Budget lands blow on our wind farms

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."

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