Joint-venture partners SunEdison Canada (www.sunedison.com) and SkyPower Corp. (www.skypower.com) announce the activation of Canada's first ground-mount photovoltaic solar system. The 9.1-MW project, named First Light, located in Stone Mills, Ontario, covers 90 acres (36 hectares) of land, about the size of 50 Canadian football fields.

SunEdison and SkyPower expect First Light to generate more than 10 million kilowatt-hours — enough electricity to power almost 1000 homes — in its first year of operation.

• The system will remove almost 8000 metric tons of CO₂ from the air in its first year of operation — the equivalent of carbon emissions from almost 1800 cars.

• Over 20 years, the system will displace nearly 152,000 metric tons of CO₂ — the equivalent of removing almost 33,000 cars from the road.

• To displace the same amount of CO₂ that the system will offset over 20 years, Ontario would have to plant more than 6.7 million trees.

During construction of First Light, SunEdison and SkyPower worked closely with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources to successfully preserve habitat for the endangered Eastern Loggerhead Shrike on the property.

According to Elaine Williams, executive director of Wildlife Preservation Canada, “Both SunEdison and SkyPower have shown all along their willingness to help the endangered Loggerhead Shrikes. We appreciate all of their help and see this as a great example of how cooperation can lead to good outcomes,” she said.