Kelly McParland: Ontario quietly reverses field on wind, solar energy | Full Comment | National Post

Kelly McParland: Ontario quietly reverses field on wind, solar energy | Full Comment | National Post

Times of international turmoil are great moments for domestic governments to make important announcements they don’t want to be noticed. Especially if the announcement involves a sudden reversal in policy that could seriously embarrass the government.

So Friday afternoon was an ideal time for Ontario’s Liberal government to take a big chunk of its alternative energy program and chuck it overboard. Attention was riveted on Egypt, where spectacular events were unfolding.  The perfect opportunity for Premier Dalton McGuinty to engineer yet another major reversal, while paying a minimal price among voters.

After years of touting wind projects as a critical piece of the alternative energy puzzle, the government let slip — very quietly — that offshore wind projects are no longer part of the game plan. Turns out there just isn’t enough scientific evidence that offshore wind projects do a lick of good, said Brad Duguid, the energy minister.

“It’s simply a case of recognizing we need to take a closer look at the science on freshwater offshore wind projects,” said Duguid. “Right now there’s only one in the world we’re aware of, in Sweden. There’s a number of issues that need to be looked at before anything could ever be considered for approval.”

Gee, now wouldn’t you think the government would have checked out the sciencebefore insisting wind power was the way of the future? Evidently not. The McGuinty people have been pushing ahead vigorously on the wind front ever since they concluded they could squeeze more votes from trendy enviro-enthusiasts, who are in favour of anything that sounds remotely Greenish, whether it makes sense or not.

They’ve been running into a spot of bother, though, as rural residents grow increasingly agitated at the monster wind towers being slapped up wherever the government sees fit to put them. Turns out the government may have been a bit rash in dismissing complaints that the low-level noise from the turbines can cause health problems. A court challenge launched late in January claims that the 550-metre minimum setback is far too close for comfort, and argues the government didn’t do adequate homework into the potential health hazards when it declared the towers to be free of any danger.

Added to McGuinty’s problems with wind are similar signs of trouble on the solar front. After strongly encouraging individual solar projects, and offering outrageously generous pricing on solar-generated power, the province unexpectedly announced last summer it was slashing the rate it would pay  on some projects.  On Friday, hundreds more Ontarians were told that installations they’d erected at the behest of the government can’t be connected to the provincial grid because of technical problems. Rural residents, some of whom have invested large amounts in solar generating operations, will be left high and dry. The Toronto Star reports:

“I’ve got $70,000 sitting right out in my backyard,” said Brian Wilson, who lives near Belleville, of his 10-kilowatt solar array. “I can go two doors down and they’ve got $70,000 invested, too.”

But they’ve both been told that they can’t connect to the electrical grid because of technical issues.

“It’s a mess,” says Kim Doherty of Farmed Energy Inc., who supplies solar equipment. He started getting calls from clients this week, saying they’d been told no connections are available for their projects.

One of his clients, a father-and-son team near Strathroy, made a $170,000 down payment on solar equipment, and built four concrete support platforms at a cost of $20,000 each, Doherty said

Angering rural voters, and battering your credibility with the environmental crowd,  aren’t great ideas if you run a government that faces an election in eight months. So it’s no wonder that Ontario’s Liberals sought to hide the bad news by releasing it when (they hoped) no one was watching. But the excitement in Egypt won’t last forever, and eventually people will notice that Ontario’s government, once again, has been forced into a humiliating retreat at considerable trouble and cost to individual Ontarians.

Recurrent Energy hires Celestica to make solar electricity modules for Ontario

TORONTO - Celestica (TSX:CLS), a Toronto-based global manufacturing company, will be making solar modules for a U.S. company that will supply the Ontario Power Authority under a multi-year agreement announced Monday.

The modules are part of a project awarded to Recurrent Energy of San Francisco as part of the renewable energy Feed-In-Tariff program for the government-owned Ontario power grid.

