See also
- Feed-in tariff program in Canada
- Niagara Tunnel Project, completed in March 2013
- Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative
- WindShare is a for-profit wind power co-operative in Ontario
The Green Energy Act (GEA), formally the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009, introduced in the Ontario legislature on February 23, 2009 and later repealed on January 1, 2019, was intended to expand renewable energy production, encourage energy conservation and create green jobs. [1] Among many clauses, the GEA was best known for creating a number of feed-in tariff rates for different types of energy sources. Notable among these is the microFIT program for small non-commercial systems under 10 kilowatts, and FIT, the larger commercial version which covers a number of project types with sizes into the megawatts.
The GEA was a highly controversial piece of legislation within Ontario, in part due to the high initial tariff, up to 80.2 cents/kWh for small systems under microFIT. It was also viewed as controversial by stakeholders outside Ontario due to its "made in Ontario" clauses which demanded a certain amount of Ontario labor and manufacturing input in order to receive the tariff rates. Changes to the program and rates, some of them applied retroactively, added confusion and sparked complaints about the way the program was being managed. The GEA became a major topic of political discourse within Ontario and was heavily debated during the 2011 Ontario general election; the PC party threatened to cancel the act outright if elected, while the Liberals actively supported the GEA as a primary plank of their re-election platform.
Prior to the introduction of the GEA, Ontario had enacted a number of different programs to introduce renewable energy or promote conservation. These included the Energy Conservation Leadership Act, the Energy Efficiency Act and of particular note, November 2006's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program. The Standard Offer, also known as SOP or RESOP for short, introduced a number of fixed 20-year feed-in tariffs for hydro, wind, solar (PV) and biomass projects. RESOP tariffs were relatively low, 42 cents/kWh for PV and 11 cents/kWh for other forms of energy. [2] At the time, RESOP was named North America's first true feed-in tariff program. [3]
In practice, it was found that the RESOP program had a significant administrative overhead that eroded the value of the program. In order to connect a generation project, the provider had to not only meet expected requirements for the equipment, but also had to apply to various agencies and levels of government for permission to connect to the grid. This process was not streamlined, and often required hundreds of pages of documentation to be submitted to each organization, in the proper sequence. Certain areas of the Ontario distribution grid were also placed off-limits for development, due to load considerations. Even then, there were stakeholders at the municipal level that could block development at any time as part of local building codes.
Due to the presence of fixed costs, including the administrative overhead, RESOP favoured large projects which could distribute these costs. It proved particularly successful for wind power developments, with almost 64% of the RESOP developments being wind, 28% biomass, and the rest a mix of hydro and a tiny amount of solar. [4]
RESOP included a built-in two-year review process that started in 2008. During this period, the worldwide industry was also exploring a number of different ways to implement incentive programs. The main contenders were the feed-in tariff system, like RESOP, and emissions-trading systems like the UK's Renewable Obligation or New Jersey's Solar Renewable Energy Certificate. In 2008, Ernst & Young published Renewable energy country attractiveness indices for the first quarter of 2008, which demonstrated that Germany's FIT program was far more successful, delivering more power at lower costs. An earlier report from UC Berkeley demonstrated that job creation with renewables was far higher than fossil fuels, another argument in favour of the German-style program, which was then considered a great success. [5]
With the success of FIT programs, and in response to RESOP issues, a number of stakeholders suggested an expansion of the program with higher rates and various changes to the connection process to simplify the workload. In particular, a number of proposals suggested adding additional classes for very small systems that would have minimal impact on the grid that could be given an express application process and pre-authorized access to connect. These systems would also be given much higher tariffs, in order to offset basic implementation details, like metering, that are often a fixed cost no matter the project size. [5]
The GEA effort was led by George Smitherman, the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. It was claimed that the bill would help the government ensure the province’s future by:
Among the key features [6] of the Act were the following:
Several non-profit organizations were active in supporting the implementation of the Green Energy Act with customized wikis to assist consumers and service providers, including SWITCH and OurPower (see Further Reading).
