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First Green Energy Blog

Fri, 20 May 2011 20:22:54 +0100

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IPP'a playing minor role in BC Hydro rate increases

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:59:55 +0100

Dec 15, 2010 3:35pm

IPP's playing minor role in BC Hydro rate increases

Capital projects, upgrading of infrastructure account for most of proposed increases

By Jesse Ferreras

BC Hydro confirmed last week that independent power producers (IPP) are playing a role in the Crown corporation's application to the B.C. Utilities Commission for rate increases.

In the fifth paragraph of a Dec. 2 news release, the power authority states that it is forecasting an increase of $7 each year for the next three years, on an average monthly bill of $71 - a total of 27 per cent over three years. The rate increases are subject to approval by the BCUC.

BC Hydro President and CEO Dave Cobb said he's looking to implement the increases so that the Crown corporation can take on a $6 billion effort to renew and expand the province's electricity infrastructure.

"We are committed to meeting B.C.'s growing demand for electricity by modernizing and investing in the province's electricity system to safely keep the lights on for British Columbians," Cobb said in a news release. "We are also taking steps to keep rates affordable by making our operations more efficient and introducing new conservation programs that will help offset rate increase."

BC Hydro has a long list of capital projects it hopes to pay for through the rate increases. The projects include adding a fifth unit to the Revelstoke Generating Station; a seismic upgrade at the Coquitlam Dam; and increases in generating capacity at the Fort Nelson Generating Station.

But also factoring into the rate increases are independent power producers, projects proposed through BC Hydro's Clean Power Call process that include wind power and run-of-river generators, such as we find on Sea to Sky waterways including the Ashlu River, Rutherford Creek and Fitzsimmons Creek, and that are planned for streams such as the Upper Lillooet and the Ryan River near Pemberton.

BC Hydro purchases electricity from the operators of these projects and feeds it into the power grid. It is largely unknown how much that electricity gets sold for. The Clean Power Call commits successful applicants to non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements during the process and for two to three years afterward. Those obligations apply to both the developer and BC Hydro.

Speaking on background, a BC Hydro spokesman said in an e-mail that the capital projects account for half of the rate increase, while energy costs from sources such as independent power producers account for less than one fifth of the increases.

BC Hydro charges for electricity use through a two-step system based on average daily consumption, measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). If your daily average doesn't go above 22.1918 kWh, you currently pay $0.06270 per kilowatt hour for Step 1. If it goes above that, you pay $0.08780 per kilowatt hour for Step 2.

So for every daily kilowatt hour you consume above 22.1918 kWh, you pay the higher rate.

These rates are the result of a 9.3 per cent interim increase that has been in place since April 2010, an increase that will be reduced to 7.29 per cent starting in January. When the latest "increase" comes into effect in January, Step 1 rates will go down to $0.0607144/kWh and Step 2 rates will drop to $0.08543996/kWh.

If BC Hydro gets approval for a 27 per cent rate increase, Step 1 rates will rise to $0.07710729/kWh and Step 2 rates will rise to $0.10850875/kWh in 2014.

For a Whistler home these increases could be steeper than they are in the Lower Mainland. BC Hydro pegs an average monthly bill in the province at $71 but communities like Whistler have colder climates, with hydro bills ranging closer to $85 in cold months.

So in 2014, you could be paying $106 per month in electricity costs if the B.C. Utilities Commission approves these rate increases.

Tom Hackney, vice-president of policy with the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, believes the rate increases are reasonable because BC Hydro infrastructure is "due for an upgrade."

"We are certainly concerned about the potential that low income people will be hit by the rate increases," he said. "However, we believe the proper way to deal with that is to really work and frankly have a province-wide initiative to upgrade the efficiency of the B.C. building stock.

"In our view that's a better way to control energy costs to all British Columbians, including low income, rather than artificially trying to hold down the electricity rates."

Speaking about the impact of IPPs on electricity rates, Hackney said they have less to do with private generation than with an increasing demand for electricity from less cost-effective forms of generation. He added his organization is supportive of clean energy - which initiatives such as IPPs claim to provide to customers.

"BCSEA is supportive of the development of environmentally-appropriate clean energy," he said.

"We are supportive of looking at ways to increase electricity versus our very high consumption of fossil fuels because it's vitally necessary to reduce our fossil fuel consumption. We believe we can shift some of that requirement over to the electricity sector, bearing in mind we also have to become way more efficient in our use of energy altogether."

