The province’s first-ever wind turbine blade manufacturing plant and a new solar module manufacturing facility will serve Ontario’s growing clean, green energy industry and create up to 1,400 jobs.

Canadian Solar Inc. today announced that Guelph would be the site of its first module facility in North America, creating up to 500 jobs. This follows on the heels of yesterday’s announcement by Siemens and Samsung to build a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Ontario that will create up to 900 direct and indirect jobs. Less than one year after the launch of Ontario’s landmark Green Energy Act, several other companies have announced plans to set up or expand solar and wind turbine manufacturing facilities in Ontario.

Companies that want to secure clean energy Feed-in Tariff (FIT) contracts must use Ontario products and services for a specific percentage of their project. The 694 clean energy contracts already announced are expected to create approximately 20,000 direct and indirect green economy jobs over five years and about $9 billion in private sector investment. These projects will generate enough electricity each year to power 600,000 homes

Ontario’s new clean energy economy is creating jobs in construction, installation, operations and maintenance, engineering, manufacturing, finance, IT and software. It is part of the Open Ontario plan to create jobs and new opportunities for growth in the province.

• Ontario is Canada’s leader in wind and solar capacity and is home to the country’s largest wind and solar farms.
• The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
• A $7 billion investment by the Samsung-led Korean consortium will lead to more than 16,000 direct and indirect green energy jobs over six years.

• Find out about Ontario’s Green Energy Act
• Find out more about the Siemens/Samsung joint project
• Read about Canadian Solar Inc.’s new facility in Guelph
• Get details about Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff Program