Jan 29 2010
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (Nasdaq: ENER) and Enfinity Corporation today announced plans to collaborate on the development of a 10MW portfolio of rooftop solar installations in Ontario, Canada.
ECD and Enfinity will partner to co-develop a series of rooftop solar projects throughout Ontario, Canada under the province's new feed-in-tariff program. The companies expect to complete construction of approximately 10MW of projects during calendar 2010. ECD, through its wholly owned subsidiary, United Solar Ovonic, will provide a combination of UNI-SOLAR® photovoltaic laminates and its new PowerTilt™ product for the projects.
The rooftop installations will be on a number of different roofing materials, and ECD's new PowerTilt product is particularly well-suited for the Ontario market given its easy installation on any roof type, light weight, and higher energy production. ECD will also provide development equity during the construction phase of the projects.
Enfinity will lead the rooftop acquisition from its Ottawa office, and will arrange construction debt and take-out equity financing for the projects. Upon commercial operation, the projects portfolio will be sold to the permanent equity owners.
Mark Morelli, ECD's president and CEO, said, "We are pleased to announce this expanding partnership with Enfinity with the collaboration on this Ontario portfolio. Since announcing the Framework Agreement with Enfinity last year, thus far we have partnered on nearly 6MW of projects in Belgium and France that are being supplied by our roofing materials channel partners. This co-development approach in Ontario is a further example of our demand-creation strategy where we will partner on solar projects that have attractive rates of return for project investors. The Ontario Power Authority has demonstrated an impressive commitment to the promotion of renewable energy development and ECD intends to be a major player in the province in the years to come."
"We consider ECD to be one of our key global partners, and together we are moving quickly on this co-development effort," explained Rafael Dobrzynski, CEO of Enfinity Corp. "The feed-in-tariff structure in Ontario rewards investors with higher incentives for distributed rooftop solar and it is the objective of Enfinity to finance and develop projects that produce steady, predictable power for stable and secure investments. The UNI-SOLAR laminates are ideal, having proven capable of meeting our performance requirements given the environmental and climate variables of this region."