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_News&content=Bc+hydro+rates+1750

Billions for green energy: Is it worth it?

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:57:42 +0100

From the Toronto Sun
http://www.thestar.com/business/cleanbreak/article/896281--billions-for-green-energy-is-it-worth-it
Here are the costs of going green:

Ontario’s long-term energy plan calls for $4 billion in spending on energy generated from bio-mass – i.e. composted organics, or methane from garbage dumps.

What will the province get for the $4 billion investment? It will boost the share of power generated by bio-mass 0.3 per cent, from 1 per cent of the province’s supply today, to 1.3 per cent by 2030.

Solar spending will total $9 billion, and boost solar power’s share to 1.5 per cent, from near-zero.

Wind investment will be $14 billion, boosting wind energy’s share to 10 per cent of the province’s share from 2 per cent.

All in all, those three green power technologies will soak up more than 30 per cent of the Liberals’ planned investment of $87 billion, while generating 13 per cent of over-all power by 2030.

Much of the money will come from the private sector, but the return they earn will be built into the electricity prices paid by Ontario residents and businesses.

Is it worth it?

Energy minister Brad Duguid pitches the investment in moral terms, arguing it will clean the air and make children healthier.

“There’s a cost to that,” he said Tuesday. “Together we’re building cleaner air, together we’re building an economy with thousand of clean energy jobs, and together we’re building a healthier future for our kids and grandkids. That’s something worth fighting for.”

Keith Stewart of Greenpeace says the costs of renewable power are visible, while full social costs of burning fossil and nuclear fuels are not.

“If factored into today’s bills, the cost of smog and climate change, and the cost of dealing with radioactive waste, your bill today would be a lot higher than it is, because we’re not paying those costs,” he said in an interview.

Stewart also predicted there will be “huge drops” in the cost of developing solar power as the industry matures, and Ontario can be at the forefront of technological developments in solar if it nurtures the sector at home.

Ian Howcroft, vice president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), said developing a made-in-Ontario renewable energy sector will benefit the province.

But his group is uneasy about the plan’s cost estimates of speedy renewable development.

“We have to do it in a businesslike fashion,” he said. “We have to look at the return on investment, and we have to look at what the ultimate costs are.

“We’re supportive of the direction, but we do have concerns about how much we how much we should pay to develop wind, to develop solar, given what the ultimate cost is going to be.”

The CME will participate when the plan is subjected to scrutiny by the Ontario Energy Board, he said.

Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, says that bio-mass and wind power are still likely to be less expensive than rebuilding nuclear facilities, although conservation and efficiency are the best ways to solve energy issues.

But he said in an interview that Quebec produces huge amounts of renewable power from its hydro-electric plants:

“In terms of new renewable, water power imports from Quebec are lower cost than any of the made in Ontario options.”

That would have to be negotiated with Quebec, but Gibbons says Ontario should take the initiative.

“It’s low-cost, it’s very reliable, it’s a base load supply of power, it’s not intermittent,” he said.

When Is It Right to Redevelop Hydroelectric Facilities?

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:06:28 +0100

It is a question that many in the industry are familiar with. There are many concerns when developing renewable energy projects. The most important concern is the environmental impact. Ultimately, renewable energy's selling feature is that it provides greater environmental benefits than not doing it. In most scenarios, there are cost benefits to any new development. My feeling it that the redevelopment of already impacted areas provides an opportunity to maintain the existing impacts and the resulting adapted environment with the creation of renewed green energy production. Water is already the greatest form of renewable energy. Waterpoweris commonly viewed as reliable, reactive and renewable. It has been described as a source of energy "more than renewable". I agree. So important to the energy mix is that hydro is used as the perfect and only large scale support system for the wind industry. Where we can dramatically curb the new environmental impacts and provide this source of energy, it is my feeling that we should take all means necessary to support the redevelopment and refurbishment of our heritage green energy assets.

Many of these sites are seen as too small, or too aged to attract large corporate investment. This has caused an environment of less than optimal usage of the flowing resource, and in some cases the abandonment and removal of these sites.

When we are promoting new renewable technologies, we need to also be supporting our proven suppliers and encourage their continuing operations. Support can come from local communities, government initiatives, school level education programs demonstrating its history and benefits, and supplying to an informative discussion so as to avoid broad generalizations on hydroelectric development that have tarnished the good.

