UGE and SolarShare to build 300 kW Kaladar, Ontario solar project

Global renewable energy company UGE International Ltd. (TSXV:UGE) has secured a contract to design and develop a 300 kilowatt solar project near Kaladar, Ontario, to be financed by non-profit solar power community ownership cooperative SolarShare, aka. TREC SolarShare Co-operative (No. 1) Inc.
The Kaladar project will be connected to the electricity grid through Ontario’s feed-in tariff FIT3 program, and is projected to generate revenue of nearly C$1 million for UGE.
Endura Energy Project Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of UGE International, will perform joint project development activities and take responsibility for all turnkey engineering, procurement and construction functions in collaboration 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.
“On the heels of several successful partnerships with UGE and Soventix in Ontario, we are thrilled to announce the addition of the Kaladar site to our portfolio of projects,” stated Mike Brigham, SolarShare’s President. “By focusing on community solar, we offer individuals the opportunity to financially benefit from our projects while advancing clean and safe solar energy.”
In May, Endura Energy announced contracts for developing and constructing 6.3 megawatts of solar projects at 11 sites in Ontario, with construction lasting into 2017 and projected to generate between C$18 million and C$20 million of revenue for UGE via Ontario’s feed-in-tariff FIT3 program.
Like the projects announced in May, this ground-mounted facility’s dual-axis solar tracking technology will be supplied by Toronto-based Morgan Solar, which last week raised a C$10 million fundraising round, led by ArcTern Ventures.
“SolarShare, Soventix, and UGE are already well-known for their excellence in solar engineering and project execution throughout Ontario,” said Morgan Solar VP Business Development & Marketing Nicolas Morgan. “We are honored to be the exclusive tracking technology provider for these projects, as we work toward creating a cleaner energy future locally, and across North America.”
Founded in 2010, SolarShare allows its current membership of more than 1,100 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, with plans to add more than 6.3 additional megawatts to its portfolio.
SolarShare members have purchased more than $18 million in solar bonds to date.
“With steadily decreasing feed-in-tariffs under Ontario’s FIT Program, developers must use creative means to enhance revenue yields and increase project returns,” said Cameron Steinman, Chief Strategy Officer at UGE. “Morgan’s dual-axis technology boosts the energy production at an affordable cost per kilowatt-hour, while at the same time mitigating much of the geotechnical risk that traditional ground mounted projects experience. It was a natural choice for us to deploy the Savanna™ Tracker for this portfolio.”
Construction on the Kaladar project is anticipated to begin in autumn 2016.