom site technology that we needed did not exist at the integrated site and device level we needed, so we built it."

Recurrent Energy is a subsidiary of Sharp Corporation (Osaka, Japan). Celestica (NYSE:CLS) (Toronto, Ontario), whose main business is making electronic components for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Limited (NYSE:RIM) (Waterloo, Ontario), is the manufacturer of the solar modules. The company signed a contract with Recurrent in January 2011 to produce the solar panels.

Industrial Info is tracking 114 new solar power build projects totaling 1,366 MW in Ontario with start dates between January 2012 and the end of 2016.

For more information, see June 21, 2012, articles - Basic Optimism for Solar Power Mixed with Consumer Cost Confusion, Survey Says and Texas Can Lower Prices and Plug Power Gaps with Solar, Says Energy Foundation Report, and July 17, 2012, article - U.S. Banks to Finance Billions in Renewable Energy Projects.

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