Twitter

Mining Power Issues

The untold Ontario green-energy scandal is that it’s devastating our rural areas – by Garth Manning (Financial Post – November 2, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

The biggest unreported story in the Ontario media, despite all its talented investigative journalists, is the destruction of rural Ontario by massive wind “farms” and solar projects.

Wind turbines are not “farms” but sophisticated industrial machines, each taller than Toronto’s Royal York Hotel or the Ottawa Peace Tower. They will never be built in urban centres. So rural Ontario is being progressively devastated while residents of towns and cities, along with the media, remain uncaring.

Large wind and solar factories give the finger to rural economies, heritage, and property and business values and landscapes, while vast flocks of migrating birds, including endangered species, are killed by these lofty Cuisinarts. All these obvious outcomes are denied by an industry that cares not about climate change and only about government-enforced profits.

There is a lot here worth investigating.

Read more

Ontario is headed for a fatal future and only ending the renewable deals can prevent it – by Lawrence Solomon (Financial Post – October 29, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Ontario was once the engine of the Canadian economy, a Triple-A-rated powerhouse commanding more than 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. Today this once-proud place is a have-not province whose credit rating is near the bottom of the pack, a loser that collects subsidies from the rest of the country.

Ontario lost its lustrous Triple-A credit rating when Ontario Hydro went out of control, ending the province’s low-price advantage, making industry uncompetitive and sinking the province in a morass of debt.

Ontario’s credit rating then continued to sink, in tandem with continuing boondoggles in the energy sector that now leave Ontario the world’s most indebted sub-national jurisdiction. According to a 2012 MacDonald-Laurier Institute study by Marc Joffe, a former senior director at Moody’s Analytics, the province’s likelihood of defaulting over the next two decades is 43 per cent.

Read more

Shift away from coal power won’t be cheap for Alberta – Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – October 26, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

CALGARY — Alberta’s shift away from coal-fired power is about to get real. And expensive.

Premier Rachel Notley signalled last week that the government will cough up compensation for electricity generators as they shut down coal plants that currently provide about 38 per cent of the province’s juice. This is one measure that apparently comes from advice by a former U.S. power-industry executive the Premier brought in to deal with the thorny issue of billions of dollars in generating assets that will be rendered useless by 2030.

That’s the deadline for coal emissions spelled out in Alberta’s plan to fight climate change. The idea is to fill that gap between now and then with power generated by natural gas and renewables such as wind and solar.

The New Democratic Party government is poring over recommendations from Terry Boston, former chief executive officer of PJM Interconnection, based in Valley Forge, Pa.

Read more

The dream of cheap hydro to fix Ontario’s price hikes – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – October 20, 2016)

https://www.thestar.com/

Quebec comes to the table with a seeming abundance of low-cost, low-carbon hydroelectricity available for export.

Soaring electricity rates are sending Liberal support tumbling. Wind and solar are down and out. Carbon pricing is looming. Nuclear power remains radioactive. Is there a silver bullet to rescue the Ontario government from its energy morass?

Here’s a hint: Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is in town Friday with his top ministers for a joint meeting with Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet. On the agenda: Electricity sharing between the two neighbouring provinces.

Quebec comes to the table with a seeming abundance of low-cost, low-carbon hydroelectricity available for export. Ontario has its back to the wall, weighed down by rising prices and an electricity system that seems out of sync with the times.

Read more

Electrifying Ontario’s First Nations (The Agenda, Steve Paikin – October 13, 2016)

http://tvo.org/programs/the-agenda-with-steve-paikin The Agenda’s Steve Paikin talks with Christopher Henderson, President of Lumos Energy and author of “Aboriginal Power: Clean Energy and the Future of Canada’s First Peoples” and Mitchell Diabo Project Manager at Kasabonika Lake FN and representative on board of Watay Power. Rolling blackouts. Power surges. Diesel spills. A maxed-out power system that stalls …

Read more

Boondoggle: How Ontario’s pursuit of renewable energy broke the province’s electricity system – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – October 7, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Back in 2010, deep green environmentalist Rick Smith, then head of Environmental Defence Canada, hailed Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act regime as a cost-free operation that would catapult the province into the big leagues of renewable energy. Through fat subsidies and high prices offered to wind, solar and other renewable industry players, jobs and growth would boom and Ontario would be free of its dirty coal plants. It was the End of Coal, the government said. The birth of a renewable miracle.

