Notable among these is the microFIT program for small non-commercial systems under 10 kilowatts, and FIT, the larger commercial version which covers a number of project types with sizes into the megawatts.
Prior to the introduction of the GEA, Ontario had enacted a number of different programs to introduce renewable energy or promote conservation.
The Standard Offer, also known as SOP or RESOP for short, introduced a number of fixed 20-year feed-in tariffs for hydro, wind, solar (PV) and biomass projects.
In 2008, Ernst & Young published Renewable energy country attractiveness indices for the first quarter of 2008, which demonstrated that Germany's FIT program was far more successful, delivering more power at lower costs.
An earlier report from UC Berkeley demonstrated that job creation with renewables was far higher than fossil fuels, another argument in favour of the German-style program, which was then considered a great success.
In particular, a number of proposals suggested adding additional classes for very small systems that would have minimal impact on the grid that could be given an express application process and pre-authorized access to connect.
These systems would also be given much higher tariffs, in order to offset basic implementation details, like metering, that are often a fixed cost no matter the project size.
However, a 2011 report by Jim McCarter[citation needed], Ontario's Auditor General, found that a large majority of these jobs were in construction and would only exist for no more than three years.
Writing in the National Post, John Ivison noted in 2011 that Eclipsall Energy Corp, a newly created company in Scarborough, Ontario, that was touted by Premier Dalton McGuinty, only pays its workers 20% above minimum wage and that its manufacturing facility simply "assemble[s] glass and solar cells imported from Asia" (which allows it to qualify for the local content rules).
[29][30] In June 2013, Chiarelli announced that the province's future Feed-in-Tariff contacts will now be limited to smaller projects (less than 500 kW) and that a cap of 900 MW of additional capacity will be set for deployment by 2018.
[31][32][33] In December 2013, Chiarelli announced that the remaining local content requirements which had already been reduced would be removed entirely sometime in 2014 in order to comply with the WTO decision.
[34] In February 2014, Jeff Garrah, CEO of Kingston's Economic Development Commission (KEDCO), cited the removal of the local content requirements as the reason for the bankruptcy of Centennial Global Technology Inc., which in November 2013 had been described as Canada's "leading national solar panel distributor".
Describing the Green Energy Act as "an ongoing soap opera", Garrah stated that municipalities across Ontario have become dismayed with how its solar and wind power provisions have been implemented.