When the winning bids for Alberta’s renewable power auction were announced in December, jaws dropped.

The winning projects were approved at a record-breaking low price of 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour — the lowest price for electricity anywhere in Canada.

“This is a game changer. Even the most optimistic observers were shocked at how low the price turned out to be,” said Binnu Jeyakumar, electricity program director at the Pembina Institute.

My, how the times have changed.

Nearly a decade ago a leaked voice recording showed federal money earmarked for wind projects was quietly redirected to subsidize Alberta’s oil patch. About a year later the fledgling Canadian wind industry was left high and dry with a federal budget that saw renewable energy as merely a method of greening the oilsands.

That all changed with the introduction of the NDP government’s Climate Leadership Plan in November 2015. The plan called for all coal-fueled generating plants to be phased out by 2030. Coal generating plants now produce about half of the province’s electricity.

Renewable energy producers were so eager to get in on the action that when the government agency that manages Alberta’s electrical grid put up for auction 400 megawatts of renewable power last year, bids by 12 companies totalled 10 times that much.

In the end, 600 megawatts — four projects with a total price tag of $1 billion — were approved.

The recent winning bids revealed keen competition when it comes to price. The successful bidders will produce wind power at prices much lower than Ontario, and lower even than natural gas powered plants.

No wonder Premier Rachel Notley could hardly contain her glee as they announced the auction results to the news media in mid-December.

“The naysayers predicted that the price of this renewable energy would probably come in high, about eight cents per kilowatt hour,” Notley said. “In fact, our process was so competitive and so many companies wanted to invest we got a 20-year price of 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour.”

My, how the times have changed. https://t.co/8xDfO3OEFE

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) February 15, 2018

More wind projects in Alberta to come

In early February the government announced two more bidding competitions will get underway by the end of March with winners to be announced in December.

Round 2, for 300 megawatts, will require bidders to have a minimum of 15 to 25 per cent Indigenous equity ownership.

For round 3, 400 megawatts will be up for auction with the lowest cost the most important determinant.

Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, was among the first to respond with kudos for Alberta’s renewable electricity program.

“Today’s announcement is a clear signal that Alberta is ‘open for business’ for renewables,” Hornung stated in the media release, praising the province’s “clarity and consistency.”

Alberta’s electricity market appeals to renewable energy developers for several reasons — even aside from its abundance of wind, sunshine and open spaces.

Notably, Alberta’s power generation and transmission is not owned and managed by a Crown corporation. Instead, mostly private, for-profit companies provide electricity to Albertans, allowing more room for new entrants to the market. Government-appointed agencies oversee their operations and ensure generating plants and transmission lines keep up with demand for electricity.

And unlike many other provinces, Alberta does not rely on hydro to generate electricity; it has usually been too expensive compared to the power-generation mainstays, coal and natural gas.

The combination of these factors means Alberta presents a big opportunity for wind and solar producers.

Wind projects a boon to local communities

Three companies will spend a total of $1 billion on the wind farms, which will have the capacity to produce electricity for 255,000 homes.

All the winning bids, announced in December, were for wind projects. Edmonton’s Capital Power, which was a big player during the coal era, was awarded a 201 megawatt project in southeast Alberta; EDP Renewables of Portugal won a 248 megawatt project also in southeast Alberta; and ENEL Green Power North America, a division of a Rome-based global power company was awarded projects of 115 and 31 megawatts near Pincher Creek in southwest Alberta.

The projects will be a boon to local communities because they will pay municipal taxes, fees to landowners, as well as provide jobs particularly during the construction phase.

“We are very pleased about this project,” said Joan Hughson, deputy reeve of Forty-Mile County which stretches southwest of Medicine Hat to the U.S border and includes about 3,500 residents. “This will be a very big boost for our tax revenue because there is little industry here; it’s mostly farming.”

According to Jerry Bellika, a spokesman for Capital Power of Edmonton, its project, which features 56 wind turbines, will generate about $2 million a year in taxes for the county. Thirty landowners will receive annual payments for the use of their land. In addition, neighbouring landowners will receive “goodwill payments.”  

The $300 million project still needs approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission but construction is expected to begin later this year and be complete by the end of 2019.

Rome-based Enel Green Power has a North American division headquartered in Massachusetts,  and already has a wind farm near Pincher Creek in the southwest corner of Alberta and will be building two more in the area at the cost of $209 million.

When asked about plans to engage with the local community about the projects a representative was vague about exactly what the company planned to do.

“We are committed to hiring locally when the workforce is available…we also always look for ways to support critical community initiatives such as infrastructure, education, recreation , and more,”  she wrote in an email.

EDP Renewables did not reply to a request for information.

Binnu Jeyakumar of the Pembina Institute said how the companies engage with and contribute to the local communities will be among the key factors when it comes to determining  if these renewable energy projects are successful.

“Good community engagement will be critical to building good will,” she said.  “Because there are a lot more renewable projects to come.”

By 2030 it is anticipated that 30 per cent of the grid will be powered by renewables.

