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Media Release/Communiqué
For Immediate Release: March 21st, 2006
Ontario energy policy breakthrough
hailed
BC should make similar renewable energy
commitment
Victoria, BC-
The BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) enthusiastically
endorses today's Ontario government announcement of a program
to encourage renewable energy generation, and believes
BC should follow suit.
Ontario's Standard Offer Program gives
a fixed price and assured electrical grid access to wind,
small hydro, solar and biomass energy producers. The policy
has been extremely successful in Europe, and Ontario's
program is a North American first.
"Ontario has upped the ante for jurisdictions
vying to attract and grow this high-tech industry," said
Guy Dauncey, BCSEA President. "Countries that have done
this-including Germany, Denmark, and Spain-have become
leaders in renewable energy generation and, just as importantly,
in the energy innovations and jobs that follow."
"This is exactly the kind of policy approach
that BC needs to jump-start its own sustainable energy
sector," said Peter Ronald, BCSEA Coordinator. "BC's 'Alternative
Energy and Power Technology Task Force needs to make similar,
strong commitments to renewable energy."
"The way we currently cost energy ignores
the economic and human health impacts of climate change," said
Tom Hackney, BCSEA Policy Chair. "Sustainable energy
can provide many economic benefits, and contributes to
long-term well-being by reducing pollution and greenhouse
gas emissions that fuel climate change."
"Especially with the perverse subsidies
still flowing to the oil and gas sector, this policy is
needed in BC to begin to level the field for sustainable
energy," Hackney continued.
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Backgrounder: Ontario
energy policy breakthrough hailed
Ontario's Standard Offer program will
offer $0.11/kWh (kilowatt-hour) to producers of wind, biomass
and small hydro energy. It will offer $0.42/kWh for solar
photovoltaic energy. The term of the contracts will by
20 years, and there will be an inflation adjustment. The
residential retail price for electricity in Ontario is
under $0.06/kWh.
There is no limit to the number of projects
that may apply for a contract, but the size of each project
is capped at 10MW (megawatts). For comparison, the proposed
Duke Point power plant on Vancouver Island (a medium-sized
gas-fired power plant) would have been 260 MW in size.
10MW of capacity is approximately sufficient to serve 10,000
homes.
The contracts are available to anyone,
including homeowners, businesses and commercial energy
producers. The electricity produced would be fed into the
electricity grid. The contracts are expected to be available
by June 2006. Many details for the implementation of the
Standard Offer program will be worked out by the Ontario
Power Authority and the Ontario Electricity Board.
In BC and other North American jurisdictions,
electricity contracts are awarded by requests for tender,
with the lowest cost bids winning. The Standard Offer
Contract, known in Europe as a "feed-law" or "advanced
renewable tariff", offers renewable energy producers guaranteed
access to the electricity grid at a price set by the regulatory
authority. This gives producers the contractual certainty
needed to finance renewable energy projects.
In Germany, adoption of the new policy
has led to the development of 110,000 solar PV systems,
2,000 biomass plants, 6,000 small hydro plants, 16,500
wind turbines, and 45,000 jobs in the wind industry.
BC Hydro predicts that by 2025 the demand
for electricity on the British Columbian system to grow
by 30%, from today's 56,000GWh (gigawatt-hours) to 76,000
GWh.
Energy conservation is expected to meet
one third of this demand. BC Hydro is considering several
options to meet the other two thirds, including green energy
such as wind and small hydro; the 900 MW Site C dam on
the Peace River; and coal-fired generation. These options
will be addressed in BC Hydro's Integrated Electricity
Plan, expected to be filed with the BC Utilities Commission
before the end of March this year.
Recent polling information published
by BC Hydro (Integrated Electricity Plan advertisement,
October 2005) shows that British Columbians are squarely
in favour of renewable energy and energy conservation to
meet future energy needs:
-
66% strongly support using PowerSmart
(energy conservation);
-
94% support or strongly support wind
power;
-
74% support or strongly support development
of small hydro "run-of-river" projects;
-
57% support or strongly support Site
C;
-
74% oppose or strongly oppose coal-fuelled
projects.
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