“If it requires a subsidy, we won’t do it.”

The leader of Alberta’s United Conservative Party, Jason Kenney, has vowed that no government money will go to support the province’s renewable energy industry if he is elected when voters go to the polls this spring.

“Part of the Alberta advantage must be competitive and affordable power prices. We will not replicate the disaster of Ontario Liberal power policies that the NDP is trying to copy in Alberta,” he told reporters last week.

Kenney’s comments raise two questions: would he keep contracts already signed by Rachel Notley’s NDP government? And does Kenney recognize that renewable energy contracts look much different in Alberta than they did in Ontario?

The difference between Ontario and Alberta

After Ontario Premier Doug Ford was elected last summer, he scrapped 758 long-term contracts with renewable energy companies and set out to eliminate the province’s Green Energy Act.

The province’s feed-in tariff models had generated controversy because they gave renewable electricity producers a guaranteed rate far above the average price for electricity. The public was outraged by rates ranging from 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to 80 cents per kilowatt-hour for small solar photovoltaic projects.

But Ontario’s program was drastically different from Alberta’s renewable electricity program.

“The mechanism that was used in Ontario was probably not ideal,” said Andrew Leach, University of Alberta associate professor of environmental and energy economics.

Leach chaired Alberta’s climate leadership panel, which proposed policies to the NDP government when it came to power four years ago. The renewables industry subsequently became a vital part of the plan to phase out coal power by 2030.

“One of the things that changed in Alberta was going to competitive procurement. So let the market compete for who can do it most cheaply,” Leach told The Narwhal.

In the Alberta model, renewable energy companies go through a competitive bid process. The lowest viable bid price proposed wins the contract.

So far, under this model, Alberta has given the green light to 1.3 gigawatts worth of wind power.

Capital Power, an Edmonton-based company, recently won a contract for the first phase of the Whitla wind project near Medicine Hat, Alta., with a bid of 3.9 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The average pool price of electricity last year in Alberta was 5 cents per kWh. If electricity prices rise, the renewable energy generator rebates the excess to the government. If the pool price is lower than the guaranteed bid amount, the province tops up the company’s return, as per the diagram below.

Image: Alberta Electric System Operator

Recent advancements in technology have seen global renewable energy costs plummet, and Alberta is no exception. Last week, the province’s NDP government announced it was signing a 20-year contract with Ontario-based Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. to bring 100 megwatts of power online in southern Alberta, at a cost of 4.8 cents per kilowatt-hour.

To put that in context, the average cost in the province of natural gas electricity using the lowest-cost technology — before a carbon tax is factored in — is 5.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the Canadian Energy Research Institute. The same data says the average cost of wind power generation in Alberta has fallen to 5.2 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Could Alberta see cancelled contracts too?

With multi-decade contracts in place, it is unclear where Kenney stands on the cancellation of contracts. He said in last week’s press conference that he would not cancel what he called “good-faith contracts.” However, his bottom line was that he would not subsidize renewables. So would he uphold contracts with a minimum-price guarantee?

When the United Conservative Party media representatives were asked for comment they said the rest of the party’s platform would be revealed in due course.

“The challenge in renewables in Alberta has been the lack of availability of long-term power purchase agreements,” said Dan Balaban, the CEO and president of Calgary-based Greengate Power. “And that’s really what the Notley government implemented through its renewable electricity program.”

Balaban says he is confident the industry will remain viable regardless of who wins the upcoming election, but he hopes the industry’s policies aren’t politicized.

Renewables ‘lowest cost source of power’

Leach speculates that Ontario’s feed-in tariff program has led to a “massive influence” over the perception of renewables in Alberta.

“I think in some ways Mr. Kenney’s comments are reflective of the impression that people have about renewables in Canada, in Alberta, in Ontario — that they’re more expensive and the only way you get them in the market at all is through large subsidies paying above-market prices for electricity.”

Balaban pointed out that growth in renewables used to be driven by environmental considerations and the need to address climate change. “But now that renewables are the lowest cost source of power generation that we have available to us, it also makes economic sense.”

Kenney did leave the door open to the growth of the renewables industry, saying “if more wind and solar can come onto the grid by competing on a market basis with other forms of power production, we’ll absolutely embrace that.”

“A lot of this stuff is right now being subsidized by the carbon tax, which we’re scrapping on Day One of the legislature. So no carbon tax [and] no subsidies for power sources and power that are higher than the market rate.”

Even without cost guarantees, Leach said it’s not likely renewables will disappear. But he said eliminating cost guarantees would make financing the initial capital investment for wind or solar farms much more challenging.

“That doesn’t mean that the project wouldn’t make money in the long term. It just means that it’s harder to finance.”

