Enfinity Expands Solar Education Outreach to Commercial Building Owners, Sees
Fast-Growing Green Energy Marketplace

    


    
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<p><span class="xn-location">OTTAWA</span>, <span class="xn-location">Canada</span>, Sept. 7/CNW/ -- Since launching its rooftop lease program in January this year, Enfinity <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Ltd. has seen increasing interest in solar installations from building owners looking to secure supplemental revenue and take leadership roles in Canada's environmental initiatives. In response, the leading renewable energy developer is expanding its information-outreach operations to help building owners learn more about, and utilize, Ontario's renewable energy incentives to fund these solar projects.</p>
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<p>Ontario's Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) Program offers building owners in the province a route to supplementary revenue and the means to transform their vacant rooftop spaces into cash-positive assets. <span class="xn-person">Chris Young</span>, Managing Director, Enfinity <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Ltd. said "Ontario's FIT model is actually based on established, successful programs in <span class="xn-location">Europe</span>; it's a way of quickly developing a competitive renewable energy marketplace that creates jobs and attracts private investor groups."</p>
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<p>Through its Commercial and Industrial Rooftop Lease Program, Enfinity becomes a rooftop tenant where it funds, installs, operates and maintains solar panels to produce electricity. In return, it pays rent to the building owner for the use of that rooftop space.</p>
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<p>Young continued, "Ontario's FIT program certainly brings value to this compelling new business model for commercial and industrial building owners interested in generating clean, solar energy from their rooftops--especially in a market that is immature but quickly evolving. But with our emerging solar marketplace comes a high level of technical and policy uncertainties, as demonstrated by the recent changes to the MicroFIT program, so it's important to work with a reputable and reliable partner that can navigate the complexities of Ontario's solar opportunities."</p>
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<p>Young pointed to the many new solar startups entering the Ontario marketplace that don't fully appreciate the impact of a poorly designed, poorly executed project, saying "Unfortunately, these inexperienced providers negatively impact the overall solar market when they make unrealistic claims about the performance of their solar installations."</p>
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<p>Consequently, Enfinity's focus is on educating building owners on how a system can actually deliver maximum electricity production, accelerated investment recovery and guaranteed financial return in the long term. "There's a good deal of opportunity for rooftop solar today, and there's definitely some sense of urgency in the marketplace. Commercial building owners need to act fast--but they also need to act prudently. We see it as our responsibility to make building owners aware of the opportunities as well as potential pitfalls concerning rooftop solar projects," said Young.</p>
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    Enfinity's complimentary seminar series starts in October at:
    
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    Waterloo - Tuesday, October 5, 2010
    Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel, 475 King Street North, Waterloo
    12:00 - 2:00 PM
    
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    London - Thursday, October 7, 2010
    Four Points by Sheraton, 2250 Wellington Road South, London
    12:00 - 2:00 PM
    
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    Windsor - Thursday, October 14, 2010
    Holiday Inn Select Windsor, 1855 Church Road, Windsor
    12:00 - 2:00 PM

    Registration information is at www.enfinity.ca/our-seminars.

    
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<p>In addition, Enfinity today issued a downloadable Executive Brief on the subject of Rooftop Solar Power in Ontario titled "Key Considerations for Developing Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Installations."</p>
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    Ontario Businesses Realize Solar Benefits
    
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<p>To date, Enfinity has 30 MW of solar energy under construction in Ontario and has invested in the structural due diligence analysis of approximately 150 commercial buildings. The <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Aviation and Space Museum was among the first commercial rooftop customers to select Enfinity as its solar partner. The Museum's 295-kilowatt (kW) system, installed on 6,500 square meters of rooftop, includes 2,051 solar panels and is estimated to produce 325 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy per year, or enough to meet the needs of approximately 30 homes.</p>
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<p>"The collaboration between Enfinity and the <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Aviation and Space Museum is an important first for the museum community in <span class="xn-location">Canada</span>," said <span class="xn-person">Stephen Quick</span>, director general, <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Aviation and Space Museum. "With this new initiative, we are actively participating in an extremely viable renewable energy project that supports the Museum by generating revenue while reducing its environmental footprint."</p>
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    Experienced, Full-service Solar Partners Best Suited to Help Building
Owners
    
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<p>According to <span class="xn-person">Michael Wright</span>, partner at A-Team Strategies, a real estate consulting firm, approximately 20 rooftop solar companies are registered with the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA). New research by his firm indicates that inexperienced companies permeate the marketplace:</p>
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    --  65 percent of today's solar providers didn't exist five year ago
    --  A large majority (75 percent) has small, one-office operations
    --  Only 20 percent offer turnkey leasing and project development
    --  60 percent do not list a single completed project on their websites

    
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<p>"Our commercial and industrial real estate marketplace has not had a lot of history with solar energy, so when you add the influx of '<span class="xn-person">Johnny Come</span> Lately' solar providers - you can see why building owners are rightfully cautious," said Wright. "However, they're starting to appreciate the benefits of full-service, multi-national solar developers, such as Enfinity, that have the international technical expertise and a strong financial capacity. Such companies can offer a fine-tuned process that turns a solar project into a revenue-producing reality for the environmentally-conscious building owner."</p>
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    About Enfinity Canada Ltd.
    
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<p>Enfinity <span class="xn-location">Canada</span> Ltd. in <span class="xn-location">Ottawa</span>, ON is the Canadian entity of Enfinity NV, headquartered in <span class="xn-location">Belgium</span>. Founded in 2005, Enfinity has rapidly grown into one of the world's largest and most experienced solar photovoltaic (PV) development companies. To finance its projects, Enfinity works with individual project companies funded by equity investors and banks. The company also owns its own portfolio of renewable energy installations. Enfinity is active in <span class="xn-location">North America</span>, <span class="xn-location">Europe</span> and Asia Pacific and has been selected to build some of the largest PV projects in those regions, with 200 MW of renewable energy installed worldwide (180 MW in rooftop installations). To learn more please visit <a href="http://www.enfinity.ca">www.enfinity.ca</a>.</p>
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<p>Enfinity and the Enfinity logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Enfinity NV. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective holders.</p>
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    © 2010 Enfinity NV. All rights reserved.




    

For further information: Jan Sisko, Carabiner Communications, [phone], [email protected]; or Sheri Beaulieu, Enfinity Canada Ltd., [phone], [email protected] Web Site: http://www.enfinity.ca