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GLOBAL RENEWABLES ONLINE - APRIL 2012
Inc. (“NorthGrid”), an Ontario-based
Engineering, Procurement and Con-
struction (EPC) company, is pleased
to announce the construction of a
701kW rooftop solar project, part of
the Ontario Power Authority’s Feed
In Tariff (FIT) Program and located
at The Metropolitan Tea Company
Ltd. (“Metro Tea”) in Etobicoke, ON.
The project utilizes NorthGrid’s
unique elevated truss system (ETS)
which provides ongoing roof access,
opportunity for greater revenue and
optimized system performance to
the project owner. The ETS sys-
tem is best suited for industrial,
commercial or institutional build-
ings with a large number of roof-
top units that cause shading or
rooftops that are unable to sup-
port ballasted solar energy systems.
“NorthGrid is excited to be work-
ing with Metro Tea, an importer
and supplier of premium teas and
tea-related products from around
the world.” said Carlo Di Gioac-
chino, President and CEO of North-
Grid Solar Inc. “Their vision of long
term environmental sustainability
makes Metro Tea a perfect comple-
ment to the Ontario Green Energy
Program.” said Mr. Di Gioacchino.
“NorthGrid Solar has proven to been
a professional, responsive and tech-
nically superior choice for construct-
ing one of Ontario’s largest roof top
solar projects while we continued
to operate our business inside the
building.” said Gerry Vandergrift,
President & CEO of The Metropoli-
tan Tea Company Ltd. “We have been
extremely pleased with their end-
to-end customer-focused process
as well.” After grid construction,
NorthGrid’s ETS system and pre-
assembly process enabled 701kW of
panels to be installed in 7 days thus
reducing wear and tear on the roof.
NorthGrid
Solar
is
sched-
uled to complete many mega-
watts of ETS and ballast mount
projects
throughout
Ontario.
About NorthGrid Solar Inc.
NorthGrid Solar
is a leading provider of
turn-key rooftop solar PV systems.
Leveraging a combined 60+ years of
photovoltaic experience in Ontario,
NorthGrid Solar provides full proj-
ect services to FIT contract holders
from concept to completion. Cus-
tomers benefit from a multidisci-
plinary team of professionals who
manage feasibility studies, struc-
tural and electrical engineering,
permitting and LDC interaction,
procurement, construction, com-
missioning, OPA contract manage-
ment and long-term operational
support. In addition to traditional
mounting systems, NorthGrid Solar
also offers a proprietary Elevated
Truss System option to address con-
cerns with roof capacity, density,
maintenance, and thermal losses.
INTERSOLAR EUROPE SHOWCASES
SOLAR PROCESS HEAT
Intersolar Europe 2012 provides in-
formation on the prospects and po-
tential of solar process heat. This
solar technology is used in diverse
areas of the industrial sector, rang-
ing from chemical companies to the
food industry and paper manufac-
turers. Factories need hot water to
clean equipment, machinery and
raw materials, and drying is anoth-
er common industrial process that
requires heat. A recent study by
the University of Kassel estimates
the technical potential of solar pro-
cess heat in Germany to be 25 giga-
watts, and throughout Europe as a
whole to be 110 gigawatts. By way
of comparison, solar thermal in-
stallations in Germany currently
have a cumulative output of eleven
gigawatts, a mere 0.02% of which
is used for industrial process heat.
There are several reasons for this.
The few solar installations which
actually provide heat for indus-
trial processes are mostly one-off
systems that are very expensive to
plan. Additionally, there is a lack
of specific, government-run incen-
tive programs, as well as a shortage
of both skilled planners working in
the field of process heat technol-
ogy and knowledgeable managing
directors in the industrial sector.
The majority of companies are sim-
ply unaware of the potential that
solar thermal technologies have.
As a result, the European project
SO-PRO is analyzing companies’
actual requirements to highlight the
possibilities offered by solar ther-
mal technologies. Valuable planning
tips are available on the project’s
website, www.solar-process-heat.
eu, and planners can also find out
more at Intersolar Europe 2012. The
exhibition’s conference program
includes a series of presentations
on the use of solar process heat. .
SOLAR NEWS