Carmanah Technologies, provider of renewable and energy-efficient technologies, has announced that PowerStream Inc., the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario, has awarded it a contract valued at approximately $2 million (CAD) for the supply and installation of a 350 kW rooftop solar photovoltaic system. Work on the Carmanah rooftop solar PV system, which is being installed in the Thornhill Community Centre in Markham, Ontario, began in October this year. The project is expected to be commercially operational by early 2012.

Carmanah has successfully completed work on more than 55 solar grid-tie systems since 2001. The company has also completed 20 FIT projects in Ontario alone.

PowerStream, which is jointly owned by the Barrie, Markham, and Vaughan municipalities, provides more than 330,000 customers with power. Serving communities located north of Toronto and in Central Ontario, PowerStream is the second largest electricity distribution company in Ontario which is municipality owned. The company has also established a solar division which owns, develops, and operates facilities for grid-tied solar generation over roof-tops of a number of commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings across Ontario.

PowerStream will receive revenue for these PV generating facilities via the Ontario Power Authority's (OPA) Feed-in-Tariff program (FIT). Under the terms of the contract, Carmanah will handle complete engineering for the project and will be responsible for the procurement and construction of the 350 kW (AC) capacity solar PV system at the Thornhill Community Center.

In a release, Bruce Cousins, Carmanah CEO, said, "Carmanah is excited about the opportunity to work with PowerStream. Combining Carmanah's expertise with PowerSteam's knowledge of the energy industry, and their deep roots in Ontario, puts PowerStream in a strategic situation to make significant in-roads in the FIT rooftop marketplace for PV."

The FIT program requires that 60 percent domestic content compliance be met by the project between Carmanah and PowerStream. To ensure the compliance, Carmanah, will be constructing a solar array with 300W solar modules from Heliene of Sault Ste. Marie, in addition to including a SolarDock ballasted racking solution from Peterborough based SunRise Power, and a couple of PowerGate inverters from Satcon.