MicroFIT [9] is a renewable energy microgeneration program (less than 10 kW) in the province of Ontario, launched in October 2009 following the Green Energy Act, alongside feed-in tariff (FIT) to provide incentives for landowners to generate wind, solar, hydroelectric or other clean energy to sell to the electrical grid. Most applications for microFIT generation have been for solar energy.
By December 16, 2009, microFIT issued its first 700 contracts. [10]
Many solar photovoltaic companies have become involved in microFIT installations; the solar panels are also suitable for schools and places of worship. [11] The projects benefit home, farm or business owners by revenue generation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and approved applicants are guaranteed to receive revenue for twenty years. [12] The Green Energy Act aims to create 50,000 new green-collar jobs by 2012.
According to the Ontario Power Authority, homeowners generating electricity receive a following share of contract price per kilowatt-hour: [9]
| Renewable Fuel | Price ($/kWh) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inception | April 5, 2012 [13] | August 26, 2013 [13] | September 30, 2014 [14] | June 21, 2016 [15] | January 1, 2017 | |
| Solar (PV) (rooftop) | $0.802 | $0.549 | $0.396 | $0.384 | $0.313 (< 6 kW) $0.294 (> 6 kW < 10 kW) | $0.313 (< 6 kW) $0.288 (> 6 kW < 10 kW) |
| Solar (PV) (non-rooftop) | $0.642 | $0.445 | $0.291 | $0.289 | $0.214 | $0.210 |
| On-shore wind | $0.135 | $0.115 | $0.128 | $0.128 | $0.125 | |
| Waterpower | $0.131 | $0.148 | $0.246 | $0.246 | $0.241 | |
| Renewable biomass | $0.138 | $0.156 | $0.175 | $0.175 | $0.172 | |
| Biogas | $0.160 | $0.164 | $0.168 | $0.168 | $0.165 | |
| Landfill gas | $0.111 | $0.077 | $0.171 | $0.171 | $0.168 | |
Installation costs often exceed CA$50,000 and only about 9,000 [12] projects have connected to the grid by late 2011 out of over 42,000 applicants. Concerns over islanding, lack of capacity and other problems have resulted in delays for many homeowners in installation, as connection points in some places have not been implemented. [16] Cuts to pay rates generated further controversy. [17] [18]
The signing of the GEA corresponded with a dramatic increase in the Provincial Adjustment (now called the Global Adjustment). This is the cost added to the market price of electricity in Ontario. [19] The Global Adjustment is made up of several different cost buckets, but the biggest one is guaranteed energy rates for generators. This is the difference between the rates that were guaranteed to generators by the provincial government, and the wholesale electricity rate which they are paid each month. In recent years, the wholesale rate has ranged between 1 and 3 cents per kWh. [20] However, a June 2012 report by Bridgepoint Group Ltd. claimed most of this cost increase has been coincidental, rather than attributable to the fixed price for renewable energy. [21] Likewise, the Ontario Energy Board claimed in April 2012 that the highest generator of the increased cost of electricity is guaranteed payments to nuclear generators, followed, by gas, coal, and hydro generation. [22] In March 2011, the Ontario Government claimed that the combined cost of new renewable and conservation measures had been shown to account for only about 3% of total electricity cost in Ontario, although it was acknowledged that amount will rise as more green energy comes on line in future years. [23]
Although the Green Energy Act promised to create 50,000 jobs, the Liberals admitted in 2013 that the Act had only created 31,000 jobs. Critics charge that even confirming this number is problematic because the large majority are "indirect" as opposed to "direct" employment. However, a 2011 report by Jim McCarter[ citation needed ], Ontario's Auditor General, found that a large majority of these jobs were in construction and would only exist for no more than three years. In addition, McCarter's report also cited controversial reports from other countries which indicate "that for each job created through renewable energy programs, about two to four jobs are often lost in other sectors of the economy because of higher electricity prices" which has led critics to charge that the Green Energy Act has actually resulted in a net loss of employment. [24]
A 2013 study by the conservative Fraser Institute stated that "wind power tends to be produced at times when it is least needed", and stated that:
Eighty percent of Ontario’s generation of electricity from wind power occurs at times and seasons so far out of phase with demand that the entire output is surplus and is exported at a substantial loss ... The Auditor-General of Ontario estimates that the province has already lost close to $2-billion on such exports. [25]
The price of exports is determined by allowing electricity producers to bid on export offers at the price at which they are willing to produce it. [26]
