Ontario Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure

The Ontario government has allocated $14.4 million in funding to OSTHI, available until March 31, 2011, to encourage industrial, commercial and institutional (CI) entities in Ontario to install qualifying solar thermal heating equipment.

The program is administered by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and is similar to the federal government's ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat program administered by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) except the Ontario program has the additional criteria that the applicant must:

• Be an ICI entity situated in Ontario
• Have submitted to NRCan, an application to ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat program postmarked on or after June 20, 2007, the date that the OSTHI Program was announced by the Government of Ontario.

• Qualifying solar water and air heating systems installed in the Ontario.
• Eligible buildings used in part for residential occupancy must have a common entrance and must either exceed 600 m2 in building area or have at least four (above ground) storeys of building height.
• Residential buildings located in Remote Communities must have at least 50% of the floor area of the building used for commercial, industrial, or institutional purposes.
• Eligible systems must use collectors accepted by the program.

• Funding is based on a rate per square metre of collector area multiplied by a collector-specific performance factor.
• OSTHI provides a maximum incentive of $80,000 towards the installation of a qualifying solar water or solar air heating system.
• The corporate maximum incentive for multiple installations is $2 million.

Energy Incentives, Financing, Energy

Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure
900 Bay Street, 4th Floor Hearst Block
Toronto, Ontario, M7A 2E1
Toll-Free 1-888-668-4636
Email: write2us@energy.gov.on.ca
Website: http://www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/energy/renewable/?page=osthi

June 2009/MP