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Alberta’s plan for the replacement of coal energy with natural gas and renewables was announced in 2015, but still questions as to who will provide the new power remain unanswered.

Walter Hossli, who has been working with solar panel manufacturers, potential investors, and green energy groups to promote community energy projects, says they want the government to move much more quickly on that sector than it has.

“Everyone is sitting on their hands not knowing what the rules will be…maybe the government just doesn’t know what it’s doing on this file,” said Hossli. “There’s this go big or go home mentality because the system has been geared to larger scale electricity producers.”

The phase-out of coal-generated electricity by 2030 is a main pillar of the Alberta government’s Climate Leadership Action Plan. If the government operates according to plan, in 13 years natural gas will account for 70 per cent of the province’s electricity, while generation by renewables — mostly wind and solar — will have increased significantly to make up the remaining 30 per cent.

Currently, coal accounts for 50 per cent of electricity generation, the highest of any province.

Overabundance of Interest from Renewable Producers

A government request for proposals for renewable projects aroused a lot of interest; a total of 400 megawatts of electrical power were on the table for this round of contracts. Bids amounting to ten times that much were received.

Four hundred megawatts is only about 1.5 per cent of total electricity generation in Alberta, so many more renewable projects will have to be integrated into the system if the government’s goal is to be reached.

But there are still lots of questions about the NDP government’s policies designed to achieve that goal: Will the renewable sector be turned over to the corporations that dominated the coal era? Or will they lose out to international players?

Will there be room for smaller scale community renewable energy that gives people more control of their electricity usage and costs?

Those are some of the key issues arising as the government is set to announce in December the first batch of successful bidders for renewable energy projects.

“There’s this go big or go home mentality because the system has been geared to larger scale electricity producers.” https://t.co/2A5nGVJC7Q

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) December 4, 2017

Patchwork of Electrical Companies

To fully understand the switch that the government is attempting, it is important to remember that unlike other provinces, Alberta’s power generation and transmission is not owned and managed by a crown corporation.

Instead, mostly private, for-profit companies provide electricity to Albertans. Government appointed agencies oversee their operations and ensure generating plants and transmission lines keep up with demand for electricity.

The main agency is the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) which now manages the bidding process for renewable projects.

According to spokesperson Erin Powell, the system operator will rank the proposals and then turn the list over to Alberta’s minister of energy who will make the final decisions next month.

The agency wouldn’t disclose what companies entered the bidding competition. But there’s no question that big players from the coal era that now have to transition to natural gas and renewables — notably TransAlta and ATCO — are among the bidders.

Suncor, the biggest oilsands producer, is also investing in wind projects. Municipally-owned power companies such as Calgary’s Enmax are developing wind and solar projects along with their natural gas powered generating stations.

“Incumbents definitely have an advantage,” said Binnu Jeyakumar, electricity program director at the Pembina Institute.

“They are familiar with the system in place and know the province. But there are also lots of international companies that have a great deal of expertise with renewables.”

Wind projects will likely be awarded the lion’s share, said Jeyakumar.

“Wind is by far the cheapest renewable in Canada, only natural gas is cheaper right now but we don’t know what will happen with the price of natural gas in the future. It could go up,” she added. “Proponents of solar projects may get a share but wind will dominate.”

And there’s plenty of wind in southern Alberta which is already home to a few wind farms.

One of the key factors Jeyakumar says Pembina will be watching is how winning bidders plan to engage communities that will be affected by wind farms.

“They will be in rural areas, and it’s important that not just the owners of the land where the wind farm is located, but other people close to the project share in the benefits,” said Jeyakumar.

Small-Scale, Community Energy Not a Priority for Government

There’s another piece that is part of the push for renewable energy in Alberta that’s fallen under the radar.

Plans for community energy and micro-energy which could see solar and wind power produced for the benefit of small groups of local investors — neighbourhoods, towns, farms, First Nations or large institutions such as a universities—  are not being developed by Alberta Energy, one of the most dominant government ministries, but by the environment ministry.

That seems to indicate that those sorts of projects are not high on the government’s agenda because all the expertise in the electrical energy field is concentrated in Alberta Energy.

So it’s not surprising that stakeholders in the community renewables sector are still waiting for the government to come up with policy and regulations so they can move ahead with projects.

“Ideally, we would like to see about 20 per cent of the renewable pie go to community energy,” Hossli said.

In Germany, where renewable energy accounts for 35 per cent of all energy produced, most of the solar and wind projects are owned by citizen cooperatives, Hossli noted.

The Alberta Green Economy Network is also pushing for more community energy and would like to see the government implement a feed-in tariff for the projects, which would guarantee a price for energy produced and sold to the grid to encourage up-front investment.

It could be difficult for community groups to raise the necessary funds for local renewable energy projects without this kind of program in place.

Last summer the government conducted a survey of 158 stakeholders asking for input on community energy generation; 54 responded.

According to the final report, “Many participants believe the market currently favours traditional players who generate electricity using coal and gas. They perceive an unlevel playing field that advantages large scale, incumbent producers of energy.”