The quality of the "green" manufacturing jobs created in Ontario has also been questioned. Writing in the National Post , John Ivison noted in 2011 that Eclipsall Energy Corp, a newly created company in Scarborough, Ontario, that was touted by Premier Dalton McGuinty, only pays its workers 20% above minimum wage and that its manufacturing facility simply "assemble[s] glass and solar cells imported from Asia" (which allows it to qualify for the local content rules). [27] [28]
In May 2013, Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli announced that the made-in-Ontario content requirements for wind and solar projects would be scrapped, after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that they were a violation of WTO regulations. [29] [30]
In June 2013, Chiarelli announced that the province's future Feed-in-Tariff contacts will now be limited to smaller projects (less than 500 kW) and that a cap of 900 MW of additional capacity will be set for deployment by 2018. For larger projects, a competitive bidding system will be created, although projects that have already been contracted will not be affected by these changes. [31] [32] [33]
In December 2013, Chiarelli announced that the remaining local content requirements which had already been reduced would be removed entirely sometime in 2014 in order to comply with the WTO decision. As a result, concerns have been expressed that this will lead to the loss of "green" manufacturing jobs in Ontario. [34] In February 2014, Jeff Garrah, CEO of Kingston's Economic Development Commission (KEDCO), cited the removal of the local content requirements as the reason for the bankruptcy of Centennial Global Technology Inc., which in November 2013 had been described as Canada's "leading national solar panel distributor". It was reported that the removal of the local content rules had effectively "pull[ed] the plug on local production". Describing the Green Energy Act as "an ongoing soap opera", Garrah stated that municipalities across Ontario have become dismayed with how its solar and wind power provisions have been implemented. [35] [36]
On January 1, 2019, Ontario repealed the Green Energy Act. [37] [38]
Distributed generation, also distributed energy, on-site generation (OSG), or district/decentralized energy, is electrical generation and storage performed by a variety of small, grid-connected or distribution system-connected devices referred to as distributed energy resources (DER).
Net metering is an electricity billing mechanism that allows consumers who generate some or all of their own electricity to use that electricity anytime, instead of when it is generated. This is particularly important with renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which are non-dispatchable. Monthly net metering allows consumers to use solar power generated during the day at night, or wind from a windy day later in the month. Annual net metering rolls over a net kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit to the following month, allowing solar power that was generated in July to be used in December, or wind power from March in August.
Microgeneration is the small-scale production of heat or electric power from a "low carbon source," as an alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power.
Small wind turbines, also known as micro wind turbines or urban wind turbines, are wind turbines that generate electricity for small-scale use. These turbines are typically smaller than those found in wind farms. Small wind turbines often have passive yaw systems as opposed to active ones. They use a direct drive generator and use a tail fin to point into the wind, whereas larger turbines have geared powertrains that are actively pointed into the wind.
Renewable energy in Germany is mainly based on wind and biomass, plus solar and hydro. Germany had the world's largest photovoltaic installed capacity until 2014, and as of 2023 it has over 82 GW. It is also the world's third country by installed total wind power capacity, 64 GW in 2021 and second for offshore wind, with over 7 GW. Germany has been called "the world's first major renewable energy economy".
Financial incentives for photovoltaics are incentives offered to electricity consumers to install and operate solar-electric generating systems, also known as photovoltaics (PV).
Solar power has a small role in electricity production in the United Kingdom.
A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers. This means promising renewable energy producers an above-market price and providing price certainty and long-term contracts that help finance renewable energy investments. Typically, FITs award different prices to different sources of renewable energy in order to encourage the development of one technology over another. For example, technologies such as wind power and solar PV are awarded a higher price per kWh than tidal power. FITs often include a "digression": a gradual decrease of the price or tariff in order to follow and encourage technological cost reductions.