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Alternatives to the $10 billion Site C dam would produce significantly more jobs than construction of the controversial hydroelectric dam, according to a new study led by the University of British Columbia.

The analysis by researchers from UBC’s Program on Water Governance found that if Site C is scrapped, there would be modest job losses in the short-term — 18 to 30 per cent until 2024 — but job gains of between 22 and 50 per cent through 2030.*

A recent three-month investigation conducted by the B.C. Utilities Commission found alternatives to Site C, including wind energy and conservation measures to reduce provincial electricity demand, could replace the dam at an equal or lower unit energy cost.

“By 2054, the B.C. Utilities Commission alternative portfolio will have created three times as many jobs as Site C,” Karen Bakker, one of the authors of the report and co-director of the Program on Water Governance, told DeSmog Canada.

“Site remediation, geothermal construction and energy conservation will create thousands of jobs each year,” she said.

Alternative energy, such as wind power, creates many more jobs for every dollar spent, Bakker told DeSmog Canada.

ICYMI: Geothermal Would Create 15 Times More Permanent Jobs Than Site C, Panel Told

Using BC Hydro and BCUC figures, the researchers concluded that between now and 2024 continuing Site C would create 35,398 cumulative person-years of employment compared to up to 24,612 for alternative portfolios.

However by 2054, the alternative portfolio will have completely eclipsed Site C, with 37,618 job-years in the Site C scenario and 105,618 for alternatives.

Wind power and conservation efforts would create three times as many jobs as #SiteC https://t.co/FcRG4wzKKV #bcpoli #alternatives #cleanenergy #energyconservation

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) November 28, 2017

Pressure to Go Ahead

As government mulls over Site C options, with a decision on whether to continue or scrap the project expected by the end of the year, the spectre of more than 2,000 construction workers losing their jobs shortly before Christmas has weighed heavily. The government is also facing pressure from union groups, such as the Allied Hydro Council of B.C. and Christian Labour Association of Canada, who say the project is too far along to quit.

But, if the project is terminated, remediation of the site will require many workers and provide a transition period for the workforce and the local economy, Bakker said.

“It is a big project. It would absorb most of the workers on site… and there will be similar pay scales and skill levels to construction jobs,” she said.

“Two years of remediation and 10 years of monitoring will create about 10,000 jobs at similar pay levels — that’s the transition term for workers — and then, looking at the long term, you can generate more jobs for the dollars spent and generate jobs across the province and especially in the Peace region because it has the best wind resources in the province,” she said.

The analysis found that every direct job at Site C costs over $1 million and, if all jobs are taken into consideration, the cost per job is about $225,000.

BC Hydro figures put current Site C employment at 2,375, but, once construction is complete in 2024, Site C would employ only 74 people each year.

Job Losses Overstated

Even current employment numbers are being questioned by some groups, such as the Peace Valley Landowner Association, which claims the job numbers have been inflated.

“We are concerned that public confusion on this point may make things more complicated for decision-makers in an already complex situation,” says an Association statement.

West coast energy consultant Robert McCullough, who has acted on behalf of the Peace Valley Landowner Association and Peace Valley Environment Association, agrees that there is a common misconception that cancelling Site C will mean the loss of construction jobs.

“The reality is that, while some of the construction jobs will end at Site C, more than twice the person-years of employment will be created with investment into alternative energy projects across the province,” he said in a report.

A bonus is that the jobs will have a wider range of specialization than simply energy and resource development, he said.

More than $2 billion has already been spent on Site C and remediation would cost another $1.8 billion, but, costs of continuing construction are likely to skyrocket from the current $8.9 billion budget.

Site C was not sent to BCUC for recommendations and scrutiny before the previous BC Liberal government pushed the project ahead, but a BCUC report requested by the NDP government, concluded it is already behind time and over budget and is likely to cost at least $10 billion to complete.

*Update Wednesday Nov. 29, 2017 10:15am pst. This article previously stated the UBC analysis was independently reviewed. It did not receive an independent review.

Image: Wind turbines in B.C. Photo: Garth Lenz | DeSmog Canada

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You probably wouldn't guess it, but Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia are unsung heroes in Canadian wind energy — producing more than 10 per cent of their electricity needs from wind, more than any other provinces.

“Some electricity utility companies in Canada will tell you all you’ll ever get from wind is 10 per cent of your electrical needs,” Carl Brothers, an engineer and wind energy consultant, said. "In PEI, we are closing in on 30 per cent."

By comparison, Ontario, Canada’s biggest wind power producer, manages to meet about four per cent of its domestic demand through wind energy.

The shift to renewable energy in Nova Scotia and PEI in the last decade has been nothing short of remarkable.  At the turn of the 21st century, both provinces were dependent on coal and oil-fired power plants for nearly all of their electricity. Neither province possesses the massive waterpower resources Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia rely on to produce renewable electricity.

