Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Budget lands blow on our wind farms
Tories quietly cancel green-energy subsidy
In Tuesday's blockbuster budget, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty quietly cancelled the green energy subsidy that helps wind farms -- including the new one planned for St. Joseph -- stay viable.
"That's a problem," acknowledged Manitoba Finance Minister Greg Selinger, who is also in charge of Manitoba Hydro. "It makes it harder, no question."
Related Items
But Selinger said there's still a long-term market for wind power, and the price of wind could rise if U.S. President Barack Obama makes good on promises to embrace green energy.
The subsidy, in place since 2007, is critical to the 300-megawatt wind farm planned for St. Joseph by Australian mega-firm Babcock & Brown, in partnership with Calgary's BowArk. If it gets built, it would be Manitoba's second wind farm and the biggest in Canada.
Babcock & Brown say the pressure is on to get a power purchase agreement, a grid connection and environmental assessments done by early summer. By the fall, all the remaining cash in the program is expected to be gobbled up by other projects.
Babcock & Brown spokesman Colin Edwards said Thursday the St. Joseph wind farm is well on track to meet that deadline.
But the Doer government has committed to building 600 more megawatts of wind power and there are dozens of other potential projects waiting for Manitoba Hydro to issue another round of tenders. Those could be on shaky ground without the federal cash.
"Without the subsidy, the economics of projects will be somewhat more challenging," said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association.
That's especially true in Manitoba, where hydro power is cheap to produce and Manitoba Hydro won't buy wind power unless it's priced pretty much as low as the electricity created by northern dams.
But Hydro got a bit of good news in Tuesday's budget in the form of a $1-billion green infrastructure fund. Flaherty told a Winnipeg radio station earlier this week that some of the cash could be earmarked for transmission lines.
Selinger said Hydro is already cobbling together a pitch for that money, which could be used to connect northern communities like Shamattawa and Tadoule Lake to the power grid.
It could also be used to bolster the province's power exports east and west. Manitoba Hydro and the Doer government have long coddled a dream to pump power to Ontario via a massive power line connecting the northern dams to the southwestern Ontario grid.
But Ontario, which is facing a huge energy deficit as it tries to shut down some of its coal-fired plants, has turned to nuclear energy and has shown little interest in an east-west grid, even though Manitoba has already socked away more than $40 million in federal cash for the project.
More likely is a power sale to Saskatchewan, another coal-burning province.
A deal with that province is progressing well, said Hydro CEO Bob Brennan, though it involves the sale of surplus power, so it wouldn't be as lucrative as billion-dollar, firm power deals with Wisconsin and Minnesota.
But cash to improve the three major transmission lines connecting Manitoba and Saskatchewan could sweeten the deal.
Brennan hopes SaskPower makes a decision well before the end of the year.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Could Manitoba crops clean up Canada's stinkiest polluter?
The background:
Nanticoke, one of many coal-fired power plants in Ontario, is slated to be shut down by 2014 as part of that province's pledge to go green. Located on the shores of Lake Erie southwest of Toronto, it's the biggest coal-fired plant in North America.
The idea:
Instead of mothballing the plant altogether, the Ontario government and Ontario Power Generation are considering converting some or all of Nanticoke's eight units to biomass. Instead of coal, they would burn pellets made of organic leftovers like crop residue or the dust and wood chips from sawmills.
The Manitoba connection:
Manitoba, with its farming and logging, is biomass central. The province has started to set up incubators for companies piloting biomass production, like Prairie Bio Energy in La Broquerie that makes burnable cubes from wood and flax stems. If Ontario starts using biomass in its behemoth power plants, Manitoba could export biomass big-time.
Fact:
Nanticoke emits more greenhouse gases than the entire province of Manitoba.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 30, 2009 A4
- Rate this
-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Local
-
Working in Winnipeg
A close-up look at the jobs people do and why they do them
-
Helping Haiti
Where to make donations
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
Poll
Most Popular
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Should have been listening, Tiger
- Councillors nix oversized rolling garbage bins
- Sinclair inquest should be an inquiry: family
- MPI playing politics with poll question: Tories
- Would you pay more to supersize your garbage bin?
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Storm warning issued
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- City streets very slippery; several vehicles involved in crashes
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Extended family pulls together
- Water pressure drop caused by power outage: city
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Avoid Perimeter: RCMP
- Winter storm warnings issued for Winnipeg, southern Manitoba
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Two dead after crash on Bishop Grandin
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Cheap Vancouver rentals, if tiny's OK
- Councillors nix oversized rolling garbage bins
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- City looking at adding bike lane on Pembina
- Sinclair inquest should be an inquiry: family
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- MPI playing politics with poll question: Tories
- Got more trash? It'll cost you
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Take one downtown, fill it with people
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Sick days spike during blizzard
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- Councillors nix oversized rolling garbage bins
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Shielding buyers, or 'cash grab'?
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Girl not a bully, shouldn't have been suspended, says mom
- Arrest tape kills auto-theft case
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Don't dock students for missing deadlines: NDP
- Alleged mobsters seek to stay
- RCMP investigating after video shows police beating suspect
- U.S. fighter slams Canada's 'Third World' health system
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Drunk cop crashes motorbike, gets fined
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- Iran playing its hand
- First female boss for Destination Winnipeg
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Food for thought
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- Bone-chilling temps become hot commodity
- Sinclair inquest should be an inquiry: family
- Cyclist getting his klicks
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- A super-lab to fight superbugs
- Hutterite biography to debut despite legal chill
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- 'Tough guys' wanted as film extras
- Nylons still smooth as silk
- Bath & Body Works coming to St. Vital
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Winnipeg desserts are a piece of cake
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- VIDEO: A winter wonderland?
- Harper really is dangerous
PREVIOUS
3 Comments
Posted by: eyedoubt
January 30, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Has the author done any research on this? She is saying that Hydro only pays the going hydropower rate for windpower. Is this true or guesswork? Is this whole story just lobbying by a wind farm owner? . . . . . Ottawa pays between 5 and 7% of the cost of windpower. A lot of local businesses have survived a 7% income reduction. Ask any manufacturer or retailer how 2008 went!
Posted by: John White
January 30, 2009 at 4:17 PM
That was a bad typo. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by: Local Guy
January 30, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Who is editing the articles today?? This is the third article I've seen today with an obvious spelling/grammatical mistake - and this one is right in the first paragraph!