The government followed up the survey with a one-day symposium for stakeholders and experts last July. But to date no further steps have been taken to advance community energy or micro-generation projects in Alberta.

Meanwhile, large scale renewable energy projects are moving ahead, with the first batch expected to be operational by 2019.

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It would have been the first 100 per cent community-owned renewable power project in North America.

Located just south of Swift Current, Sask., the $90-million project would have generated 35 megawatts (MW) of electricity from wind turbines and solar panels with electricity sold to the provincial utility, SaskPower.

But SaskPower had other plans for the region — specifically, a $700-million natural gas power station.

On Dec. 2, it was announced that the gas power station — which will emit one million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to putting 211,000 cars on the road for a year — wouldn’t require a federal environmental assessment.

Two days later, SaskWind, the provincial wind energy association and key promoter of the proposed Swift Current wind and solar project, shut down after four years of operation.

In a final blog post, SaskWind president James Glennie wrote that the decision about the environmental assessment of the natural gas power station was “extremely disappointing, includes no justification and verges on the inexplicable.”

The gas-fired power plant is proposed to open in 2019 just northwest of Swift Current and generate 350 MW, ten times more electricity than the renewable project.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s decision not to review the gas power station was the final straw for SaskWind, Glennie told DeSmog Canada in an interview.

Many other factors added up to “stonewall” his organization’s push for community-owned wind power, despite the fact that Saskatchewan has an excellent wind resource.

SaskPower and the provincial government “refused to acknowledge our existence in four years,” Glennie said.

“We couldn’t have a debate or discussion with them.”

The story of SaskWind’s failed push for community-led renewable energy is about much more than one lost wind project — it’s about how better, cheaper, more sustainable and more democratic energy choices are pushed aside to maintain the status quo.

It’s a problem that’s plagued many of Canada’s provinces, like B.C. where a primary focus on hydroelectric development has forced out wind and solar power producers, or Ontario where large-scale nuclear and hydro kept small-scale and community-led energy production at bay for years.

Saskatchewan’s community-led wind projects could help the province break the spell, but first they’d have to be given the chance.

SaskPower’s Fossil Fuel Tunnel Vision

Glennie’s dream of a community-owned wind project in Saskatchewan seemed like a win-win-win. Job creation, emissions reductions and provincial profit retention are among the many benefits SaskWind outlines on its website.

But the province put up two big barriers, according to Glennie.  

First, SaskPower has historically prioritized fossil fuel projects. Second, the province prioritizes utility-scale energy production (around 50 MW or larger) to the exclusion of smaller, community-led initiatives.

In 2015, 42 per cent of Saskatchewan’s power came from coal-fired power plants and 34 per cent from natural gas. Only 2.9 per cent was generated by wind.

Rather than switching to less polluting forms of energy, the province has focused heavily on the controversial technique of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and building new natural gas power plants.

Boundary Dam CCS Doubled Cost of Power, Plagued With Design Flaws

Carbon capture and storage is a process which captures carbon emissions primarily from coal-fired power plants for sequestration underground or to be used in oil and gas recovery. But the technology, which is costly, hasn’t been able to achieve the full-scale commercial success industry hoped.

In recent years 43 CCS projects worldwide have been cancelled, put on hold or simply gone dormant.

SaskPower’s carbon capture and storage project at the Boundary Dam coal power plant, which the province promised would provide “clean” coal-powered electricity, cost nearly $1.5 billion to build, effectively doubling the cost of power from $0.06 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to $0.12 per kWh from the facility.

SaskPower has since received multiple approvals for rate increases from the provincial government.

“It’s certainly not competitive with wind,” says Mark Bigland-Pritchard, co-author of the report SaskPower's Carbon Capture Project What Risk? What Reward?

“Just coal by itself is only barely competitive with wind given the wind speeds and capacity factors that we can achieve in Saskatchewan.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the levelised cost of new generation capacity for coal with CCS is $139.50 per megawatt hour. Natural gas costs $55.80 per megawatt hour, but doesn’t include any price on carbon.

Meanwhile, wind power costs $58.50 per megawatt hour, or about 42 per cent of the price of coal with CCS.

Brett Dolter, vice-president at the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics, says carbon capture on coal is “one of the priciest ways to meet emissions reductions” and that it would be far more prudent to increase wind capacity and use gas and hydro as backup.

“If we look at a more Canadian perspective, it might make sense for Saskatchewan to even overbuild wind and export it to Alberta to help them get off of coal,” he says. “It’s such a great wind resource and right next-door.”

How #Saskatchewan is Driving Small Wind Producers Out of the Market https://t.co/NF4JZAZ3vl @james_m_wilt #skpoli #cdnpoli #renewables

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) January 5, 2017

SaskPower Only Seeking Utility-Scale Renewables in RFP Process

This is where the second source of “stonewalling” community-owned wind power comes in.

Saskatchewan has set a target of 50 per cent generation capacity from renewables by 2030, requiring an increase of wind power from five per cent of capacity to 30 per cent.

