Feed-in tariffs, or FITs, are the cornerstone policy of the Green Energy Act, which pays renewable energy producers to feed energy onto the electricity grid. Studies have found that feed-in mechanisms achieve larger deployment at lower coststhan other policy mechanisms such as quotas, direct incentives or voluntary goals — making feed-in tariffs the most efficient and cost-effective policy to procure renewable energy.

Feed-in tariffs have also largely been credited for supporting green job creation in Europe.  The FIT in Ontario is crucial to foster the urgently needed transition to clean energy, maintain jobs creation and ensure investment from domestic and global players. While the Green Energy Act could and should be improved now that it has been in operation for two years, it is still arguably the most progressive renewable energy policy in North America in the past 20 years.

The criticism of the price Ontario currently pays for renewable energy ignores twoimportant facts: renewable prices are still falling, while the costs of fossil fuels and nuclear are rising — and the government subsidizes fossil fuels and nuclear energy to a much greater extent than green energy.

The nuclear industry has been subsidized since day one. Nuclear has accumulated over $20 billion in subsidizes federally, including over $1.2 billion in the past five years — and it continues to collect federal subsidies now, even after being sold to SNC Lavelin.

Compare that to wind, solar and biomass industries that together have received about $1.7 billion from the federal government, which are being spread out from 2002 to 2021. In other words, 10 years from now, renewable energy will have received about 10 per cent of the subsidies nuclear has received — assuming no more nuclear subsidies are paid out in the next 10 years.

The California Energy Commission estimated new nuclear costs between 17-34 c/kWh in 2010. The low end of that estimate is still more expensive then Ontario’s prices for wind power under the feed-in tariff, and the high end approaches the feed-in tariff price for large-scale solar power projects at current costs, which have been dropping rapidly (down 50 per cent) in past five years.

Ontario has taken the laudable step of closing down its entire fleet of coal-fired power plants — a move supported across partisan lines. This, however, is but one of the many changes that is coming to Ontario’s electricity system.  Tim Weis Director of renewable energy & energy efficiency, answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the role that renewable energy could play in the future of electricity generation in Ontario.

The Pembina Institute’s detailed platform analysis compares the commitments the Ontario Liberal, NDP and Progressive Conservative parties have made on a range of sustainable energy priorities.

The analysis looks at where the parties stand on issues such as investing in renewable power generation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating incentives for energy conservation and expanding transit systems. The results identify clear leaders in building the province’s clean energy economy.

This report examines how scaling back Ontario’s plans to develop renewable energy would affect electricity prices, using an integrated energy system simulator to compare two main scenarios.

The first scenario is based on Ontario’s current Long-Term Energy Plan, in which a large part of new electricity generation comes from additional renewable capacity supported under the Green Energy Act; the second scenario tests the effect of eliminating the Act and largely expanding natural gas in place of future renewable resources.

Behind the switch: pricing Ontario electricity options finds that Ontario consumers would see virtually no relief from high electricity prices if the province cancelled its support for renewable energy under the Green Energy Act.

In fact, the study indicates that investing in renewable energy today is likely to save Ontario ratepayers money within the next 15 years, as natural gas becomes more expensive and as the cost of renewable energy technology continues to decrease.

Mr. Tabuns laid out the following key points:

• The province’s current approach places too little emphasis on efficiency and conservation
• Nuclear power consistently goes over budget creating large cost overruns to be paid by the taxpayer or the customer. The current assumption that nuclear remains the source of half of our power needs to change.
• The partial privatization of our electricity system has resulted in “hundreds of millions of dollars being paid to energy traders and producers who game the system.”

“Truthiness is a ‘truth’ that a person claims to know intuitively “from the gut” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.” Stephen Colbert

Cut through the disinformation and read the truth about Power Pricing:

- The difference between legacy hydro and built nuclear (minus the debt retirement charge) versus the cost of new generation

- The impact of green energy FIT contracts

- The real impact of Time of Use Pricing