Grants and Incentives

The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP)

The Better Buildings Partnership is an innovative program administered by the Energy Efficiency Office to provide resources including financial assistance for energy efficient retrofits and construction of Toronto buildings. The BBP’s primary goal is to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which come from the energy used primarily to heat, light and cool buildings.

Power Saving Blitz

The Power Saving Blitz program is designed to retrofit small businesses across the province. The program provides lighting and water heating enhancements for small businesses in the office or retail sub-sectors who have an annual electricity demand of approximately 50 kW or less and are individually metered. Funding up to $1,000 is provided for the retrofit, with an opportunity to pay for additional retrofits over the $1,000 limit, at each business owner's discretion.

Program participants must be small businesses in the office or retail sub-sectors located in Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited's service area and have an electricity demand of less than 50 kW. This includes a wide range of businesses including professional dry cleaners, medical offices, beauty salons, and other small retailers. As of April 1, 2009, food-service businesses also qualify.
 
ecoENERGY Retrofit Grants and Incentives

This program requires an energy audit by a qualified contractor before and after renovations Grants for equipment: i.e. $1000 for an Energy Star natural gas furnace with an ECM motor

Ontario Home Energy Savings Program

The Ontario Home Energy Savings Program is an energy conservation program from the Government of Ontario. The Government of Ontario will pay 50% of your Home Energy Audit, up to $150.If you live in Ontario and own a single family home you are eligible for the program. A single family home is defined as a detached or semi-detached home or a low-rise, multi-unit residential building that is three stories or less and less than 600 square meters. Qualified homeowners will receive a rebate of 50% on their first Home Energy Audit, up to $150.

Ontario Power Authority

Cool Savings Program – rebates for reducing your heating and cooling electrical load Rebates for equipment: i.e. $125 for a mid or high-efficiency natural gas furnace with an ECM motor

BOMA Conservation and Demand Management Program in Toronto

The Program will direct incentive funds to eligible Participants, towards the capital cost of initiatives that provide sustainable electricity demand and energy reductions in commercial buildings. The program offers incentives for annual energy savings, in kilowatt hours (kWh), peak summer demand reductions, in kilowatts (kW), and reducing tons of cooling (for geothermal projects).

Ontario Power Authority’s Electrical Retrofit Incentive Program (ERIP)

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) provides incentives through its Electrical Retrofit Incentive Program (ERIP) to hydro customers to conserve energy and shift their loads from periods of peak demand to lower cost times of the day. The program is managed by the Local Distribution Companies (LDCs). ERIP provides Prescriptive Incentives for predefined measures, such as compact fluorescent lamps, T-8s, LED exit signs, etc. ERIP also provides Custom Incentives for other measures at $150/kW reduction.

Enbridge Gas Distribution’s Energy Audit Incentives

Enbridge Gas Distribution offers financial rebates for energy auditing, based on the lesser of:
$0.01/m3 of most recent full calendar year of natural gas consumption of the building; or
1/2 the cost of the audit up to $5,000
1/3 the cost of the audit up to $5,000 if customer receives audit incentives from other sources

Buildings must consume more than 150,000 cu.m. of natural gas to qualify for this incentive and in multi-residential buildings a minimum of 25% of savings identified must be implemented to receive the audit incentive. Audit incentive application and audit scope must be pre-approved by Enbridge and must materially meet the requirements of Enbridge’s Report Outline.

Enbridge Gas Distribution’s Incentives for Energy Retrofits

Enbridge Gas Distribution offers financial incentives for energy retrofits, calculated on projected first year's natural gas savings using the following rates:
$0.05/m3 saved up to a $100,000 limit (regardless of the number of measures) OR
$0.10/m3 saved up to a $30,000 limit (3 measures or more)

PowerStream Data Centre Incentive Program (DCIP)

The Data Centre Incentive Program (DCIP) provides a positive contribution to your company’s bottom line by encouraging and rewarding the reduction of electricity demand in data centre operations through the implementation of energy efficiency projects.Data centres account for 2% of the worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the growth of data centre energy use is quickly outpacing the growth of other commercial building types. Energy and space efficiency will address constraints to growth, reduce operation costs, support internal green initiatives and help Ontario meet its environmental targets.

NRCan’s ecoENERGY Retrofit Incentive for Buildings

Natural Resources Canada's ecoENERGY Retrofit Incentive offers financial incentives for energy efficiency retrofits. The incentives are based on $10 per gigajoule of estimated energy savings to a maximum of 25 percent of eligible project costs.

(1 GJ = 277.8 kWh, or 1 GJ = 26.9 cu.m. natural gas)

ecoENERGY for Renewable Power

NRCan’s ecoENERGY for Renewable Power provides incentives for the supply of clean electricity from renewable sources such as wind, biomass, low-impact hydro, geothermal, solar photovoltaic and ocean energy. ecoENERGY for Renewable Power provides an incentive of one cent per kilowatt-hour for up to 10 years to eligible low-impact, renewable electricity projects constructed before March 31, 2011.

ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat

NRCan’s ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat program is also available until March 31, 2011. Incentives are offered to the industrial/commercial/institutional sector to install active energy-efficient solar air and/or water heating systems. ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat offers an incentive to industrial, commercial and institutional purchasers of solar heating systems. The incentive will rebate 25 percent of the purchase, installation and certain other costs of qualifying systems.

Ontario Solar Thermal Heating Incentive (OSTHI)

Ontario’s Program is administered by the Ministry of Energy (Ontario) and is similar to the federal government’s ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat and it provides an incentive by way of a rebate to Ontario organizations in the commercial, industrial or institutional (ICI) sectors which install a qualifying solar water or solar air heating system.

OSTHI provides up to 25 per cent of eligible project costs, to a maximum incentive of $80,000 per installation. The total project funding from all levels of government is limited to 50 per cent of eligible project costs.

City of Toronto Sustainable Energy Funds

The City of Toronto launched its new Sustainable Energy Funds -- the Toronto Energy Conservation Fund and the Toronto Green Energy Fund in April 2008. The funds were created as part of the City's Climate Change, Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Action Plan, which was adopted by City Council in July 2007. They are designed to provide low-interest financing to projects which improve energy efficiency in buildings (existing or planned), or generate renewable energy, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions.