In the Beginning

As a member of the Brockville Climate Action Group, I have been following developments in reducing my carbon footprint. Although carbon reduction is the goal I do focus on fiscal responsibility. Most of my alterations in lifstyle have a positive payback. So when OPA (Ontario Power Authority) came out with a preliminary pricing schedule that show a homeowner could make 80.2 cents a Kilowatt hour, I got excited. This was in August 2009, when it was a suggested pay schedule. Funny thing thou. I didn't see any banners in paper. No big announcements on TV. Why isn't everyone doing this?

So I calculated what we could put on our roof. I put the data into PVWatts web page program and verified the numbers looked good.  I explained this to my wife (Linda) and she agreed to look into this further. So I talked to a number of Solar installers. A couple of quotes and lots of questions came up.

In Jan 2010, BCAG had Jennifer Kiwala, from SWITCH in Kingston give a presentation on OPA's FIT and microFIT programs. It was the best response to any presenter we had., with an standing room only crowd of over 100 people. They brought many answers and a few more questions to enlighten us on the issues at hand.


The next week I was on the phone to Upper Canada Solar to start the process. They put an application into OPA for me on Feb 2, 2010. The process had begun. As things will change for any government institution we did not want to move forward on any building issues until a conditional contract had been awarded. I did some research on the hardware required and was hoping to secure Enphase Inverters. These inverters are attached to the racking and invert each panel independently. They are also very efficient. Upper Canada Solar said that they had used these but could not verify a quick delivery as they were in demand. I therefore purchased these ahead time. I saw no risk in this, as at the price I bought these at they would be easy to unload if the project would fall through for some reason. 


Although the web page for Microfit application had stated 30 days for a response time, we soon heard that this was extended to 90 days. Our actual wait time was 101 days. 


As we wanted to follow all the proper processes as prescribed by the folks a SWITCH I phoned our City to find out if a permit was required. So I put together some information on the racking, panels and pictures of that style of installation and went down to City hall and applied for a permit. They got back to me few days latter and informed me that the want some re-assurance that the the roof I have was structurally capable of supporting the weight. Remember that Permits are not required in all cities. With the help of Upper Canada Solar we acquired a document from Unirac (our racking supplier) that has a Engineers stamp on it that verifies that the racking is capable of supporting the panels. However this did not satisfy the city. They were looking supporting structural information. After checking with The original builder and the original truss manufacturer I could not find any documents to verify what I have with my house. After trying to contact a local engineer I searched the Internet. With that I found Kollaard Associates Inc. They had a branch office in Kemptville and were willing to create the document I needed. They did this from pictures I took from my attic. This cost me a little over $500.00. I was happy to get it. This secured my building permit.