The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Continued from page 45 lease and the farmer has exclusive use of the inside of the building. Hay Solar has exclusive use of the roof for solar energy production. After the lease is terminated, the farm building and the solar instal- lation become the property of the farmer. Ina nutshell Ontario's FIT program insures a guaranteed pricing structure for renewable electricity production, offering long-term 20 year contracts for energy generated from renewable sources, including solar. In order to qualify a barn must produce in excess of 10 kwh at its peak. (Structures such as private homes, which produce less than 10 kwh fall under the mi- croFIT program). James and his crew of barn experts adhere to the National Farm Building Code of Canada and expect to see the construction of hun- dreds of new Hay Solar barns over the next few years. The top of the barn is capped with hundreds of solar panels placed strategically to maximize the energy of the sun. At completion the solar system is connected to the grid and electricity begins to flow into Ontario's energy system which will reduce Ontario’s requi: ment for burning coal and other fossil fuels. Hay Solar accesses no cost to the farmer for the construction of the new barn, but the downside is that the farmer does not get any significant payments for the lease of the acre of land. In addition, the farmer will not able to apply for their own solar system on the same farm. The farmer uses the barn for normal day-to-day busi- ness and is unmindful of the electricity being generated by the structure. Over the term of the 20 year lease, Hay Solar receives the solar revenue from the Ontario Power Authority and Hay Solar has one option to renew the lease for five years after which the farmer receives full title to the structure and then the lease is terminated. At that point the farmer can continue to feed the solar power into the grid and reap the benefits, if he wishes. The first barn is complete and proudly stands in Scugog Town- ship. “My family and I moved to Port Perry 10 years ago and immediately fell in love with the area” said James. “We moved here to breed horses; however, we always had a problem finding good storage for our hay. We cut our own hay on our farm in Port Perry but we were forced to use our indoor riding arena for hay storage because we could not justify the cost of a proper hay barn.” “Now | am pleased to say that our new barn is full of hay and our riding arena is empty for the first time ever - except for the riders! Finally, it makes sense to build a barn and have a safe and cost effective way to store hay without using valuable space in our other buildings.” James smiled proudly as he spoke. James’ company, Mann Engineering (www.mannengi- neering.com) is a leader in renewable energy specializing in ground-based solar projects, commercial rooftops and 48 FOCUS - SEPTEMBER 2011 James Mann with his horse and a solar bam in the background. now they are involved with the largest agricultural solar systems in Ontario. His company is currently con- structing four more barns in Seagrave, which should be operational this summer. In the last few years we have grown to live with brownouts as our summers continually become hotter (since 1998 each summer has been hotter than the pre- vious). Brownouts occur ‘during the hottest days when our electricity peaks. Coincidentally solar energy reaches its maximum efficiency at the same time thus feeding the grid and lowering the possibility of brownouts. The concept is amazing and very easy to embrace. James Mann has created and developed a model which allows everyone to win. Farmers have brand- new barns, renewable energy is supplied for everyone's use and investors receive a return for their invest- ment. The concept could not come at a better time. As energy costs continue to increase, farmers struggle and research and development of new industries is costly. Congratulations James for doing more than your share to make our planet healthy again. By Jonathan van Bilsen Focus on Scugog