Asked whether the plan might lead to higher prices for consumers, “No,” said Dr. Smith — he likes to be called doctor in recognition of his PhD in biology. “No. Not at all.”

Smith was absolutely sure that Ontario’s campaign to become the North American leader in renewable energy would not be a burden on consumers. He had the facts, the study, and the numbers. Renewable is doable. “We’ve done some modelling on this and we’re talking a penny’s increase to your average person’s electricity bill,” he said. “Ontarians won’t even notice any impact on their electricity rates.”

Read more

Renewables not cost competitive until mid-century: Glencore – by Nina Chestney (Reuters U.S. – September 27, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Renewable energy will not be cost competitive with fossil fuels until 2050, Glencore said on Tuesday, much later than energy organizations forecast and supporting the mining and trading giant’s case for continued investment in coal.

Glencore has said coal is still an investment opportunity, forecasting global demand will grow by 7 percent by 2030, driven by emerging economies and industrial demand, and halting spending would halve seaborne supplies in 15 years’ time.

Glencore Chairman Tony Hayward told a conference in London on Tuesday that, like oil companies, the group would get a return on its investment. “The investment we put in the ground today will come out in 10 years. The same applies to the world’s oil and gas companies – their investments will come out in 20 years,” Hayward said.

Read more

Ontario Liberals’ huge green energy about-face shows renewables aren’t so doable after all – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – September 28, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

One should never underestimate the ability of politicians to convert massive policy failure into a dazzling display of green concern for the welfare of voters. That’s the trick now being attempted by the Liberal government of Ontario as it begins to unravel parts of its financially disastrous green energy program.

Glenn Thibeault, the province’s latest energy minister on Tuesday read through the script provided by the spin-meisters within Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. The province, he said in a speech to the Ontario Energy Association, had decided to “suspend procurement” of 1,000 additional megawatts of unneeded wind and solar power.

The cancellation is “expected to save $3.8 billion in electricity system costs,” thereby saving a typical residential consumer “an average of approximately $2.45 per month.” Only a government can get away with declaring a saving for consumers by not spending on projects that are not needed.

Read more

Barrick sees ‘perfect storm’ brewing around cost-effective renewables (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER – Renewable-energy sources have reached the stage where they can reduce energy costs as well as emissions, Barrick Gold’s senior manager of energy and greenhouse gases (GHGs), Russell Blades, tells Energy and Mines.

“We are seeing a ‘perfect storm’ brewing around renewables. Solar and energy storage are improving in efficiencies and reducing in costs. Renewables are already cost-effective in many areas compared to traditional fossil fuel power options,” Blades says, adding that, in terms of further reducing Barrick Gold’s energy costs and emissions, the company sees renewables as having an important role to play alongside its energy management and fuel switching initiatives.

Moreover, with governments, investors and stakeholders more focused on carbon emissions, pricing and climate change, mines are moving more towards electrification and automation. “Barrick recognises this global trend and is trying to get ahead of the curve to be a market leader to benefit our shareholders and other stakeholders,” Blades notes.

Read more

‘We’re already doing it’: Quebec company touts wind power in Canada’s Arctic – by Sima Sahar Zerehi (CBC News North – September 20, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

‘Renewable energy is available today and can be installed in the Arctic,’ says Quebec’s Tugliq Energy

A company that has designed a wind turbine in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, says the same technology would work in Nunavut and other remote areas of the Arctic. ugliq Energy says its wind turbine has cut costs at Glencore’s Raglan Mine, lowered the mine’s use of diesel, and minimized its carbon footprint. Tugliq now wants to bring the same technology to mine sites in Nunavut, such as TMAC’s Hope Bay mine, and communities across the North.

“We’re already doing it — renewable energy is available today and can be installed in the Arctic,” said Laurent Abbatiello, CEO of the Quebec-based Tugliq Energy. “It is feasible technically and there’s also strong business cases in many occurrences where it’s going to be profitable.”

Raglan Mine is a large nickel mining complex in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, approximately 100 kilometres south of Deception Bay.

Read more

Yes, Ontario’s Liberals can cancel their terrible renewable power contracts—and they should do it now – by Lawrence Solomon (Financial Post – September 16, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Ontario’s power prices are soaring out of control, industry is leaving the province, the Liberal government is panicking over its re-election prospects, and almost everyone agrees there’s no remedy, that the ludicrously lucrative long-term contracts that the Ontario government signed with wind and solar energy developers condemn the province to many more years of economic hardship.