Robert Hornung — president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) — says Saskatchewan plans to procure about 1,600 MW of wind between now and 2030, which represents a “very significant and important short-term growth opportunity for the industry.”

(That’s in contrast to British Columbia, which CanWEA pulled out of in February because the provincial government’s decision to proceed with the Site C dam and other hydroelectric projects has effectively “crowded out the need for other forms of generation” until 2030.)

SaskPower is explicitly looking for utility-scale wind projects, mostly between 100 and 200 MW.

In a statement provided to DeSmog Canada, a SaskPower spokesperson said: “We do not have any specific plans for community wind projects and we are asking community projects to submit to the request for qualification, the same as all other proponents.”

But a minimum requirement of the request for qualification (RFQ) process — which will start in the first quarter of 2017 — is “experience in utility scale wind projects.”

That clearly discounts organizations like SaskWind.

“By definition there are none in the province that [qualify],” Glennie says.

A report by Adrienne Baker of Canadian Clean Energy Conferences noted this process could result in "many developers competing for a relatively small number of contracts,” with the implication being that resulting contracts would be for large megawatt wind farms, rather than community-scale projects.

Procuring wind with big request for proposal (RFP) tender processes has indeed worked; Hornung notes there’s been 10,000 MW of wind installed across the country in the last decade.

That’s come mostly from utility-scale wind farms owned by the likes of EDF Énergies Nouvelles, Capital Power, TransAlta and Brookfield Renewable Power. Nova Scotia did see significant success with its feed-in tariff for community-owned renewables (which was recently cancelled by the provincial Liberals).

“The procurement processes that we have in Canada that tend to focus very much on securing the lowest-cost power does tend to favour in a relative sense the utility-scale projects because they can capture some economies of scale that community-scale projects can’t,” Hornung said.

A 177 MW utility-scale wind project recently on the table in southwestern Saskatchewan was projected to cost $355 million, or one MW for every $2 million in capital costs. That’s a cheaper relative investment compared to the proposed 30 MW Swift Current project, at $90 million, or one MW for every $3 million in upfront investment.

Community-Owned Wind Generates More Local Support and Jobs

Yet there can be significant downsides to a top-down approach that can push community-level concerns to the wayside.

For one, it doesn’t generate as many local jobs; a 2014 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance indicated that community-owned wind projects create an average of twice as many jobs as "absentee-owned wind projects."

Because of this, there is some tension between large-scale wind energy producers represented by CanWEA, which include major players like TransAlta, Brookfield and Enbridge, and community wind energy advocates like SaskWind.

For Glennie, not having that community component can be detrimental to wind energy projects, something Ontario has experienced over the last decade.

There are now dozens of anti-wind organizations in Ontario, which boasts 3,923 MW in generation capacity from wind.

In late September, Ontario scrapped $3.8 billion of planned renewable procurements amid severe anti-wind backlash. Only two weeks later, a NAFTA tribunal awarded $28 million to Windstream Energy LLC after Ontario deferred plans for offshore wind development in 2011.

“Ontario doesn’t exactly have a stunning reputation of doing wind and solar,” he says. “It’s like ‘right, where we can screw up next? Let’s try Saskatchewan.’ ”

As Chris Turner noted in a 2015 article for The Walrus, Ontario’s Green Energy Act has been made "effectively defunct" and the key feed-in tariff gone.

Turner argued that much of the failure of the province’s Green Energy Act has to do with the institutional culture of massive Crown corporations, which tended to focus on large-scale nuclear and hydro projects at the expense of decentralized renewables.

Apparently the same type of “fiefdom,” as Turner calls it, is present in Saskatchewan.

“SaskPower is still built on that old sort of command-and-control approach that so many utilities have,” Bigland-Pritchard says.

There is already indication that some of the mistakes made with wind energy in Ontario could be repeated in Saskatchewan. In mid-September, an Ontario-based wind company planning to build the aforementioned 177 MW wind farm in southwestern Saskatchewan was rebuffed by local environmentalists concerned about impacts on migratory birds.

SaskPower plans to relocate the project.

Community Ownership as a Social Acceptance Strategy

It may be a sign of things to come.

“I don’t understand what the thinking was in SaskPower’s mind when they rejected [community-owned projects],” says Cathy Sproule, NDP opposition critic for the environment and SaskPower.

“It’s unfortunate. I like the idea of allowing communities to engage in this process, and I think you get better buy-in when wind projects go up.”

A SaskPower spokesperson notes that 20 MW of solar will be added to the grid by 2021 via community-based projects, with another 20 MW from First Nations communities.

That’s a practical objective: southeast Saskatchewan, where many of the coal-fired power plants are located, is one of the sunniest places in Canada, making it an excellent spot for solar.

But electricity demand in Saskatchewan peaks in the winter, and solar output is lowest then because of fewer hours of sunlight. Conversely, wind speeds are highest in the winter.

As Dolter notes: “Wind aligns better with the demand profile than solar.”

“Community ownership might be almost more of a social acceptance strategy than an economic strategy,” Dolter says.