Yet today Canada’s two smallest provinces have approximately 25 per cent renewables in their respective electricity mixes and wind power is a leading component. Germany, a global leader in clean energy, generates more than one third of its electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass.

“We took a look around at the domestic resources available to us and renewable energy, predominantly wind, just made sense,” Catherine Abreu, an energy campaigner for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, told DeSmog Canada.

“We have a lot of insight to share on what kind of investments and changes need to be made to existing infrastructure that will be true [for jurisdictions] across Canada as we move towards a clean energy economy,” Abreu said.

If Canada is to have any hope of doing its part to tackle climate change, the country needs to find a way to incorporate substantially more renewable energy into its energy mix. A recent study indicates Canada could produce close to 60 per cent of its primary energy (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) from wind alone by 2050.

Non-water based renewables like wind and solar currently make up only three per cent of the country’s electrical generation.

Lessons learned in the Maritimes’ rapid transition to wind energy could hold the keys to Canada finally plugging into this clean, sustainable and largely untapped resource.  

PEI Wind Power: "Islanders Own It"

Feeling the pinch from the rapid rise in fossil fuel prices in the early 2000s, PEI and Nova Scotia set ambitious provincial renewable energy targets. In 2008, the PEI government announced 500 megawatts worth of wind energy facilities to be installed in the province, which is equivalent to one third of Alberta’s current wind power capacity. Alberta is the third biggest producer of wind energy in Canada.

“One thing PEI doesn’t have in the ground are fossil fuels, but we have a wonderful wind resource,” Brothers told DeSmog Canada.

Brothers has been in the PEI renewable energy business for over three decades and is also the CEO of Frontier Power Systems in Charlottetown.

Even though PEI has yet to hit its 500 megawatt wind target, nearly 100 per cent of all electricity produced on PEI comes from wind farms, a feat unmatched anywhere in Canada. The rest of PEI’s electrical needs are met mostly by electricity imports from New Brunswick.

A key feature of early wind development in PEI was public ownership.

“Prince Edward Islanders have always had a strong environmental ethic,” Brothers said. “And there is a definite sense of public ownership and pride in our wind farms. Islanders own it.”

PEI Energy Corporation, a provincial Crown corporation, owned and operated early wind facilities and the PEI government guaranteed the loans for the startup projects. To this day, PEI Energy generates the wind power used domestically and private sector companies sell wind energy out of province.

This sense of public ownership may also explain why PEI has not seen the same public pushback against wind turbines that has been experienced by private companies in Ontario.

The benefits of wind energy go beyond cleaning up the province’s electricity. PEI’s North Cape Wind Farm, one of Canada’s first commercial wind farms, is now the site of the Wind Energy Institute of Canada, a leading national wind energy innovation and research institution.

The province’s Hermanville/Clearspring Wind Development Project provides approximately $350,000 annually to nearby landowners and the community at large through royalties and a newly established community development fund, according to the PEI government.

“At the end of the day we need to find a way to sustainability. Our grandchildren will think less of us if we don’t take the initiative,” Brothers told DeSmog.

Source: Canadian Wind Energy Association

Nova Scotia Leads All Provinces in Cutting GHG Emissions

Nova Scotia has quietly crept to the head of the pack as a provincial climate leader. The province implemented North America’s first “hard caps” on emissions in the electricity sector, has a 40 per cent renewables 2020 target and is in position to lead all provinces and territories in future GHG reductions.

Nova Scotia also has installed more wind power capacity than B.C., a province 20 times its size. The province’s Community Feed-In-Tariff, or COMFIT, program deserves much of the credit for gaining public acceptance of wind power.

“COMFIT projects in the end did not produce a lot of energy, but it did help in winning over the public,” Brendan Haley, a Broadbent Institute research fellow and former renewable energy campaigner in Nova Scotia, said.

Introduced in 2011, the COMFIT program guaranteed a predetermined fixed rate to be paid on the electricity local producers sold. Only community entities like municipalities, energy co-operatives, First Nations and universities could participate in and reap the benefits of the program. COMFIT incentivized getting into the renewable energy game by minimizing the financial risks for non-private sector players.

The results exceeded even the Nova Scotia government’s expectations.

A provincial government report estimates 125 megawatts of electricity are produced by projects under COMFIT and an additional 100 megawatts are expected to come online in the future. Most projects are wind farms. When COMFIT was established, the provincial government expected only 100 megawatts of electricity from the program.

“If you look at the latest energy policy, it is fairly transparent the current government is doing whatever it takes to push off any rate increase until after the next election,” Haley told DeSmog Canada.

Despite COMFIT’s success, the Nova Scotia government cancelled the program last August. The provincial government justified the move by claiming it was keeping consumer prices on power bills down. Nova Scotia does have some of the highest electrical rates in Canada.

A year earlier, the same Liberal provincial government capped Nova Scotia’s energy efficiency budget under similar same cost-saving pretenses. Haley says the province’s previously strong energy efficiency standards on electricity played a big role in Nova Scotia’s ability to make deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts.

Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2016

An additional reason for the Nova Scotia’s government cancellation of COMFIT was that the program “had achieved its objectives.” Abreu of the Ecology Action Centre argued at the time that surpassing COMFIT’s original goals “should be cause for celebration, not cancellation.”

Atlantic Canada Could Be Canada’s 100 Per Cent Renewable Testing Grounds

The renewable energy revolution in the Maritimes has somewhat stalled and the reasons are not only political.

“The Maritimes are really quickly coming up against the limits of our existing infrastructure,” Abreu said.

Electrical grids in Canada are designed to distribute electricity from a handful of large powerful sources like coal plants or hydro dams, not dozens of smaller intermittent ones like wind turbines or solar panels.

“We are figuring it out,” Abreu told DeSmog Canada. “New Brunswick is really invested in understanding smart grids and how to implement them, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are experimenting with regional dispatch and utilities are doing the work to understand how to deal with intermittent renewable energy.”

PEI may be a ‘lab,' holding clues to solving Canada’s energy questions. Brothers and Abreu agree the province’s vast wind resource and size make PEI the ideal testing grounds for large-scale deployment of electric vehicles and other measures fundamental in shifting Canada from a fossil fuels economy to a clean energy society.

Brothers is concerned that with low oil and natural gas prices and without a price on carbon pollution, the PEI government has lost its appetite for building more wind farms despite the province’s heavily reliance on fossil fuels for energy and tremendous potential to go big in wind power.

A study in 2015 conducted by Stanford University Engineering Professor Mark Jacobson identifies Atlantic Canada, as well as the Pacific Coast, Great Lakes and the Prairies as areas in the world with “strong” wind resources available for power generation.

Image Credit: The Wind Energy Institute of Canada via Green Energy Futures/Flickr

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Clean energy investment surged to $497 billion worldwide in 2015 while in Canada investment in renewables experienced a massive 46 per cent plunge to around $5.4 billion, according to a new report released Monday by Clean Energy Canada.

Global investment is up from a total of $420 billion in 2014 with nearly one-third of of new investments occurring in China. Spending on renewables increased in the U.S. by seven per cent, in India by 23 per cent and in Mexico by 114 per cent.    “Canada’s performance was out of step with its peers in 2015,” Clare Demerse, senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, told DeSmog Canada. "This should be a wakeup call, although we hope this is a one-off and not the start of a trend."

Cheaper technology can partially account for the drop in investments in Canada. In the U.S., for example, over the last six years the unsubsidized cost of wind energy went down 61 per cent and 82 per cent for utility-scale solar PV. 

The amount of money invested in Canadian clean energy may have been cut in half last year, but the construction of new renewable energy projects only slowed by 30 per cent, according to Clean Energy Canada.   “When you couple [clean energy's] declining costs with free fuel from the wind, sun, water, biomass and the earth’s heat, you have a formula for ever increasing competitiveness with fossil fuels,” the report states.

Source: Clean Energy Canada, 2016

Uncertain Clean Energy Policy in Canada Played a Role

Imprecise policies and a lack of clean energy regulation created uncertainty for investors in Canada, the report finds.   “Pipelines trumped power lines as a national priority,” it concludes.

Canada has no national climate framework or greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas sector. The bulk of Canada's climate action in recent years has emerged at the provincial level.   “In the longstanding absence of federal climate leadership, provinces led the charge," Demerse told DeSmog Canada. But, she added, "some of the provinces that are big players in clean energy were rethinking policies in 2015. Uncertainty is hard on investors.” 

British Columbia, a province praised in recent years for its world-class carbon tax, is investing heavily in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry as well as the major Site C hydrodam. A recent review of B.C.'s Climate Action Plan found the province is unlikely to meet its climate targets. 

Ontario, Canada’s leader in wind power, confirmed it will spend over $25 billion on refurbishing aging nuclear reactors to clean up the province’s electrical grid instead of doubling down on domestic renewable energy or importing relatively cheap water power from Quebec.   However, some progress on provincial climate policies was made at the end of 2015.   Ontario and Manitoba both announced they are joining North America’s largest carbon market by linking up with the Quebec-California cap-and-trade system. A new Alberta government unveiled plans to phase out coal, cap oilsands emissions and introduce a carbon tax. Saskatchewan also set admirable renewable energy targets, which aim to have half of the province's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2050.

According to Clean Energy Canada these provincial targets need to be translated into clear policy to boost investment in the sector. 

Canada’s Clean Energy Potential Barely Scratched 

“Canada is incredibly well positioned for clean energy success,” Demerse told DeSmog. "Yes, we may have the third largest oil reserve in the world, but we are also the third biggest producer of hydroelectricity. And we have the potential to do so much more with our clean energy resources."

Demerse believes this week’s national climate strategy meeting between the federal government, Indigenous leaders and the premiers is the perfect opportunity to lay the foundation for a clean energy plan for Canada. 

“The new federal government can do a lot to change this. Adopting real, meaningful clean energy targets would provide more certainty for investors,” Demerse said.   According to a groundbreaking study led by Stanford Engineering Professor Mark Jacobson that examines how countries can run off of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050 , Canada has only begun to scratch the surface of its ‘clean energy superpower’ potential.

  Canada's energy mix in 2050 according to Jacobson's analysis. Source: The Solutions Project.

“The main barriers to getting to 100 per cent clean energy are social and political, not technical or economic,” Jacobson said during a climate and energy forum in Washington, D.C., last November.   Canada already generates roughly 60 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and this is nearly all from hydroelectricity or waterpower. By comparison, Germany produced just over 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy in 2015, which was mostly from wind, solar and biomass. Canada has one of the world’s cleanest electrical grids.   But currently, non-water based renewables like wind and solar make up a mere three per cent of the electricity Canada generates.   The Stanford study projects solar and wind could make up 21 per cent and 58 per cent respectively of all of Canada’s required energy by 2050. Waterpower in Jacobson's 2050 scenario becomes the junior partner to wind and solar at 16.5 per cent of the total Canadian energy mix. The study's authors conclude there is no need to build additional hydro dams like the Site C dam in B.C. or continue with nuclear power generation.

Image Credit: NAIT via Flickr 

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A record US$367 billion was invested in renewable energy in 2015, according to a new report out today by the Clean Energy Canada initiative of the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University.

Renewables investment increased by seven percent since 2014, with China, the US, and Japan representing more than half of the total investment last year, shows the report.

The report also finds that for the first time, more money was invested in clean energy than in new power from fossil fuel ($253bn).

This unprecedented scale of investment is particularly remarkable given the significant drop in oil prices over the last year.

“Turmoil in fossil fuel markets led many analysts to suggest clean energy investment would similarly stall out. How could renewable energy possibly compete with cheap oil, gas and coal?” asks the report.

As it explains: “New clean energy deals were widely expected to stall last year as the price of oil and other fossil fuels declined around the world. Instead, growth in the clean energy sector beat expectations, delivering the best year yet.”

Lower Costs

According to the report, declining technology and financing costs have helped to spur growth in renewable energy. For example, between 2009 and 2015 the cost of wind power in the US dropped 61 percent, while the cost of solar power fell 82 percent.

Much of the speculation was the result of a lack of understanding of renewable energy technology, trends and markets, explained Dan Woynillowicz, policy director at Clean Energy Canada.

While renewable energy competes head to head with natural gas (unlike with oil) “it has a range of attributes that make it attractive,” said Woynillowicz, “energy security, zero air pollution, price certainty, zero carbon, etc.”

Woynillowicz continued: “Renewable energy costs keep falling – and will keep falling – and the long-view suggests they will outcompete natural gas.”

“It’s also worth noting,” he added, “that as the costs fall, it means we get more energy for every dollar invested. So if investment remains stable or increases, we’ll see greater amounts of renewable energy actually deployed.”

Globally, wind power deployment led the way last year, up 31 percent since 2014 with nearly 64 GW installed, with deployment in solar power growing 23 percent.

“The fuel – sun, wind, water – is free,” Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, said in a statement. “There’s no wonder clean energy is gaining momentum around the world.”

“Clean energy is taking off because it offers value that can’t be beat – it’s local, so it offers energy security. It’s a climate solution. It reduces health issues from smog. It’s increasingly competitive, and there’s big money to be made.”

Developing Countries

Last year also marked the first time that developing countries saw more investment in renewable energy ($167bn) than developed nations ($162bn).

India took fifth place for the most clean energy investment in 2015 ($10.9bn) behind China ($110.5bn), the US ($56bn), Japan ($43.bn), and the UK ($23.4bn). Meanwhile, renewable investment in Canada dropped 46 percent from $7.4bn in 2014 to $4bn last year.

As the report describes, 2015 saw a “geographical broadening of clean energy as more developing countries got in on the action.”

Between 2014 and 2015 investment in clean energy in Africa and the Middle East grew 54 percent, up £13.4bn.

Going forward, the report predicts that both of these regions have “significant” potential for clean energy growth due to their growing populations and abundance of wind and solar resources.

Woynillowicz also expects the “staggering rate of investment and deployment” in China to continue. Meanwhile India, which has set aggressive renewable energy targets, will also be one to watch, but Woynillowicz asks: “Will they prove effective and efficient in attracting and deploying capital?”

Going Mainstream

With more than a third of a trillion dollars invested worldwide in renewables last year, Clean Energy Canada is optimistic, stating that “clean energy is going mainstream.”

“That’s serious money,” Smith writes in the report. “Clean energy has real momentum and the commitments underpinning the Paris Agreement on climate change will keep that momentum going.”

The report’s findings are “very encouraging” agreed Woynillowicz, “especially recognising that we saw a third of a trillion invested before the Paris agreement.”

We should expect to see more money being driven into renewables over the next few years Woynillowicz predicts, due to the continued increase in cost competitiveness of renewables and progress in reducing costs of energy storage technologies, combined with the climate benefits of renewables and goals set in the Paris Agreement.

Photo: Tony Webster via Flickr

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A popular feed-in tariff program in Nova Scotia is being cancelled by the provincial government, according to a recent announcement stating the program “had achieved its objectives.”

The program, the Nova Scotia community feed-in tariff (COMFIT), was the world’s first feed-in tariff system for local energy producers plugging into the grid.

COMFIT was designed to provide an incentive for independent, community-based energy production and guaranteed a stable kilowatt-hour rate for energy fed back into the provincial grid from local renewable energy projects.

As the province describes it, through COMFIT “smaller producers are able to supply renewable energy to their specific community.” But now “no new COMFIT applications will be considered.”

The Climate News Network argues the decision will negatively impact both Nova Scotians and the climate.

“The decision, which will initially mean lower prices for energy users, is at odds with widespread warnings that renewable energy must rapidly replace fossil fuels.”

Last week Nova Scotia’s Liberal government announced it was cancelling the program, initially launched in 2011 by the former New Democrat government.

“This is the right time to bring Comfit to a close; it has achieved its objectives,” the Liberals stated in a press release. “We are now at a point where the programme could begin to have a negative impact on power rates. Nova Scotians have told us they want stability and affordability when it comes to power rates, and industry wants clarity on the future of the Comfit programme.”

“No new generation is needed to meet electricity demand, and adding capacity would negatively impact rates as Nova Scotians pay more for energy with small-scale, community-based projects than from other sources.”

The program was initially designed to bring 100-megawatts of independently produced power online. There are currently 80 megawatts of power feeding the province’s energy grid with a capacity of 125 megawatts projected to come online by the end of 2015.

Energy Minister Michel Samson told reporters at the time of the announcement the program would likely “have a negative impact on rates” if it continued. 

Catherine Abreu, energy coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre, worries ending the program signals to Nova Scotians the province is “backing away from support for community-owned renewable power.”

“As pointed out by the Department, the COMFIT program has exceeded expectations both in clean energy output and in contributing to the economic development of Nova Scotian communities. This should be cause for celebration, not cancellation.”

Abreu adds that it might make sense to “[press] pause on any new applications” to make sure any increased capacity remains affordable, “ending the program outright is an unnecessary step backwards.”

Abreu said Nova Scotia has made significant steps to reduce its climate pollution but that “this move signals a retreat from success.”

Nova Scotia needs to continue building on the leadership it has shown in cleaning up its dirty energy system and giving Nova Scotians more control over power generation.”

The government promised to introduce new legislation including an electricity plan in the fall and said it will release  “more details on renewable energy and its role in the province's energy future” at that time.

Local energy developers say they’ve been consulted by the province on the possibility of a new replacement program, the Chronicle Herald reports.

According to Dan Roscoe, chief operating officer of Scotian WindFields, wind projects have been so successful in Nova Scotia, he isn’t surprised the program is ending for large wind turbines.

Wind power generates about 10 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity needs and the province has a goal of achieving a goal of 25 per cent renewables in their overall energy mix by 2015. That number must increase to 40 per cent by 2020.

“We knew the program was oversubscribed” for wind energy, Roscoe said. But he added he was surprised the program was being cancelled for other alternatives like solar energy.

Shaw Boudreau of Endurance Wind Power told the Chronicle Herald the province has consulted industry about an electricity plan to be released this fall, but said he wasn’t apprised of the details.

“We’ve been working with them on the smaller-scale portion,” Boudreau said. “We’re expecting to see a…different program with similar characteristics.” 