New battery could change world, one house at a time

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:29:47 +0100

andy Wright - Daily Herald | Posted: Saturday, April 4, 2009 2:30 pm | (4) Comments

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ASHLEY FRANSCELL/Daily Herald Ceramatec President Ashok V. Joshi and his team John Gordon (from left to right), John Watkins, Grover Coors and Anthony Nickens at Ceramatec in Salt Lake City. The team has been working on developing a storage battery for homes and businesses. Photo taken at Ceramatec in Salt Lake City.

In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.

The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.

It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America's antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.

Former energy secretary Bill Richardson once disparaged the U.S. electrical grid as "third world," and he was painfully close to the mark. It's an inefficient, aging relic of a century-old approach to energy and a weak link in national security in an age of terrorism.

Taking a load off the grid through electricity production and storage at home would extend the life of the system and avoid the expenditure of tens, or even hundreds, of billions to make it "smart."

The battery breakthrough comes from a Salt Lake company called Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, a world leader in advanced materials and electrochemical devices. It promises to reduce dependence on the dinosaur by hooking up with the latest generation of personalized power plants that draw from the sun.

Solar energy has been around, of course, but it's been prohibitively expensive. Now the cost is tumbling, driven by new thin-film chemistry and manufacturing techniques. Leaders in the field include companies like Arizona-based First Solar, which can paint solar cells onto glass; and Konarka, an upstart that purchased a defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., and now plans to print cells onto rolls of flexible plastic.

The convergence of these two key technologies -- solar power and deep-storage batteries -- has profound implications for oil-strapped America.

"These batteries switch the whole dialogue to renewables," said Daniel Nocera, a noted chemist and professor of energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who sits on Ceramatec's science advisory board. "They will turn us away from dumb technology, circa 1900 -- a 110-year-old approach -- and turn us forward."

Why not just upgrade to a so-called "smart grid" as President Obama has proposed in his economic stimulus package? There are complications, Nocera said.

"First you have to rebuild the grid because the one we have now is a creaky machine from the 1920s, and we keep trying to retrofit it," he said. "Then you're going to have computers trying to manage the energy, which brings up issues like security. You have to make it really secure so you don't have people hacking into things. And then politics. Just wait until you try to run power lines through someone's backyard.

"I can't imagine anything more secure than generating my own energy with the sun at my house, and now I'll have a way to store it. It's the ultimate in security, and the ultimate in control."

With small-scale electrical generation taking place at millions of individual homes -- as opposed to today's large-scale power generation from a handful of giant power plants -- there would be less worry about what's called "point failure" on the grid. That's when a single component gets knocked out and shuts off power to a whole region. California-style rolling blackouts would be history.

The threat of terrorism has heightened the worry. But wide distribution of batteries in homes would virtually eliminate it.

***

Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions -- electrically charged particles -- back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

This may not startle you, but it should. It's amazing. The most energy-dense batteries available today are huge bottles of super-hot molten sodium, swirling around at 600 degrees or so. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity but it's both toxic and corrosive. You wouldn't want your kids around one of these.

The essence of Ceramatec's breakthrough is that high energy density (a lot of juice) can be achieved safely at normal temperatures and with solid components, not hot liquid.

Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Re-read that last paragraph and let the information really sink in. Five kilowatts over four hours -- how much is that? Imagine your trash compactor, food processor, vacuum cleaner, stereo, sewing machine, one surface unit of an electric range and thirty-three 60-watt light bulbs all running nonstop for four hours each day before the house battery runs out. That's a pretty exciting place to live.

And then you recharge. With a projected 3,650 discharge/recharge cycles -- one per day for a decade -- you leave the next-best battery in the dust. Deep-cycling lead/acid batteries like the ones used in RVs are only good for a few hundred cycles, so they're kaput in a year or so.

How do you recharge? By tapping your solar panels or windmills. It's just like plugging in your cell phone or iPod, only you plug in your house.

A small three-bedroom home in Provo might average, say, 18 kWh of electric consumption per day in the summer -- that's 1,000 watts for 18 hours. A much larger home, say five bedrooms in the Grandview area, might average 80 kWh, according to Provo Power.;Either way, a supplement of 20 to 40 kWh per day is substantial. If you could produce that much power in a day -- for example through solar cells on the roof -- your power bills would plummet.

Ceramatec's battery breakthrough now makes that possible.

Clyde Shepherd of Alpine is floored by the prospect. He recently installed the second of two windmills on his property that are each rated at 2.4 kilowatts continuous output. He's searching for a battery system that can capture and store some of that for later use when it's calm outside, but he hasn't found a good solution.