“If you’ve got a rural municipality in Saskatchewan who has an ownership stake in wind, that municipality might be a lot happier with it than they are in Ontario where the ability for municipalities to say ‘no’ to wind projects was removed.”

Image: A wind energy worker services a turbine in Colorado. Photo: Dennis Schroder/National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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Federal and provincial climate policies unveiled over the last year are paving the way for Canada to massively increase the amount of energy the country gets from renewable sources, according to a new analysis released today by Clean Energy Canada.

“For the first time the federal government and the provinces are working together to establish a national climate plan,” Dan Woynillowicz, policy director at Clean Energy Canada, said. “A big piece of the puzzle is not just cleaning up the grid, but electrifying other parts of the economy reliant on fossil fuels.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is drafting a ‘pan-Canadian clean growth and climate change framework’ to be released this fall. Meantime, last year Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada’s main oil and gas producing provinces, set ambitious renewable energy targets. And Ontario recently announced one of the most cutting edge greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction plans in Canada to date.

All of that means things are finally looking up for clean energy in Canada. Federal and provincial politicians now need to make good on their climate pledges for the country to reap even bigger benefits from this $500 billion global industry.

“There’s never been a greater opportunity to move forward on this file for Canada. There is certainly reason for optimism,” Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, told DeSmog Canada.

“We are in a unique moment in time. Not just the federal government, but Ontario, B.C., Quebec, and Alberta have all expressed climate change as a priority,” Hornung said.

Clean Energy Canada says the renewable energy challenge facing Canada right now is different from other heavy greenhouse gas emitting countries like China or the U.S. Nearly 80 per cent of all Canadian electricity comes from non-GHG emitting sources (including nuclear power), three-quarters of which is hydroelectricity.

In the United States, on the other hand, fossil fuels produce close to 70 per cent of the country's electricity.

“We have a comparative advantage in Canada because our grid is already pretty clean,” Woynillowicz told DeSmog. “Canada is in an enviable position.”  

While other countries are focused on switching their electricity base from fossil fuels to clean energy, Canada has a different challenge. Sectors heavily dependent on fossil fuels  — oil and gas, transportation, and industrial processes — have hardly any renewable energy in the mix at the moment.

That means to reduce emissions Canada needs to do things like shift to electric vehicles and efficient electric-based home heating systems (like air and ground source heat pumps).

Has #CleanEnergy's Time Finally Come in #Canada? https://t.co/xncUcQSaPM @standearth @merransmith @SciPolEnv pic.twitter.com/9QMtSvt81X

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) June 16, 2016

“Clean electricity is one of the best tools to fight climate change,” Clean Energy Canada’s executive director Merran Smith told DeSmog Canada. “As we shift to power our economy by clean electricity there will be an increase in demand for electricity and we need that to be clean electricity.”

In B.C., that raises the specter of the controversial Site C dam, but even with an increased demand for electricity in the future (demand in B.C. has been flat for the past 10 years), Site C isn’t necessarily the best solution according to Smith.

“From an economic perspective, Site C is concerning because the cost of renewables like wind and solar power have been dropping dramatically,” she said.

“In the U.S. the price of solar has dropped 80 per cent over last six years and the price of wind has dropped 60 per cent over the last six years. As the cost of those keep going down, that makes them attractive — whereas eight of the last 10 hydro projects built globally have gone over budget.”

A new report released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance this week found that wind and solar will be the cheapest ways of producing electricity in many countries during the 2020s and in most of the world in the 2030s.

“The good news for B.C. is we already have so much large hydro, we really can add intermittent renewables on easily because we already have the large hydro that acts as a battery and acts as storage,” Smith said.

“We could build solar and wind in 100 megawatt units as we need it in rural communities. It could create work around the province. And we could bring it on line as we need it. So a decade from now when we need another 100 MW, it will be even cheaper.”

Woynillowicz sees the emerging national climate framework as the space to address how to power more of the Canadian economy with renewable energy.

“That’s the place to articulate a clear priority of electrification and establish renewable energy targets,” Woynillowicz said. “It will change the conversation around climate away from where jobs are going to be lost to what we are going to create and build.”

Studies have shown the two pillars to decarbonizing any industrialized economy are to first transition completely to non-GHG emitting electrical generation and then run the economy off this clean electricity.

Clean Energy Canada’s analysis highlights energy storage and electricity sharing between provinces as areas where Canada is starting to break ground in electrifying the economy. In regards to the latter, Hornung would like to see more happen politically.

“What the federal government could do is provide a platform for provinces and territories to talk about the shared challenges they face in optimizing their electricity systems and enable collaborative relationships,” Hornung told DeSmog Canada.

Hornung points out more renewable energy is sold to the United States than shared between provinces right now.

Ontario and Quebec, and Alberta and Manitoba have all signed separate memorandums of understanding to take steps toward integrating their electrical grids.

In a report released in February, Clean Energy Canada warned Canada was falling behind its peers on the international stage in terms of renewable energy investments. At the time, it was estimated clean energy investments in Canada had dropped by a whooping 46 per cent, while they increased in the U.S., China, India and the United Kingdom.