Image Credit: Wind turbines on Dalhouse Mountain. Photo: Nova Scotia government

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Earlier this week, TransAlta — the massive, publicly traded electricity generation company based in Calgary — was found culpable by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) of repeatedly manipulating prices in 2010 and 2011 by intentionally shutting down power plants during peak demand to boost costs for consumers.

The Market Surveillance Administrator estimates the actions — which boosted costs by between 10 and 60 per cent depending on occurrence — made the company $16 million.

TransAlta has denied all claims and floated the idea of taking the case to the Alberta Court of Appeals.

Such a situation once again raises questions about the appropriateness of a deregulated electricity market, a feature Alberta has uniquely sported since 2001.

Some new companies have entered the game since, dividing the market share pie into smaller chunks.

But we’re still talking major players here. In 2014, TransAlta pulled in $2.4 billion in revenue, ENMAX made $3.3 billion and ATCO earned $4.5 billion — which is why, in addition to re-examining regulation (which could help solve the price spikes and blackouts the province has faced for years), some are calling for a decentralized market powered by smaller, closer sources.

“Decentralized energy is bringing energy closer to where it’s needed,” says Moustafa Youssef, owner and installer for Solar Hero. “In a way, you’re transferring the generators from larger corporations to homeowners or building owners. You’re relying less on generators, and their transmission and distribution systems.”

The Case for Decentralizing and Diversifying

Environmental groups have been pushing for this for years: in 2009, the Pembina Institute encouraged the situating of generation far closer to demand, while a 2010 Canadian Solar Industries Association report made the case that decentralization minimizes the likelihood of a large, central facility going down, as well as creating jobs and investment opportunities.

It could also prevent companies from doing what TransAlta did — by generating electricity on your own rooftop (with occasional supplements from your immediate neighbours and the larger grid), individuals can exercise a bit more control.

Unfortunately, Alberta hasn’t done much to promote such a transition.

Microgenerated power — electricity generated from a small site, such as one’s home — is essentially subsidizing the grid. Many solar advocates argue that producers don’t receive fair compensation as solar generates electricity during the daytime (when power is most expensive) but only receives remuneration based on an average monthly price.

The same is happening with wind power: the windiest hours produce the most energy but also result in the cheapest wholesale costs.

“It’s great that it’s driving prices down with renewable means,” Youssef says. “But it is also frightening investors without any secure, long-term guarantees.”

Leaving TransAlta and Co. Behind

The Alberta NDP have alluded to re-evaluating the deregulated market.

If the government does proceed on that front, it could lead to stable pricing for renewables and potential investments in smarter grid technologies that promote decentralized power.

Southern Alberta features some of the best geography in Canada for solar, wind power and cogeneration.

The rapid replacement of coal with natural gas means it will be easier to integrate energy sources, Youssef says, as gas turbine plants are simpler to throttle to follow load capacities than coal. The time seems ideal to take advantage of such factors.

At this point, the Alberta Utilities Commission hasn’t determined penalties for TransAlta’s actions. However, the body can fine the company up to $1 million for each of the 11 days the offence occurred on, as well as taking back the benefits from the infraction.

Company share values plummeted following the verdict. However, the company is expected to have enough liquid assets to cover fines without dividends being affected.

TransAlta was also busted in 2011 for blocking electricity imports from other jurisdictions to boost prices, costing the company $370,000 in fines.

Image Credit: BASF via Flickr

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An interactive map released Monday by the Pembina Institute creates a visual of B.C’s 14,000 jobs in clean energy.

The B.C. Clean Energy Jobs Map quantifies the number of jobs from 156 renewable energy projects including wind and solar power, run-of-river hydro, large hydro, biomass and biogas. Fifteen per cent of the projects are currently under construction. Large hydro provides the most jobs (5,800), followed by biomass and biogas (4,400), run-of-river hydro (2,600) and wind and solar (1,300).

 “Clean energy is a real success story, employing thousands of British Columbians in communities across the province,” said Aaron Ekman, secretary-treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Labour. “Smart, targeted policies will help generate even more of these family-supporting, career-track jobs across British Columbia. The future economic health of our province depends on a strategy that will put more dots on this map.”

“In First Nations communities, these long-term and meaningful jobs are needed,” said Judith Sayers, a strategic advisor to the Hupacasath First Nation, a leader in renewable energy.

On a per capita basis, the highest concentration of clean energy jobs are found in northeastern B.C., a region that is typically prone to the pain of boom-and-bust economic cycles.

“Good well-paying clean energy jobs are situated in all parts of B.C., from its biggest cities to its most remote communities,” said Paul Kariya, executive director of Clean Energy B.C. “The map gives a glimpse of a future in which all of us are working together … to come up with resilient energy solutions that just makes sense.”

In a press release, the Pembina Institute said the clean energy sector is often overlooked as an economic driver relative to fossil fuel industries in the province.

