Success Stories

A Durham Region Success Story

 

GreenWorks Solar Power

Creating a new industry for farmers and clean energy for Ontario

With the help of Durham College , GreenWorks Solar Power is turning farmer’s fields into clean energy power plants for Ontario.

GreenWorks' solar tracking system at Durham College

GreenWorks Solar Power, created by CEO Steven Kayser, produces massive 90-foot solar tracking systems for solar panels that have a specific destination in mind – farmer’s fields. It’s a golden opportunity to turn unused fields into solar charging stations that can create micro-economies in rural Ontario while powering Ontario homes across the province.

Kayser has developed a cost-effective technology that is affordable and commercially viable for farmers. And, thanks to the government’s microFIT program, farmers have an easy way to be compensated for putting electricity back in the grid.

Once installed and after about four years of producing electricity the panels are usually paid off, and the electricity produced becomes profit.

However, four years is still a long time. Kayser knew he could shorten the timeline, not by cutting costs, but by improving the energy production of the solar panels.

Through the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII) , part of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) , Kayser was connected to Durham College researcher Brent Brooks and his team got to work. They developed the computerized control system for the two-axis solar tracker mechanism, allowing the solar panels to follow the sun and enabled maximum energy production. This allows farmers to pay off their investment even sooner.

The latest solar tracking system prototype is currently housed in the college’s state of the art applied research facility called the Integrated Manufacturing Centre (IMC).  The centre is specifically focused on collaborating with and helping bring to market, Ontario’s emerging cleantech manufacturers.

“We had the idea to design and deliver solar trackers to compete with European tracker companies that are coming to Ontario. Direct selling and heavy R&D through research at Durham College resulted in a tracker that is designed specifically to handle Ontario winters, which has given us an advantage over our global competitors,” says Kayser.

Just a few years ago GreenWorks was an idea in Kayser’s head. Today, the first prototype has sold 10 models without even leaving the development phase.