However, when analysts with Clean Energy Canada took a deeper dive into the numbers for this latest report, they uncovered the decrease in investments was only 15 per cent when accounting for all clean energy projects, making 2015 the second biggest year for renewable energy investments in Canada.

Meantime, the country’s installed clean energy capacity grew by four per cent last year despite that drop in investment dollars, which the think tank concludes was likely due to policy uncertainty.

Smith noted that an increased price on carbon is needed to level the playing field.

“Right now fossil fuels are getting a free ride for their pollution,” Smith said. “Clean energy is the future. This train is going in one direction and that’s off of fossil fuels and onto clean energy.”

— With files from Emma Gilchrist.

Image: 1010/Flickr

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Wind power has become so successful that it could provide 25 to 30 per cent of global electricity supply by mid-century if vested interests don’t get in the way, according to a new report published Tuesday.

The report — Global Wind Energy Outlook 2014 — said that commercial wind power installations in more than 90 countries had a total installed capacity of 318 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2013, providing about three per cent of global electricity supply.

By 2030, the report said, wind power could reach 2,000 GW, supply up to 17 to 19 per cent of global electricity, create over two million new jobs and reduce CO2 emissions by more than three billion tonnes per year.

The report published by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International noted that while emissions-free wind power continues to play a growing role in international electricity supply, political, economic and institutional inertia is hampering attempts to deal with the consequences of climate change.

“The fossil fuel industry, the most powerful vested interest in the world today, continues to do everything it can to obfuscate the science and slow down political progress,” the report said.

“Not their least pernicious influence is on the politicians they own, particularly those in the U.S. Congress – and in the places where the fossil fuel industry is a family business masquerading as a national government in the Persian Gulf – and in the places where fossil fuel exports have become a blunt political and military instrument to bludgeon recalcitrant neighbours into submission.”

Using the International Energy Agency’s New Policies scenario from the World Energy Outlook as a baseline, the 58-page Global Wind Energy Outlook (GWEO) report developed both a moderate and an advanced scenario to explore the future of the wind energy industry from 2020 to 2050.

Under the moderate scenario, which takes into account all policy measures to support renewable energy either already enacted or in the planning stages around the world, wind energy potential will quadruple between 2020 and 2050 from 712 to 2,672 GW.

(For detail junkies, the projected increases are as follows: 712 GW of cumulative wind power capacity by 2020, 1,479 GW by 2030, 2,089 GW by 2040 and 2,672 GW by 2050.)

The advanced scenario outlines the extent to which the wind industry could grow in a best case ‘wind energy vision,’ but still well within the capacity of the industry as it exists today and is likely to grow in the future, assuming an unambiguous commitment to renewable energy. Under this advanced scenario, cumulative wind energy capacity could increase by nearly five times, from 800 GW in 2012 up to 4,042 GW in 2050.

(The details: It would see 800 GW by 2020, 1,933 GW by 2030, 3,024 GW by 2040 and 4,042 GW by 2050.)

Wind power has a potentially massive role to play in the elimination of fossil fuel emissions. Swapping one month’s use of fossil fuels for 100 kWhs of wind power is the equivalent of taking one car off the road for 2,400 miles or 3,862 kilometres according to How Stuff Works.

In a media release accompanying the report, Steve Sawyer, CEO of GWEC, said wind power has become the cheapest cost option when adding new capacity to electricity grids in an increasing number of markets.

“Given the urgency to cut down CO2 emissions and continued reliance on imported fossil fuels, wind power’s pivotal role in the world's future energy supply is assured,” Sawyer said.

In a related Greenpeace International blog posting, Sven Teske, the organization’s senior energy expert, said that by 2020, wind power could prevent more than one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted each year by dirty energy.

“That’s equivalent to Germany’s and Italy’s emissions combined, or Africa’s total CO2 emissions, or those of Japan, or two-thirds of what India pumps out,” Teske said.

The report noted that science indicates global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak in the next five years if humankind is to have any reasonable chance of avoiding the worst ravages of man-made climate change — i.e. keeping global mean temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

The power sector is the largest single contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions – about 40 per cent of energy-related CO2 emissions, and about 25 per cent of overall greenhouse gas emissions — the report said.

Massive implementation of existing energy-efficiency and energy-saving technologies is needed in the next five to 10 years, no new coal plants should be built, and natural gas should be used wherever possible, it added.

In addition, the report predicted that while solar power may be the largest power source by mid-century, the biggest contribution to emission-reductions in the next decade will come from hydro and wind.

Image Credit: Lillgrund wind farm by Vattenfall via Flickr.

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Despite political infighting and a flagging economy, electricity generated from renewable energies in the U.K. met almost one-fifth of the nation’s electrical needs during the first three months of this year, an increase of 43 per cent compared to the same period in 2013.

U.K. energy statistics compiled by the Department of Energy and Climate Change and published Thursday show that the share of electricity generation (hydro, wind and other renewables) increased from 12.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 to 19.4 per cent in the same quarter of 2014.

