Powering Canada: More homes today are turning to
solar as an alternative source of energy
OTTAWA
| Oct.
31, 2008 — The
winds of change are blowing through Canada's energy sector. Fossil fuels
are out and renewable energy is in. But before these new technologies can
realize their full potential, many industry insiders say there needs to
be more attention and support from all levels of government .
The Canadian Wind Energy Association
(CanWEA) recently released a report outlining an ambitious goal of providing
20 per cent of Canada’s
energy by 2025. Just under one per cent of Canada’s energy currently
comes from wind. The report outlines advantages to increasing wind energy
— $79 billion in economic investments, 52,000 jobs created, stabilized
electricity rates for Canadians, and reducing Canada’s annual
greenhouse gas emissions by 17 megatonnes annually.
“It’s a huge opportunity [for Canada], but in order to
seize it, what investors are looking for is that long-term signal that
there’s
a federal and provincial interest in pursuing wind,” says Sean
Whittaker, vice-president of CanWEA.
Degrees of government involvement
Financial support for projects would level the playing field for renewable
energies when competing with the traditional energy sources, says Whittaker.
Currently, most wind energy funding falls under the federal ecoAction
Initiative, whose budget will run out at the end of this year because
of the demand, according to CanWEA. The federal ecoAction website, however,
indicates the program will run until 2010, and a government spokesperson
says that only 25 per cent of available funding has been distributed
so far to renewable energy projects.
Whittaker says the initiative needs to be extended. Otherwise, Canada
risks being left behind in an increasingly competitive global market
for renewable energy. According to the report issued by CanWEA, Canada
sits in 16th place in terms of wind capacity installed, behind most
European countries, India, China and the United States.
On the provincial government level, support for renewable energies
comes from attracting
investors and regulating environmental policies. One of the provincial
leaders in doing so is Prince Edward Island.
Wind energy currently provides
18 per cent of the province’s energy needs and the provincial
government recently announced policies to facilitate more wind energy
investment. The goal is to increase its renewable energy to 30 per
cent, says Ron Ryder, a spokesperson with the province’s Department
of Environment, Energy and Forestry. “This would make PEI a world
leader in green energy, ahead of Denmark, at 23 per cent.”
Municipal governments also have a large part to play, mainly when it
comes to approving potential projects in rural communities. Whittaker
points to a problematic “boom and bust” cycle within the
industry, where developers plan and prepare projects and submit them
for approval, and then sit around in a vacuum, waiting for the process
to move forward.
Wind energy turbines are becoming a common sight
in Canada as the sector grows across the country.
Diversifying the sector
The wind industry is not the
only renewable energy sector seeing different levels of support from
the various tiers of government. The solar industry is currently miniscule
in Canada, but growing at a rapid rate of 30 to 35 per cent per year.
Wesley Johnston, director of policy and research
with the Canadian Solar Industries Association, says that while solar
energy hasn’t attracted much interest from the federal government,
provinces and municipalities have been more supportive.
“It’s
been encouraged more from the ground up. [The movement] is grassroots,
it comes from communities and now it’s moving up to the provincial
governments.”
On the other hand, biofuels, which include ethanol and other biomasses,
have received a boost to their profile with the incoming National Renewable
Fuels Standard, passed by Parliament in June 2008. The standard requires
that, by 2010, five per cent of fuel used in Canada must come from renewable
sources.
"We’re at about a billion litres of ethanol
production today, and this national standard will take that production
to two and a half billion,” says Gordon Quaiattini, president
of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association. He says Ontario, Manitoba
and Saskatchewan have already implemented similar renewable standards
as provincial policies, and other provinces like British Columbia are
set to follow in their footsteps.
Looking to the future
While there hasn’t been a great deal of cooperation between
industries so far in promoting a shared renewable energy agenda, there
is agreement across the board that there’s room for all within
Canada’s energy sector, as long as there's support on all government
levels.
“When it comes to electricity and climate change, there’s
no silver bullet, and we will never say that wind is the solution,” says
Sean Whittaker. “It’s part of the solution. Conservation
is part of it, wind is part of it… so are all the other conventional
forms of energy. They’ve all got a role to play.”
Wind energy: Wind energy converts kinetic energy that is present
in the wind into more useful forms of energy such as mechanical
energy or electricity.
Bioenergy: Produced by
the release of stored chemical energy contained in fuels made from
biomass such as agricultural waste, forest waste, municipal waste
and food processing waste.
Solar energy: Energy from the sun travels to the earth in the
form of electromagnetic radiation similar to radio waves, but in
a different frequency range.
Earth energy: Uses temperatures found in the earth or below
water to cool or heat air and water for buildings. For example,
a heat pump can extract heat from underneath the ground to heat
a building.
Geothermal energy: Geothermal energy uses steam or hot water
in the earth's crust to power turbines or to heat buildings or
water.
Hydroelectric energy: Hydroelectric energy is a renewable energy
source dependent upon the hydrologic cycle of water, which involves
evaporation, precipitation and the flow of water due to gravity.
Canada is the world leader of hydroelectricity production.
Source: Natural Resources Canada
Blowing
in the wind
Target: The Canada Wind
Energy Association's goal is to achieve 12,000 MW of installed
wind energy capacity in Canada by 2016.
Distribution: 563,000 Canadian
homes are currently powered by wind energy
Denmark: Gets more than
20 per cent of its electricity from wind. If Canada did same,
there would be enough wind energy to power 17 million homes.
Companies: The wind energy
industry includes some 150 companies in Canada. Even before the
multiplier effect created through indirect jobs, this creates approximately
1,000 jobs nationwide.
Jobs: By 2012, with concerted
efforts by Canada's industry and governments, the wind energy sector
could supply Canadians with more than 13,000 high-quality jobs
in such fields as manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
Sources: Canadian Wind
Energy Association, Wind Energy Institute of Canada, World Wide
Energy Association
Canada
Renewable Fuels Association