"This changes the whole scope of things and would have a major impact on what we're trying to do," Shepherd said. "Something that would provide 20 kilowatts would put us near 100 percent of what we would need to be completely independent. It would save literally thousands of dollars a year."

Shepherd is connected to the grid through Rocky Mountain Power, which charges a variable rate for power depending on demand during a given 24-hour period. With his windmill setup, Shepherd has what's called "net metering" -- an electric meter that spins both ways. He pays for electricity coming in, but gets a credit from Rocky Mountain for any excess power generated by his windmills that flows back onto the grid. Already, he's cut his power bills in half, and with good storage batteries he thinks he could reduce the bill to zero.

While Shepherd opted for windmills over solar at the time he was planning his alternative energy installation, he said he would reconsider that decision today as the bottom continues to fall out of the cost of solar cells.

"Batteries and PV are about to merge," said MIT's Nocera, using the shorthand for "photovoltaics" or solar power. "First Solar is now saying that it takes $1 a peak watt to manufacture, and another 80 cents for installation. So they're saying that you can get PV for under $2 a watt. That's a reduction of cost by a factor of four. Only a few years ago, it was $8. If CoorsTek and Ceramatec come up with a good battery, the market will develop quickly."

The long-term impact of home electric generation for a power company's business model could be huge. After all, you can't stay in business if nobody's paying for power. Exactly how that will play out remains to be seen.

***

Fifty miles south of Ceramatec's laboratories, Chris Cannon, the former congressman from Utah County, is on a crusade to transform the world through technology. He currently sits on Ceramatec's advisory board with Nocera. No longer burdened by the pressures of Washington, he's using his experience in energy, manufacturing and government to carry the message of innovation and help move research to reality.

"What I choose to concentrate on now are things that will make the world a better place," Cannon said, "and Utah is an incredibly good place to do that."

Approached by Ceramatec after he left Congress, Cannon fills a complementary role in a group of smart engineers and academic types. With extensive Washington contacts and an understanding of the inner workings of power generation, he hopes to be able to make connections that will push the new battery technology forward for the benefit of the country.

"I have an energy and manufacturing background, so I understand the process," he said. "Ceramatec had a gap in their experience which I think I filled pretty well." On top of that, there was "good chemistry" from the start.

While Cannon's six terms in Congress representing what is arguably the most conservative district in America means keeping a somewhat jaundiced eye on the Obama administration, he's far from negative. He thinks of himself as a "post-partisan Republican" willing to run with good ideas regardless of their source. And when it comes to energy policy, he's anything but discouraged.

"If you look at the president, he inherited some really difficult things," Cannon said. "But he hired a guy to be the secretary of energy who is a scientist. And we are on the verge of so many scientific breakthroughs that no matter what the president's ideology is, if we do the right thing scientifically, America is going to do well. Many of the innovations that are coming out of Utah that I'm involved with are likely to be really important, regardless of the leadership."

Last month, Obama introduced a raft of broad energy proposals that were sharply criticized by conservatives as economic back-breakers. Proponents hailed the plans as progressive. Either way the administration appears to be on a path that could soon drive the cost of conventional energy higher -- some say as much as double. Electrical generation at home using solar panels, coupled with storage in effective batteries, could soften the financial impact on many homeowners' utility costs.

The new Ceramatec battery could also change the way private enterprises invest in energy, Cannon said. Instead of building another power plant, for example, maybe they buy 100,000 or a million batteries and distribute those around the service area of a utility to reduce loads and eliminate expensive "spinning reserve," the supplementary power generation that's fired up in response to daily spikes in electric demand.

"The technology could mean a lot of things," Cannon said, "but it certainly means that we change the way we invest. It also means that we shift our expenditures on terrorism, because our infrastructure for power transmission is probably the weakest link in America today. If you have local batteries with local control, that gives terrorists a more difficult target. And local control systems are much simpler than a vast national transmission grid."

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html

Hope is Blowing in the wind for British Columbia

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:46:07 +0100

Hope is blowing in the wind for British Columbia

BY TZEPORAH BERMAN, SPECIAL TO THE SUNAUGUST 12, 2009COMMENTS (36)

Standing under the mesmerizing blades of the new wind energy park up at Dawson Creek last week was a moment to celebrate: The gentle giants at British Columbia's first wind farm are now feeding clean electricity onto the grid.

The most striking thing about the new wind farm is how utterly normal it all seems. Looking out over Mike's Steak House to the ridge in the distance, the wind park is simply a quiet symbol of hope in a world addicted to fossil fuels.