The statistics show that wind power generation was up 58 per cent, due to increased wind generation capacity as well as large increases in wind speeds.

They also revealed that coal accounted for 37 per cent of electrical generation, natural gas made up 23 per cent and nuclear power produced 18 per cent of total U.K. electricity generated in January, February and March.

RenewableUK, which represents wind power and marine energy in Britain, noted in a media release that the total renewable electricity generation was a record 18.1 terawatt hours in the first three months of this year, enough to power more than 15 million homes for the quarter. Coal, gas and nuclear production all fell in the same period.

“Once again, wind delivered strongly for the U.K. in the first quarter of the year — when we need power most — providing nearly 12 per cent of all our electricity,” RenewableUK’s Director of External Affairs Jennifer Webber said in the media release.

“At a time when some politicians were finalizing their plans to rule out any future support for onshore wind, it was quietly generating enough electricity for the equivalent of over five and a half million homes. Offshore wind also made a significant contribution to getting us off the hook of fossil fuels and reducing our dependence on imported energy.”

The U.K. statistics were released a day after a Bloomberg news report quoted former Mexico president Felipe Calderon saying that fighting climate change can be profitable but there must be business incentives for low-carbon growth to reduce fossil-fuel reliance.

Calderon said nations must act jointly to target the energy industry, cities, agriculture and forests as the main areas where runaway greenhouse gas emissions can be reined in, the report said.

“It’s completely possible to both get economic growth and to tackle climate change,” said Calderon, now chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. “The traditional trade-off that a lot of people talk about between growth and responsibility to the environment is a false dilemma.”

Meanwhile, a different Bloomberg story noted Thursday that the European Commission is considering proposing a 2030 energy-savings target of 27 per cent to 30 per cent.

Noting that the energy-savings plan would become the third pillar of the EU’s energy and climate strategy for the next decade, the story said “the commission in January proposed that the 28-nation bloc adopt a binding goal to cut greenhouse gasses by 40 per cent by 2030, accelerating the pace of emissions reduction from 20 per cent in 2020 compared with 1990 levels. It also recommended an EU-wide target to boost the share of renewables in energy consumption to 27 per cent.”

By way of comparison, Canada and the U.S. committed under the Copenhagen Accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Image Credit: Nick Cross via Flickr

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It may not rank in popularity with the World Cup but a growing interest in Global Wind Day (June 15) continues to underscore the significant contribution that the emissions-free electricity-generating technology is making to mitigate the worst excesses of burning fossil fuels.

No longer considered an alternative energy source, the wind power sector is now present in more than 80 nations and had generated a global cumulative installed capacity of 318,105 megawatts (MW) by the end of last year.

Despite having to still fight the NIMBY factor in some places, or craven politicians beholden to the business-as-usual coal, oil and gas lobbies, the wind power industry is proving it is already a dependable component of the low-carbon economy that humankind needs to embrace if it is to survive.

The statistics are indisputable.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), six countries had more than 10,000 MW in cumulative installed capacity by the end of last year including China (91,412 MW), the U.S. (61,091 MW), Germany (34,250 MW), Spain (22,959 MW), India (20,150 MW) and the U.K. (10,531 MW).

China was once again the largest overall national market for wind power last year, adding an additional 16,088 MW. The U.S. took second place with an extra 1,084 MW installed in 2013. Canada added 1,599 of additional capacity, bringing its total to 7,803 MW.

GWEC noted that, as a region, Europe was still the major player in the global industry, adding 12,031 MW of capacity and bringing its total to 121,474 MW. All of Asia, however, generated 18,216 additional MW in 2013 for a total of 115,927 MW. Including Mexico, North America added 3,063 MW for a cumulative total of 70,811 MW.

But there is more to wind power than statistics.

GWEC said the U.S. wind power sector experienced a tough year in 2013 even though domestic wind capacity can already power the equivalent of more than 15 million average American homes.

“Question marks throughout 2012 surrounding the pending extension of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), which caused the industry supply chain and project development pipeline to drastically slow down, meant manufacturers and developers had to work especially hard to ramp back up and secure new growth.”

GWEC added the U.S. wind industry experienced last year a 92 per cent drop in new installations compared to 2012, primarily due to policy uncertainty over the key tax incentive which was eventually extended on Jan. 1, 2013.

“A few states stand out as role models for the country, powering past old records and setting new standards for renewable energy sources across the United States,” GWEC said. “One particular day in May 2013, Colorado set a new record by producing over 60 per cent of its electricity from wind. In Texas, wind power is approaching 10 per cent of the state’s total electricity generation. Iowa is producing 25 per cent of its power from wind, and overall, nine states obtain 10 per cent or more of their electricity from wind energy.”

GWEC said the progress of Canada’s wind energy sector in 2013 provides a strong foundation on which to build. The Brussels-based organization added wind energy is now positioned to supply approximately three per cent of Canada’s electricity demand; enough power to meet the annual needs of over two million Canadian homes.

