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Ontario on right track in efforts to become green-energy hub
October 15, 2009
From The Wall Street Journal (wsj.com)
TORONTO (Dow Jones)--Ontario is attempting to become a renewable-energy hub, hoping to jump-start its economy and replace manufacturing jobs erased during the recession with new, green-energy jobs.
The province recently unveiled a feed-in-tariff program that’s considered ground-breaking by many renewable-energy experts. “I characterize what Ontario has done as the most progressive renewable-energy policy in North America in three decades,” said Paul Gipe, a renewable-energy analyst.
A major component of Ontario’s Green Energy Act, the FIT will pay renewable-energy producers from 10 to 80.2 Canadian cents per kilowatt hour, depending on the technology used and the size of the project. For instance, the highest rate is for rooftop solar-power projects of 10 kilowatts or less. The scope and payment rates of the program are on par with FIT programs in green-energy hubs such as Germany and France, Gipe said.
Ontario on right track in efforts to become green-energy hub, by Stuart Weinberg