Feed-in electricity tariffs (FiT) were introduced in Germany to encourage the use of new energy technologies such as wind power, biomass, hydropower, geothermal power and solar photovoltaics. Feed-in tariffs are a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by providing them remuneration above the retail or wholesale rates of electricity. The mechanism provides long-term security to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology. Technologies such as wind power, for instance, are awarded a lower per-kWh price, while technologies such as solar PV and tidal power are offered a higher price, reflecting higher costs.
A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a long-term contract between an electricity generator and a customer, usually a utility, government or company. PPAs may last anywhere between 5 and 20 years, during which time the power purchaser buys energy at a pre-negotiated price. Such agreements play a key role in the financing of independently owned electricity generators, especially producers of renewable energy like solar farms or wind farms.
Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2023, utility-scale solar power generated 164.5 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3.9% of electricity in the United States. Total solar generation that year, including estimated small-scale photovoltaic generation, was 238 TWh.
Feed-in tariffs in Australia are the feed-in tariffs (FITs) paid under various State schemes to non-commercial producers of electricity generated by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems using solar panels. They are a way of subsidising and encouraging uptake of renewable energy and in Australia have been enacted at the State level, in conjunction with a federal mandatory renewable energy target.
Historically, the main applications of solar energy technologies in Canada have been non-electric active solar system applications for space heating, water heating and drying crops and lumber. In 2001, there were more than 12,000 residential solar water heating systems and 300 commercial/ industrial solar hot water systems in use. These systems presently comprise a small fraction of Canada's energy use, but some government studies suggest they could make up as much as five percent of the country's energy needs by the year 2025.
Solar power in Japan has been expanding since the late 1990s. The country is a major manufacturer and exporter of photovoltaics (PV) and a large installer of domestic PV systems, with most of them grid connected.
Renewable energy in Canada represented 17.3% of the Total Energy Supply (TES) in 2020, following natural gas at 39.1% and oil at 32.7% of the TES.
The Renewable Energy Sources Act or EEG is a series of German laws that originally provided a feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme to encourage the generation of renewable electricity. The EEG 2014 specified the transition to an auction system for most technologies which has been finished with the current version EEG 2017.
A feed-in tariff (FIT) is paid by energy suppliers in the United Kingdom if a property or organisation generates their own electricity using technology such as solar panels or wind turbines and feeds any surplus back to the grid. The FIT scheme was imposed on suppliers by the UK government, and applied to installations completed between July 2009 and March 2019.
The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) is a non-profit organization supporting the growth of renewable energy and Community Power projects in the Canadian Province of Ontario. OSEA advocated an advanced renewable energy Feed-in Tariff program for Ontario, resulting in the creation of the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program, a precursor to the Green Energy Act and, in 2007, the most progressive energy policy in North America in a decade. OSEA has approximately 130 community and industry members as well as individual members. The affairs of the association are managed by a board of directors elected by the membership.
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building-mounted and other decentralized solar power because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. Utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project.
Most of Kenya's electricity is generated by renewable energy sources. Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is one of the 17 main goals of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Development of the energy sector is also critical to help Kenya achieve the goals in Kenya Vision 2030 to become a newly industrializing, middle-income country. With an installed power capacity of 2,819 MW, Kenya currently generates 826 MW hydroelectric power, 828 geothermal power, 749 MW thermal power, 331 MW wind power, and the rest from solar and biomass sources. Kenya is the largest geothermal energy producer in Africa and also has the largest wind farm on the continent. In March 2011, Kenya opened Africa's first carbon exchange to promote investments in renewable energy projects. Kenya has also been selected as a pilot country under the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programmes in Low Income Countries Programme to increase deployment of renewable energy solutions in low-income countries. Despite significant strides in renewable energy development, about a quarter of the Kenyan population still lacks access to electricity, necessitating policy changes to diversify the energy generation mix and promote public-private partnerships for financing renewable energy projects.