June 9, 2011

As microFIT proponents were informed in February 2011, the OPA is offering to extend microFIT conditional offers by up to one year.  Pursuant to the Deputy Minister of Energy’s letter of January 28, 2011, regarding conditional offer extensions, the OPA wishes to provide clarification about the domestic content requirements for microFIT projects. 

On October 8, 2010, the OPA issued a program update to identify that applications submitted after that date would not be expected to be processed or connected before December 31, 2010, and, therefore, would be expected to meet the 60-percent domestic content requirement. 

This means that the domestic content requirement for microFIT solar PV applications submitted in 2009 and 2010 can be determined by the date of submission of the microFIT application. 

• Applicants who submitted eligible solar PV microFIT applications to the OPA on or before October 8, 2010, have to meet a minimum domestic content requirement of 40 per cent. Applicants have the option of choosing to meet a higher domestic content threshold.
   
• All other applicants for solar PV microFIT projects, including those who submit their application in 2011, will have to meet a minimum domestic content requirement of 60 percent.

Conditional offer holders indicate their domestic content level when they apply for a contract once their project is connected.

This approach to the domestic content requirements recognizes that those microFIT applicants who reasonably believed they could bring their microFIT project into commercial operation by the end of 2010 should not need to meet the higher requirements because of delays related to microFIT administration or connections.  It is also consistent with the Minister of Energy’s recent Directive of June 8, 2011.

Additional information on domestic content requirements is available here.