Developers are required to submit their proposals by 1 September 2015 and the corporation intends to select the winners by the end of this year.
It is the first of three RFPs under Ontario’s Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) competitive process that supports the province’s goal of achieving 10.7GW of non-hydro renewable energy capacity by 2021.
The LRP 1 program is open only to 42 pre-qualified applicants. The call also includes 140MW of solar, 50MW of bioenergy and 75MW of waterpower projects.
The IESO said the LRP has been designed to strike a balance between early community engagement and achieving value for ratepayers.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) has applauded the RFP launch and said it looks forward to the results of the process and future opportunities.
CanWEA president Robert Hornung said: "Ontario’s new competitive bidding process has attracted high quality project applicants who were pre-qualified through the LRP I RFQ process based on mandatory requirements focused on past development experience and financial capability.
"We are confident that this process will demonstrate wind energy’s cost-competitiveness as a source of new electricity generation in Ontario."
Ontario currently has over 3,590MW of installed wind power capacity, delivering more than 3.5% of the province’s energy demand.
Image: Ontario has issued a 300MW wind power request for proposals. Photo: Courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