“As the provinces begin to lay out plans for what their future electricity supply mix will look like, they have signalled a common desire to seek affordable power that provides strong economic development potential and minimal environmental impacts – characteristics highly favourable to future wind energy development,” GWEC noted.

“A strong majority of Canadians support more wind energy development, so it remains important to continue to work with allies to have wind energy supporters’ voices heard in discussions on Canada’s electricity future…Continued political support and policy stability is critical to ensure wind energy continues to deliver clean, safe and affordable power to Canadian families and businesses.”

The many benefits of wind power are also being endorsed by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which notes the technology continues to improve rapidly, the costs of generation from land-based installations continue to fall and the industry is now being deployed in countries with good resources without any dedicated financial incentives.

The IEA’s Wind Power Technology Roadmap “targets 15 per cent to 18 per cent share of global electricity from wind power by 2050, a notable increase from the 12 per cent aimed for in 2009. The new target of 2,300 [gigawatts] GW to 2,800 GW of installed wind capacity will avoid emissions of up to 4.8 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.”

The roadmap says achieving those targets requires rapid scaling up of the current annual installed wind power capacity from 45 GW in 2012 to 65 GW by 2020, to 90 GW by 2030 and to 104 GW by 2050. The annual investment needed would be USD 146 billion to USD 170 billion, the roadmap added.

It also pointed out that higher levels of “low-cost wind still require predictable, supportive regulatory environments and appropriate market designs. The challenges of integrating higher levels of variable wind power into the grid need to be addressed. For offshore wind, much remains to be done to develop appropriate large-scale systems and to reduce costs.”

So lots to think about around this Global Wind Day, from green electricity to dependable power for a growing global population. One certainty is this: wind power is already a major player in our low-carbon future.

Image Credit: Wind turbine at the Ocotillo Express Wind Energy Project by slworking2 via Flickr.

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Investing in wind, and solar power is not the main cause of rising costs of electrical bills in Ontario, as many in the province tend to believe. According to a study released last week, the cost of green energy – renewables, and bioenergy – is a mere 9% of an average household power bill in the province.

“As the new kid on the block, renewable energy is all too often blamed for rising electricity costs. The truth is renewables play a fairly small role in Ontarians’ electricity bills today,” said Gillian McEachern of Environmental Defence. “But they have significant health and environmental benefits that aren’t reflected in our monthly bills.”

The study conducted by Power Advisory LLC, an independent energy consultancy firm, found the costs for wind, solar, biomass and energy conservation was only $15 on an average monthly household power bill ($137) in Ontario. The costs of nuclear power and maintaining the electrical transmission network were found to be $37 and $46 respectively on an average bill. 

“Energy provided by the wind and the sun will always be free. The same can’t be said for other sources of energy,” reads the study titled Your Home Electricity Bill.

Coal power plants are estimated to have cost Ontario an estimated $4.4 billion in health care and environmental and financial impacts. Upgrading Ontario’s long neglected electricity delivery network over the last ten years and phasing the province off of coal-fired power plants account mostly for the price of power bills going up, concludes the report which was published by Environmental Defence.

The last coal plant in Ontario is scheduled to shut down this year. Ontario currently has cheaper electricity rates than provinces dependent on coal for most of their electrical needs such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

Average power bills in major North American cities.

Shifting from coal to renewables has cost the province money. Environmental Defence argues the cost would have been the same if not more had Ontario decided to make up for the electricity shortfall with nuclear or natural gas.

“The Ontario government estimates that new gas generation costs between $85-$296 per Megawatt hour (MWh) and new nuclear generation costs between $87-$143/MWh, while wind energy costs $115/MWh,” states the report. Wind produces most of Ontario’s non-hydro renewable energy.

Last December the government of Ontario released its long-term energy plan and predicted power bills will rise 42% by 2018. Environmental Defence believes one of the best ways to avoid this price hike is through energy conservation.

According to the report, “if Ontario households increase energy conservation and energy efficiency, Ontario bills in 10 years could ultimately return to current levels." The report cities estimates from the Ontario Power Authority that if Ontarians use 20% less electricity the price of power bill today would be the same in ten years. 

Average power bill in Ontario according to the "Your Home Electricity Bill" report.

Retrofitting houses, more stringent energy efficiency standards for household appliances, energy audits of homes and financial assistance for low-income households with their bills are the report’s recommendations for decreasing the cost of electricity and improving energy conservation in Ontario.

Comparing electrical bill prices with and without energy conservation measures. 

Ontario’s long-term energy plan calls for some investments in energy conservation and refurbishing nuclear power plants to keep power costs from jumping up even more. Critics argue this may not be effective. Nuclear projects in Ontario almost always run two and half times over budget.

The rising costs of electricity in Ontario has been pinned on renewable energy by the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario – the official opposition – and blamed for scaring away business and pinching the pockets of Ontarians. The Progressive Conservatives have vowed to scrap subsidies for renewables and Ontario’s Green Energy Act if they win the next election. Ontario could face its next election as early as this spring. 

Image Credit: Government of Ontario, Environmental Defence

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