I also couldn't help but think: frankly it's about time. Given all the chatter about B.C.'s climate leadership, you would think windmills and solar panels would be as common as in Germany.

We're often lulled into thinking we're "green" because of the big hydro dams built by previous generations. But three-quarters of the energy used in B.C. -- to move us around, heat our homes and run our economy -- still comes from fossil fuels. And whether B.C. will catch up to our neighbours is now in question since the regulators, government and BC Hydro are tangled in a quasi-judicial conflict at the BC Utilities Commission. Will future clean energy projects get bogged down in a swamp of legal-sized paper?

We really can't allow that to happen. With record temperatures and fires raging, British Columbians are seeing the dangers of a hotter planet first hand. The blanket of heat trapping gases already in the atmosphere means we've only seen the beginning. It is imperative that we do our part to eliminate fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

We are among the luckiest people on the planet and B.C. has enviable advantages. With the base load power from the big hydro dams backing up a modern renewable grid, B.C. can build a model for a fossil fuel-free world. It will take aggressive action by government, the private sector and all British Columbians to promote efficiency, clean energy and switch off fossil fuels by deploying technologies like electric transit and vehicles.

Similarly, our federal representatives need pressure. Canada has become known as one of the "bad boys" of international climate negotiations and Ottawa is allowing incentives for renewable power to run dry. The next climate negotiations are coming up this December in Copenhagen.

A clean energy economy is within our grasp, but it needs focus. The Obama administration is outspending Canada 14-1 (per capita) in its green jobs surge towards a new energy economy. The Europeans are out ahead. And now China, South Korea and other Asian nations have joined the clean energy race in a massive way.

It's not as widely known as it should be that B.C. has some of the most innovative and promising clean-tech companies in the world. We can make massive cuts in our energy consumption. We can green buildings and urban planning. We can take our homes and factories and transportation off fossil fuels. There is reason for hope but no time to waste.

And we have our own contradictions to deal with. Ramping up fossil fuel production in the North is a huge source of carbon emissions. We are still mining and exporting coal. And we should not even be considering pipelines from the tar sands to tanker ports on our west coast.

Instead we can focus on using energy much more wisely. I know this sounds dull but it is hugely important and the gains are impossible without public acceptance of conservation policies -- through voluntary programs, sure, but we also need to support changes to our cities, more dynamic pricing and harnessing the potential of a "smart" grid. And legislation like Japan's "top-runner" law, where the most inefficient products are regularly removed from the market, driving companies to be ever more efficient.

The transition off fossil fuels also requires effort and acceptance from all of us. We can match legislation like Ontario's new Green Energy Act to spur clean energy development. We can demand that our governments impose ever stricter caps on carbon pollution as well as constantly stricter mandates on buildings and vehicles.

Did you know that China has stricter vehicle standards than the new ones proposed for Canada? Or that Warren Buffet is betting his fortune on electric cars made in China? Clearly we can raise our game.

British Columbians can be justifiably proud that our province broke the Canadian logjam of inaction on global warming and clean energy. But we shouldn't underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead. It is time for a renewed leadership effort.

Tzeporah Berman is executive director of PowerUP Canada.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Comment+Hope+blowing+wind+British+Columbia/1885651/story.html

Flygt Turbine Installation at Hollow Dam, Oswegatchie River, Fowler, New York

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:21:57 +0100

Hollow Dam

Business Segment:
Hydroelectric

Location:
On the West Branch of the Oswegatchie River in the Town of Fowler, New York

Installed Capacity:
900 kilowatts (2 x 450kw submersible ITT Flygt (EAML) Turbines)

The Hollow Dam Facility is located on the West Branch of the Oswegatchie River in the Town of Fowler, New York, approximately 16 kilometres south of Gouverneur, New York. The facility is rated at 900 kilowatts. The facility was constructed in 1987 and is located at an existing dam of 100 metres in length and includes a 70 metre spillway. The facility is equipped with two submersible ITT Flygt (EAML) turbine/generators, each capable of generating 450 kilowatts.