“As the world’s economies look to rapidly reduce carbon pollution, we want to make sure B.C. is well positioned to remain competitive,” said Penelope Comette, the director of Pembina’s clean energy economy program. “Policies that support the development of our clean energy economy will help to future-proof B.C. and enable us to thrive in a low-carbon world.”

The clean energy jobs map is the first of many — other maps will examine B.C.’s entire clean energy economy, including jobs associated with energy efficiency, green buildings and clean transportation technologies and services.

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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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Renewable energy — energy from natural sources that replenish themselves at the same rate they are used — accounted for sixty-seven per cent of Canada’s electricity generation in 2013. Biomass, wind, and solar power nearly made up a quarter of all renewable energy generation (heating, fuels and electricity) in Canada last year. 

Unfortunately there is no comparable national data available in Canada from any other year, so it is hard to know just how much Canada's renewable energy sector has grown. The findings for 2013 come from a newly expanded renewable energy database launched earlier this year by the Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data Analysis Centre (CIEEDAC), part of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. It is the first of its kind in Canada.*

“Financial analysts, renewable energy developers, policy-makers need solid, reliable and recent data on renewable energy in Canada to know what is happening in the sector,” Dan Woynillowicz policy director at Clean Energy Canada says.

“The irony of Canada calling itself an energy superpower is how difficult it is to get up-to-date accurate data on Canadian energy production here. Some of the better statistics actually come from the U.S.,” Woynillowicz told DeSmog Canada.

The Centre’s Renewable Energy in Canada 2013 report prepared for the Department of Natural Resources admits the database is only an “overview” and much work needs to be done to improve the quality of data it collects: 

“Many questions remain about the extent and nature of renewable energy production in Canada. In this regard, a number of opportunities exist to expand and refine the database and analysis,” the report states.

Ontario Leads in Wind and Solar, B.C. in Biomass, Nova Scotia in Tidal

The Centre estimates eleven percent of Canada’s capacity for energy production came from renewable energy last year, and most of this was in electricity generation. The lion’s share of Canada's renewable energy capacity is in waterpower or hydroelectricity — seventy-six per cent — followed by biomass (15 per cent), wind (8 per cent) and solar (1 per cent). 

Ninety-nine per cent of Canada’s solar power capacity was constructed in Ontario last year. Ontario led all other provinces in wind power installation ahead of Quebec and Alberta. B.C. was Canada’s number one producer of energy from biomass (mainly wood waste) and Nova Scotia was the only province to build new tidal power facilities on its shores.

The Nightmare of Collecting Data on Canada’s Renewables Industry

The renewable energy sector does not have its own version of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers or CAPP, a well-funded private sector-association producing statistics on the oil and gas industry on a regular basis. The creation of the renewables database was only made possible when supporting funds became available through Natural Resources Canada.    

An energy analyst trying to get a national picture of Canada’s renewable sector previously had to investigate data produced by the provinces and the limited information provided by Statistics Canada. This data varied in the units of measurement used to calculate energy and time periods analyzed making it all the more difficult to piece together a national mosaic for the renewable energy sector in Canada.

“Its like comparing apples to oranges,” Woynillowicz says from Vancouver.

“The database is a good step forward but it really only scratches the surface,” Woynillowicz told DeSmog Canada.

Professor Michael C. Moore, an energy economist at the University of Calgary published in 2012 his proposal for creating a Canadian version of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. agency “collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information” for the American public and is even used as a source for Canadian energy statistics.

Two years later neither the federal government nor any provincial governments have shown interest moving forward on creating a Canadian Energy Information Organization.

“It’s a thorough, well constructed proposal,” Woynillowicz says of Moore’s proposal.

“The proposed two and a half million dollar a year contribution from the federal government is about one tenth the amount that Natural Resources Canada will spend on advertising over the next two years,” Woynillowicz of Clean Energy Canada told DeSmog.

Canada moved up to fifth place in the world for doing business in the renewable energy sector according to this month’s renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI) conducted by Ernst & Young. Ontario’s green energy policy has helped lift Canada’s global clean energy ranking.

The Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data Analysis Centre believes its renewable energy database can improve by exploring the economic costs and benefits associated with renewable energy, expanding regional reporting, validating the quality of data coming from renewable facilities and making the database more representative of the diverse sources of energy in the sector.

Maintaining and improving the database will depend on critical funds from Natural Resources Canada, although some concerns have been raised regarding the current federal government's low-priority view of data collection.

* An early version of this article stated the CIEEDAC database was new, rather than recently expanded. 

Image Credit: Wind turbines photos by Chris Cook (some rights reserved), all other images provided by the Canadian Industrial Canadian Energy End-Use Data Analysis Centre.

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