Ontario is already North America’s friendliest jurisdiction for wind and other renewable energy projects, thanks to its recently proclaimed Green Energy Act, meant to speed along approval, and the establishment of European-style 20-year fixed-price energy contracts. (Power companies are now required to integrate all new green energy projects into their grids and pay producers 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for onshore wind farms, 19 cents/kWh for offshore wind, and up to 80.2 cents/kWh for solar power, versus about six cents/kWh for both hydro and nuclear energy.) The province, which is committed to shutting down its coal-fired plants by 2014, will have 1,200 megawatts of wind power in operation by the end of this year, and there are 103 more “shovel ready” wind developments, totalling 3,263 MW, in the pipeline. The proliferation of giant turbines—80-m-tall towers with 40- to 45-m blades—is already nearing the 5,000 MW supply ceiling the Ontario Power Authority has said it can easily integrate into its aging grid. But soon, there will be no more limits. Smitherman is promising a series of major power infrastructure announcements in coming weeks that will not only make wind a much bigger part of Ontario’s energy mix, but open up vast new areas of the province to commercial wind development.
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Category Archives: Environmental sustainability
Don’t back down on wind turbines
For renewable energy to have a future in Ontario, public support and confidence in wind farms is essential. The province should lead the way by ensuring that Ontarians have access to the most up-to-date research on the impact of wind turbines on public health.
In April, the government said it would fund a university-based research initiative “to examine potential public health effects of renewable energy projects.” But the initiative has not yet been launched. The province ought to make it a priority, with a special focus on wind turbines. That would ensure that Ontario’s regulations governing wind turbines are based on the best possible evidence.
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Ontario Lauded As North American Wind Power Leader
TORONTO, Jun 29, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Ontario, Canada was hailed as North America’s wind energy leader recently at an international conference in South Korea, where George Smitherman, Ontario’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, accepted the 2009 World Wind Energy Award.
The World Wind Energy Association presented its annual award to Minister Smitherman for his “outstanding achievements in making Ontario the leading wind energy jurisdiction in North America.” The international association also recognized the Minister’s role in championing Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act, calling the recently adopted legislation a decisive step toward establishing a strong domestic wind industry in the province and making it a worldwide green leader.
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If it walks and squawks like a carbon tax, it is a carbon tax
By Ben Eisen
Policy Analyst
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
During the last federal election, the Conservatives skewered then Liberal leader Stephan Dion’s proposed carbon tax as a “tax on everything.” The Tories argued such a policy would place a significant strain on household budgets, curb economic growth, and contribute almost nothing towards the stated goal of the policy – to combat global warming.
In all this, the Conservatives were correct. Unfortunately, their alternative of a “carbon market,” some details of which were given recently, will produce all of the same negative consequences as a carbon tax, with a few additional problems on top.
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Stirring the pot on wind energy projects
The winds of dissent are blowing across southern Ontario, buffeting the dreams of entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on elevated support for renewable energy.
“There’s a lot of controversy about it coming out now,” said Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture president Dave Riddell in a recent edition of the Alliston Herald newspaper, when asked to comment about prospective wind energy projects.
Increasingly well-organized groups of residents around places like Ripley and St. Columban might suggest Riddell’s comment is an understatement. But, in the interview, he pinpointed the problem.
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Brian Hollywood shoots from the hip
Brian Hollywood describes himself as a “shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy,” and in the past that has placed the president and CEO of St. Thomas Holdings Inc. squarely in the sites of City Scope.
“I’m passionate about what I do,” Hollywood stressed halfway through a frank conversation with this corner a week ago.
“After 40 years in the business I don’t have to be here. But we’re creating something here.”
Hollywood agreed to an invitation to sit across the table in his office to candidly discuss his tenure at the utility, his vision for the future and the strategic plan that has led to a couple of key acquisitions, including the most recent, Tal Trees Inc. in Belleville, Ont.
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Wind farms demand careful and sensitive planning
By Douglas Hunter
Winnipeg Free Press
On the way to the Hudson River valley in early May, I made a point of detouring through Lewis County in upstate New York, to see the 320-[MW] Maple Ridge Wind Farm, which began operating in 2006. With 195 turbines, it is the largest installation in eastern North America.
I’ve long been skeptically supportive of wind power, skeptical in terms of whether we’re putting farms in the right place, where they can actually generate enough juice to justify their expense. I’ve been fearful of their introduction to natural areas like parks, but I’ve also found the anti-wind lobby exasperating in its at times hysterical, out-of-date facts, plain weird allegations (like electromagnetic-induced illnesses), and a propensity to propagate fringe-element denials of climate-change science.
All that said, I wanted to see for myself what life might be like in the midst of a major wind farm.
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Understanding Prosperity Without Growth
“The truth is that there is as yet no credible, socially just, ecologically sustainable scenario of continually growing incomes for a world of 9 billion people.”
This rather terrifying quote is from “Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy,” published by the Sustainable Development Commission, the U.K. government’s sustainability watchdog. The report is the result of a year-long inquiry by the commission led by Professor Tim Jackson, who has been developing the basic concept across his entire career.
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Ethanol worries
The point here is that ethanol can be a big problem for engines, engine systems, certain types of fuel tanks and fuel lines. So as governments, ethanol producers and various proponents promote efforts to increase the amount of ethanol in fuel to 15 per cent from five to 10 per cent now, we should all take a deep breath.
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