Ontario's New Green Energy Act

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:05:08 +0100

Ontario’s new green energy act

New legislation removes barriers to the development of renewable energy

Publish date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The days of burning through financing while waiting for renewable energy project approvals are about to fade into the past. If enacted, Ontario’s proposed Bill 150, the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 (the Act), will remove the barriers to investing in the province’s renewable energy sector. The result? Growth of a robust green economy that puts Ontario on a leadership path for investment in renewable energy. While regulations won’t be in place until summer 2009, investors, project developers and other industry players must act now if they hope to identify the most lucrative investment opportunities. Getting on the fast track can maximize your success in Ontario’s new business landscape. Here’s how the new Act will help:

Get to market faster
To date, investors in renewable energy projects had to deal with multiple provincial and municipal authorities to get permits indicating compliance with a wide array of regulations and by-laws. With the new streamlined approval process, the Act will create a “one stop shop” for all necessary permits, allowing you to bring projects to market faster. The Honourable George Smitherman, Ontario’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure plans to implement a six-month service guarantee for renewable project approvals, compared to current waiting times in excess of one year.

Creative coaching
In addition to shortening the approval process, the new Act will connect investors with a Renewable Energy Facilitator to guide them through project development – eliminating complexity and confusion along the way.

Full speed ahead
Administrative complexity is not the only barrier the Act will remove. New Planning Actexemptions also help investors build renewable energy generation facilities and engage in other renewable energy projects despite municipal zoning by-laws that may otherwise prohibit development. This will overcome potential municipal obstacles to some projects.

Realize revenue certainty
To make it easier for developers to complete proposals, a feed-in tariff program will mandate standard contracts and pricing for renewable energy project developers. This helps developers avoid costly and time-consuming proposal processes, and pricing certainty delivers revenue certainty, positioning investors to gain greater access to financing.

A direct connection
The Act also promises to replace the current “first come, first served” approach to electrical grid connections. Instead, distributors and transmitters will be required to offer a priority connection for all renewable generation projects that meet Ontario's first Green Energy Act and Ontario Energy Board (OEB) requirements. With set time limits for these connections, investors can limit the financial exposure they currently face while waiting to be hooked up.

Build your power base
To realize first mover advantage in this rapidly evolving environment, investors, developers and corporate executives should identify optimal investment opportunities. Areas of particular interest include smart grid investing and smart metering, along with more conventional renewable energy projects. Municipalities also stand to benefit with new rules that allow them to own and operate certain renewable energy facilities.

As an added advantage, the province plans to provide grants and loans on favourable terms to encourage renewable energy projects. You need to lay the groundwork to access this capital, and take advantage of other tax and funding incentives. With the Act set to go into force in the next few months, you have no time to lose. Deloitte can help you develop a tax-effective investment structure, gain access to capital, identify the most lucrative investment opportunities and help in determining a predictable return on your investment.

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_CA/ca/services/financialadvisory/article/2fc8bf29bfff0210VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm

Green Energy Act 2009 (GEA): Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MEI)

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:56:41 +0100

The Green Energy Act: A Vision for the Future

Ontario’s Green Energy Act (GEA), and related amendments to other legislation, received Royal Assent on May 14, 2009. Work is now underway across government to develop the regulations and other tools needed to fully implement the legislation. As these are developed, the various schedules and other elements making up the GEA will be proclaimed. Check this website periodically for updates.

The landmark Green Energy Act will boost investment in renewable energy projects and increase conservation, creating green jobs and economic growth to Ontario.

This legislation is part of Ontario’s plan to become a leading green economy in North America.

The GEA will :

· Spark growth in clean and renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass and biogas in Ontario.

· Create the potential for savings and better managed household energy expenditures through a series of conservation measures.

· Create 50,000 jobs for Ontarians in its first three years.

“Our ambition is to increase the standard of living and quality of life for all Ontario’s families. That is best achieved by creating the conditions for green economic growth.”
George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.

http://www.mei.gov.on.ca.wsd6.korax.net/english/energy/gea/

Green Energy Act (GEA): OPA Feed-In-Tariff Program

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:50:14 +0100

The Green Energy Act, 2009 (GEA) was introduced to the Ontario Legislature on February 23, 2009. It includes a proposal for a new renewable energy program known as a Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program designed to further encourage the development of renewable energy supply.

Ontario's Proposed Feed-in Tariff Program Highlights

Objectives of the FIT Program:

· Increase capacity of renewable energy supply to ensure adequate generation and reduce emissions

· Simpler method to procure and develop generation

· Create new green industries through new investment and job creation

· Provide incentives for investment in renewable energy technologies

The program will be open to various renewable energy supply technologies (i.e., wind, hydro, solar and bioenergy technologies). It will provide opportunities for promoting First Nations, Métis and community-based projects.

http://www.powerauthority.on.ca/FIT/