The province of Ontario announced yesterday that a deal has been struck with a Korean consortium, led by Samsung, for a multi-billion dollar investment in solar and wind projects around the province. The hope is that the deal will also bring new manufacturing jobs to the province, which has been badly hit by the downturn in the auto sector. Premier Dalton McGuinty stated:
“With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America.”
The project is not without its detractors (click here and here for more information). One of their complaints is that the deal gives Samsung an unfair advantage over local wind and solar producers. But the deal is in line with the province’s new Green Energy and Green Economy Act (GEA) which, according to Renewable Energy World:
takes a two-pronged approach to creating a green economy. The first is to bring more renewables to the province and the second is the creation of more energy efficiency measures to help conserve energy. The bill also includes measures that the ministry hopes will foster a new green economy for Ontario by giving organizations and local communities such as First Nations and Métis communities more opportunities to develop distributed renewable energy generation projects.
To read more about the GEA and the feed-in tariff (FIT) program that the province introduced in 2009, check out this article by The Star’s Energy and Technology columnist Tyler Hamilton.
It is exciting to see my home province move boldly in the direction of a “green economy”. It is the future. Some governments and leaders have the foresight to realize which way the economic wind is blowing, and their citizens will reap the benefits in the years to come. Unfortunately, the Canadian federal government hasn’t yet joined the 21st century, and it still putting all of its “eggs” in the fossil fuel “basket”. And all Canadians are going to pay the price – both in an unstable climate and in a unsustainable economy.
The problem is that we are using renewable energy sources to supplement fossil fuels, we aren’t reducing fossil fuel usage, let alone total energy use. Alternative energies can serve an important role, but only as part of a sustainable way of life.
http://www.selfdestructivebastards.com/2010/01/alternative-energy.html
The problem is that this ‘subsidy incentive’ mind-set is extremely expensive. We should be lowering corporate taxes on green industry to the lowest rates we can possibly afford then we will see a massive upsurge in green manufacturing. Instead we give companies money to come here, money for the energy they produce and money to create jobs without guarantees on anything!!!!
http://envirogy.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/employing-duplicity-to-sell-green-energy/