Wind Blog

The IESO has released their year end 2015 numbers about Ontario electricity generation mix. (more…)

The government of Ontario has recently announced that it will be implementing a Cap and Trade system to put a price on carbon, to reduce our climate emissions. This comes after they shut down the coal generating stations, North America’s largest single climate initiative. Good on them. So what on earth are we thinking in providing a subsidy to communities to provide access to imported natural gas?
(more…)

Ontario’s build out of wind capacity continues to increase the output of Ontario’s wind farms. The output rose from 5.9 TWh to 7.7 TWh, an increase of 30%. Wind supplied about 5.5% of Ontario’s electricity demand.

(more…)

The government has instructed the Ontario Power Authority to review the prices it pays for both the FIT and MicroFIT programs. The OPA plans to post its new price schedule by the end of September. (more…)

I recently met with Helmut Schneider, President of the Oxford Community Energy Co-operative. They are working on building a ten turbine, 18 MW wind farm in Oxford County at Gunn’s Hill. They have a very sound plan.
(more…)

The voters in Ontario have spoken. They elected a Liberal majority government. The Liberals have been responsible for starting Ontario on a sustainable energy path, adding solar, wind, biogas and new waterpower facilities. And the voters have delivered a stunning rebuke to the PC party, reducing both their share of the popular vote, and their number of seats. The PC party blamed renewable energy for higher power prices, and said they would tear up the Green Energy Act.
(more…)

The Ontario Liberals have been widely condemned for the moving of two gas plants from Mississauga and Oakville, to save two seats last election. They did this before knowing the cost of the move, which the Auditor General estimated at $1 billion over the 20 year life of the plants. How does this compare in the overall scheme of the electricity system in Ontario? (more…)

Today has some compelling data that demonstrates the value of diversity in assuring secure electricity supply. Diversity in both generation sources and geography is important. (more…)

Natural gas in storage in the US continued its decline in the most recent update from the US Energy Information Agency. (Why doesn’t Canada publish this type of data?) The ongoing cold winter reduced the gas in storage to 896 Bcf. This compares with the 5 year average of 1822 Bcf, a reduction of 51%. Gas in storage dropped in the week ended Mar 21 by 57 Bcf. Last year in the same week gas in storage was pretty much the same as the week before.
(more…)

Saturday was World Water day, a day to bring greater awareness to water issues. Water of course is vital to life itself. Clean water is also vital to agriculture – both animal husbandry, and irrigation in some places. A polluted or depleted aquifer in a dry area is a sure way to end farming in that area, causing depopulation and poverty. Water is increasingly important, especially as climate change will influence rainfall in the long term. Energy production is often water intensive. In fact, energy production uses more water than agriculture in the US. Wind and solar power, by contrast, use no water.
(more…)