TransCanada, the Calgary based energy infrastructure company is buying another solar power facility in Ontario in a bid to increase its presence in the renewable energy market. The Mississippi Mills project, about 60 kilometres west of Ottawa has a generating capacity of about 10 megawatts. This new deal is part of a prior agreement with Canadian Solar to buy nine Ontario solar facilities in order to expand its renewable energy while also promoting fossil fuel projects (such as the Keystone XL pipeline) which would carry bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands into refineries in Texas. The total cost of the nine solar power facilities is about $500 million. Whereas, the Keystone XL pipeline is expected to cost around $5.3 billion. Since the initial announcement in December, TransCanada has already acquired four of the nine solar plans in Ontario which are as follows: Brockville 1, Brockville 2 and the Burritts Rapids project in Ottawa. The energy from these plants is being sold to the Ontario Power Authority for $443 per megawatt hour as part of a 20-year power purchase agreement. 

TransCanada president and CEO Russ Girling said, “We are pleased to have acquired an additional solar facility in Ontario as part of our growing energy portfolio, one-third of which are facilities that produce electricity from emission-less sources.”