Portlands Energy Centre (PEC) has partnered with the University of Toronto (U of T) Faculty of Engineering, and ARISE Technologies to create Canada’s largest solar research facility.

Under the agreement recently announced, PEC will provide land worth about $2.4 million located on the PEC site on Toronto’s waterfront. ARISE will design and install a photo power system utilizing high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cell technology developed by ARISE and the U of T. The solar park will create between 500 kilowatts and one megawatt, and represents an investment of $5 to $8 million.

When completed, the facility will harvest enough solar energy to power up to 1,000 homes. University of Toronto students would use this as a working class room, and the output from the panels would be fed into the grid. The community will also be able to participate through a community-based share offering.

The project is expected to be installed in late 2008 or early 2009.

PEC is a limited partnership of Ontario Power Generation Inc. and TransCanada Energy Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada Corporation.

For more information, contact Ted Gruetzner toll-free at 1.877.443.4464 or at 416.592.3867.