Production will begin at Celestica's Toronto plant in the second quarter of this year, said Mike Andrade, Celestica's senior vice-president of the Americas.

"It's nice that there's a (green energy) market in our backyard," he said, adding that clean technology is a major growth initiative in the company's Canadian business.

"In Canada, historically we've done most of our business in the IT and communication space and we've made a concerted effort over the last few years to shift our focus to diversifying that."

The Celestica-manufactured photovoltaic modules will be used in the construction of 19 solar power plants that Recurrent Energy has contracted to do under the provincial government program.

Recurrent Energy said it expects to invest hundreds of million dollars in the development, which it says will create about 2,500 jobs in the province.

Last week, Celestica said it sees the opportunity for double-digit growth in revenue in 2011, for the first time in several years.

The revenue growth follows several years of investments in new market segments for Celestica _ particularly aerospace and defence, industrial and healthcare _ and the company anticipates making further investments in such areas in 2011, Muhlhauser said.

Recurrent Energy hires Celestica to make solar electricity modules for Ontario - Winnipeg Free Press

Ontario opposition would seek green energy changes

Here's an article that I feel is important for Ontario solar, wind and hydroelectric developers, supporters, opposition and voters to be informed about.  

I understand the concerns of the Progressive Conservatives. Any new government's decisions and actions must well thought out. Analyze and understand the near term benefits and longterm impacts to the greater renewable industry involved (developers, operators, manufacturers, installers, communities, First Nations etc.).

If new rates are deemed fair and justified, the industry and the rate base will understand.  Threatening to kill the Green Energy Act (feed in tariff, related programs and procedures) without an immediate system in place will reboot a repeating industry boom and bust cycle that Ontario's renewable industry has experienced over the last 3 decades.  

Read below:

By Nicole Mordant

VANCOUVER, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Ontario's opposition Progressive Conservative Party would overhaul the province's feed-in tariff program for producers of renewable energy if it wins the October provincial election because it is too expensive, a party leader said on Wednesday.

The Conservatives, who have a double-digit lead over the governing Liberal Party in opinion polls, would also comb through existing contracts handed out under the incentive plan to see if changes can be made, said John Yakabuski, who is in line to take over as energy minister if his party takes power.

"Going forward, absolutely, we would not be signing these contracts," Yakabuski said.

"We are not going tear up contracts, but I can tell you we are going to look at each and every one of those contracts to see what options we have," he told Reuters in an interview.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has attracted billions of dollars in investment from foreign and domestic producers of renewable energy since it launched North America's richest and comprehensive feed-in tariff program late in 2009.

The program, which is aimed at creating jobs and eliminating coal-fired power plants to cut greenhouse gases, pays above-market rates under 20 year contracts to solar, wind, water and biomass power producers who meet certain criteria.

Ratepayers, who bear the costs of the program, have started to complain as their monthly power bills have risen.

"The problem is that the consumer pays and that is the tremendous, terrible wrong of their program," Yakabuski said.

He said the Conservatives were in favor of closing down coal-fired power stations and encouraging the development of renewable energy, but contracts for new power had to be awarded through a competitive bidding process.

The Conservatives have not yet issued their official energy policy but will do so well before the Oct. 6 election, he said.

The biggest investor in the Ontario green energy program to date is a consortium led by South Korea's Samsung C&T (000830.KS: Quote), which was awarded a C$7 billion ($7.01 billion) contract a year ago to build wind and solar projects and set up manufacturing plants.

Other foreign investors include Germany's Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE:Quote), which plans to build a wind turbine plant in the province, Bosch Solar Energy AG (BSLRF.PK: Quote) and Japan's Marubeni Corp (8002.T:Quote).

"I think the posture of the Conservatives is slowing some investment," said Michael Carten, chief executive of Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd (STG.V: Quote), which has partnered with Bosch to build solar modules and inverters.

"I am sure that some of the big players are saying 'I have to see some continuity on this, let's see what will happen after the fall'," he said.

($1=$0.99 Canadian) (Editing by Rob Wilson)

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