At former coal generating site, Nanticoke Solar hits milestone in fighting climate change

OPG’s new Nanticoke Solar facility recently marked a major milestone, generating more than 100,000 megawatt-hours of clean power to date – enough to power 10,000 homes year-round.

The newest addition to OPG’s clean energy fleet, the 44 MW Nanticoke Solar went into service in March 2019. Located near Port Dover on the shores of Lake Erie, the facility was built in partnership with the Six Nations of Grand River Development Corporation and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

Spanning 260 acres, the site consists of 192,431 solar panels, 23 inverters, 16 transformers, and kilometres of above- and below-ground power cabling.

Properly maintaining that many solar panels has required some outside-of-the-box thinking.

“We continue to look at innovative ways to effectively maintain this site,” said Pranav Jindal, Work Centre Manager for Nanticoke Solar.

Earlier this summer, OPG’s contract partner, EPTCON, conducted aerial thermal imaging to spot any faulty or out-of-service solar panels. Utilizing this new technology has made for a much more efficient and time-saving approach compared to traditional diagnostic testing.

The aerial survey found the solar site is performing optimally more than a year after going into service, with less than 0.1 per cent of the photovoltaic panels found to be in need of service. The thermal imaging inspections will continue at the site on a quarterly basis.

Nanticoke Solar is built on the former site of Nanticoke Generating Station, once Ontario’s largest coal-fired plant. The coal station operated for more than 40 years before it stopped using coal as fuel in 2013 and was safely demolished in August 2019.