6.3 megawatt Ontario solar projects contracted by Endura Energy and SolarShare

Endura Energy Project Corp. has executed contracts for developing and constructing 6.3 megawatts of solar projects at 11 sites in Ontario, to be owned and operated by non-profit solar power community ownership co-op SolarShare, aka. TREC Solarshare Co-operative (No. 1) Inc.
Endura is a wholly owned subsidiary of distributable renewable energy company UGE International Ltd. (TSXV:UG)(OTCQB:UGEIF), and has been developing and engineering the projects under contract in partnership with solar energy developer Soventix Canada, a stand-alone subsidiary of Soventix GmbH, headquartered in Wesel, Germany, with subsidiaries in the UK, Chile, South Africa, Canada, USA and Dominican Republic.

“This partnership with Endura Energy, Soventix, and our farming and municipal project site hosts is a win all around,” said SolarShare President Mike Brigham. “With Endura Energy’s development leadership and continued partnership we have now grown to be the largest non-profit solar power cooperative in Canada. These projects permit all Ontarians to engage in the solar energy revolution through the opportunity of direct investment, while allowing the local communities in northern and eastern Ontario to engage through serving as project hosts and operating partners.”

UGE helps commercial and industrial clients become more competitive through discovering a lowest cost formula distributed renewable energy, and has over 330 megawatts of global experience globally.

The contracts are for 11 sites in three locations, two 600 kilowatt ground-mounted facilities near Kingston, Ontario, eight 600 kilowatt ground-mounted facilities in Timiskaming, Ontario, and a 300 kilowatt rooftop facility in Earlton, Ontario.

Funding for the project will start to flow in May and construction will last into 2017, with the 10 ground-mounted facilities set to utilize dual-axis solar tracking technology, which points the panels directly at the sun during the day, greatly increasing solar intake.

Connected to the grid and deriving revenue via Ontario’s feed-in-tariff FIT3 program, the projects under contract are projected to generate between C$18 million and C$20 million of revenue for UGE.

Project construction and purchasing of commissioned energy generating facilities shortly after the beginning of commercial operation will be financed by SolarShare, while Endura Energy is responsible for joint project development with Soventix, encompassing turn-key engineering, procurement and construction functions.

Non-profit SolarShare, founded in 2010, allows its current membership of almost 1,000 Ontarians to invest directly in commercial-scale solar projects by buying co-op shares in projects, so far having developed more than 6.5 megawatts of generating capacity.

SolarShare members have purchased $17 million in solar bonds to date.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Soventix and SolarShare once again,” said UGE Chief Strategy Officer Cameron Steinman. “With these projects we have the opportunity to leverage our unique and valuable experience with mid-sized ground-mounted dual-axis tracking systems, while also furthering our focus in community-based distributed generation. This deal extends our leadership position in both categories.”