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Joint project puts solar panels on City-owned roofs

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The City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro will be sharing the $6–million cost to install solar panels on City-owned roof tops.

By year’s end, ten installations will be operational on top of arenas and community centres across the GTA, generating 2,600 megawatt hours (MWh) annually.

“This is a great opportunity to make use of underutilized City roof space and generate revenue for the City,” said councilor Norm Kelly in a press release.

The project is estimated to generate $16–million in gross revenue for the City over the next 20 years.

Toronto Hydro retains a 51 per cent share in the project, but will actually receive less than half the profits after paying out a four per cent rental fee to the City of Toronto.

“It’s not all about the money,” said Rob Maxwell, manager of Toronto Renewable Energy, when asked why the city of Toronto could not have done this on their own.

Maxwell said there was an attraction to Toronto Hydro’s expertise and added that there is a limit to the money that council would be willing to invest.

“We will make a reasonable return,” Maxwell said.

Toronto consumes nearly 800,000 MWh annually and this project will contribute 0.3 per cent of the total consumption.

The following is a list of locations where the solar panels will be installed:

  • Mimico Arena – 31 Drummond Street
  • York Mills Arena – 2539 Bayview Avenue
  • Goulding Park Community Centre/Arena – 45 Goulding Avenue
  • Police College – 70 Birmingham Street
  • Agincourt Park Arena – 31 Glen Watford Drive
  • Victoria Village Arena – 190 Bermondsey Road
  • Malvern Community Centre – 30 Sewells Road
  • Grandravine Community Centre/Arena – 23 Grandravine Drive
  • Roding Community Centre/Arena – 600 Roding Street
  • McGregor Park Arena – 2231 Lawrence Avenue East

Photo by Mojo Mike

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2 comments

  1. I suppose something is better than nothing but what they didn’t include when they reported the gross revenue is the on-going maintenance costs of it.

  2. Hmm… if Toronto consumes 800,000 MWh annually, and this will generate 2,600 MWh, then that’s 0.3%, not 0.003%. Admittedly, still not much 🙂