On-farm energy production just got
the green light in Ontario and all the world
is watching.
The province s new Green Energy Act is
being hailed as historic and paradigm-shifting,
a historic international milestone,
and an aggressive approach to energy efficiency
and renewable energy.
From farmers, the accolades are equally
rich, with some saying the Green Energy Act
may prove Canada s single most important
piece of farm legislation in the last decade.
The Green Energy Act is a change in
thinking for the country and the continent,
leaving Saskatchewan, California and every
other province and state to play catch up, if
they can afford to.
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Now there s a real bar to meet in North
America, says Deb Doncaster, chair of the
Green Energy Act Alliance, a umbrella group
of farm, co-op and community organizations
that is now applying its lobbying muscle to
the details of the act s regulations.
The Green Energy Act s main concept is
simple and bold. In a nutshell, the province s
McGuinty government plans to boost green
energy production by virtually guaranteeing
20 years of profitability for farmers, co-ops
and energy companies that get into wind,
solar, biofuel and other green energy systems.
The act does that by guaranteeing different
prices (called feed-in tariffs ) for different
groups. Large industrial power suppliers
get the lowest prices, while small scale producers
such as farmers and municipalities
get significantly more.
Plus, the act guarantees that small-scale
producers will get access to the grid, thereby
removing a key uncertainty that has handcuffed
would-be energy producers.
Doncaster explains that the feed-in tariffs
brought about by the Act will foster wide-ranging
renewable energy generation projects
because the price paid for electricity
also varies by the means of generation to
reflect the cost of the technology.
The feed-in tariffs are just huge financial
options, Doncaster says. Those dollars are
either going to be dollars that stay in Ontario,
and stay in the pockets of farmers and ratepayers
and voters, or& leave the province because
investors are coming from Wall Street.
Doncaster sees the Green Energy Act
driving more on-farm wind and biogas investments.
It will smooth the way for farmers
to set up more energy co-ops and develop
energy plants that will create markets for
biomass, such as wheat straw.
Many farmers, she believes, may also buy
biomass and energy substrates from nearby
towns and cities everything from wastes
from food processing plants to used oils and