Except there is a way to deal with the onerous contracts — rip them up. There is no compelling economic, environmental, moral or legal case for the government to “honour” odious contracts. The only honourable course of action for the government, in fact, is to admit its mistakes and pass legislation declaring those contracts null and void.

A compelling economic case? In announcing its Green Energy Act, the Liberals repeatedly boasted they’d be creating 50,000 jobs, boosting the Ontario economy to new heights. With jobs fleeing the province and business confidence at rock bottom, no one hears that boast any longer.

Read more

GLOBE AND MAIL EDITORIAL: Ontario’s new electricity policy: History repeats as farce (September 14, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A century ago, when Sir Adam Beck created the public utility that went
on to become Ontario Hydro, his slogan was, “Power at Cost.” A century
later, Ontario’s motto might as well be, “artificially costly power,
priced below cost, with taxpayers picking up the difference.” What a mess.

Karl Marx said that history repeats: first as tragedy, then as farce. In Ontario, the history of failed energy policy repeats – first as farce, and then as more farce.

Premier Kathleen Wynne faces an election in a little over a year and a half, and one of the main issues dogging the Liberal government is the price of electricity. Thanks to policy choices that the government itself seems incapable of unwinding, electricity bills have been on an upward tear for a decade.

Many voters are furious. And so the Wynne government devoted the heart of its Throne Speech this week to a plan to lower the price of electricity. Not the cost of electricity, however. Just the sticker price.

Read more

[Ontario electricity rates] Wynne’s way: Rob the poor, help the rich – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – September 13, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Wynne government loves to bask in the virtues of “sustainable” energy.
But its deranged pursuit of green energy at any cost – dating back to
the days when Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau’s BFF, was cutting his teeth
at Queen’s Park – is not economically sustainable at all.

Electricity prices in Ontario are rising faster than anywhere else
in North America. Many experts, including Bank of Montreal chief
economist Doug Porter, warn that soaring hydro rates are among the
biggest threats to the provincial economy.

Out in rural Ontario, far away from the lush grounds of Queen’s Park, a crisis is brewing. Electricity rates have soared so high that many people can’t afford to pay their hydro bills. Local charities have a name for it: energy poverty. The problem is so bad that they’ve set up relief funds to help protect families from the threat of disconnection.

No wonder Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s Premier, is running for cover. The Liberal government’s energy policy has been a disaster for lower-income citizens, especially in rural areas, where delivery charges are significantly higher.

Read more

Ontario Liberals try to fix the problems they created with more decidedly liberal solutions – by Matt Gurney (National Post – September 13, 2016)

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Ontario’s nearly 13-year-old Liberal government announced a slate of new, purportedly consumer-friendly initiatives Monday. In her speech from the throne, the lieutenant governor said Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government would create 100,000 child-care spaces, and drop the provincial share of the harmonized goods and sales tax from home hydro bills.

There would also be targeted incentives aimed at lowering the punishing hydro bills paid by manufacturers — there are still some left, amazingly — and rural residents.

The throne speech, which followed the Liberals’ recent byelection loss of a Toronto riding to the Progressive Conservatives, is clearly aimed at addressing the discontent many Ontarians feel with their government, particularly over basic pocketbook issues. The tone of the speech, on the whole, had a “we-feel-your-pain” vibe. It’s the government, after all. And it’s here to help.

Read more

Too much of a good thing — how Ontario’s Liberals bungled the green energy file – by Jon W. Kieran (National Post – September 3, 2016)

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Ontario set an all-time peak electricity demand of 27,005 megawatts (MW) 10 years ago this summer. At the time, rising demand and plans to retire its coal-fired power plants dominated provincial energy policy. What followed was optimism for a new energy policy, focused on the ambitious procurement of large wind and solar installations. I felt great pride in helping to lead an industry that would make Ontario’s power system clean, responsive and cutting edge.

What a difference a decade makes. Intrusive policy and poor implementation are largely responsible for the energy market debacle Ontarians face today. But there is no excuse now for buying more mega-projects when our power supply is saturated and hydro bills are skyrocketing.

Coal-fired power generation effectively disappeared after 2010, by which time Ontario’s electricity demand had already started to plummet. Demand has fallen 13 per cent in the past 10 years, including consecutive reductions in each of the past five years. In 2016, Ontario will consume less electricity than in 1997.

Read more