Ontario can be soliciting bids for brand spanking new vitality initiatives with the objective of including some 5,000 megawatts to the electrical energy grid to satisfy demand within the coming a long time, new Power Minister Stephen Lecce mentioned Wednesday.
Lecce says the federal government is “vitality agnostic” and the brand new procurement can be a mixture of pure gasoline, hydroelectric, renewables, nuclear and biomass. The minister mentioned the procurement can be essential for the way forward for the province.
“We’ll want at the very least 60 per cent extra vitality by 2050. The province wants extra vitality to develop our financial system,” Lecce mentioned on the announcement in King Metropolis, Ont.
Lecce mentioned Ontario wants extra vitality to maintain up with inhabitants progress, and to energy electrification of trade and the rise of synthetic intelligence, which requires huge quantities of electrical energy. The province’s electrical energy demand is predicted to develop by about two per cent every year, however might be even increased relying on electrification inside the broader financial system.
To place the 5,000 megawatt determine in perspective, the refurbished Pickering nuclear plant is predicted to provide 2,000 megawatts — or roughly sufficient to energy two million properties.
How the procurement will occur remains to be to be decided. The Impartial Electrical energy System Operator (IESO) — a Crown company liable for working Ontario’s electrical energy market — will develop a framework for the method by Sept. 20, in keeping with a information launch. Beneath that framework, the procurements ought to conclude by Feb. 28, 2026.
The IESO has mentioned the province will want at the very least 60 per cent extra vitality by 2050.
Restrictions on farmland, extra native session
The province is making efforts to guard key agricultural areas all through the method, the minister mentioned.
Floor-mounted photo voltaic panels can be prohibited on prime agricultural farmland, mentioned Lecce, who pledged the province would “by no means misuse” these lands.
“Our farmers want extra vitality greater than ever,” Lecce mentioned.
“They want entry to to inexpensive vitality and so we made a dedication to work with them on a coverage that finally will respect prime agricultural land.”
Different vitality merchandise being thought of on prime agricultural land will now require an affect evaluation earlier than continuing.
The province can be giving energy to municipalities to resolve if they need a specific vitality venture.
Power merchandise being thought of on prime agricultural land will now require an affect evaluation earlier than continuing. (Patrick Morrell/ Ontario Chronicle)
“Lengthy gone are the times the place Queen’s Park imposes initiatives on unwilling communities, undermining these agricultural areas,” Lecce mentioned.
The information is welcome to farmers, mentioned Drew Spoelstra, the president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
“The brand new vitality procurement framework is a significant step ahead for Ontario,” he mentioned.
“Dependable and inexpensive vitality is extremely vital to the expansion of the Ontario financial system, together with meals manufacturing, meals processing and the agri-food sector.”
Farmers and Premier Doug Ford’s authorities have had an up-and-down relationship in recent times in mild of the Greenbelt scandal.
The province had mentioned they had been going to construct 50,000 properties on the protected Greenbelt, which incorporates prime agricultural land. However a number of investigations by provincial our bodies discovered the method was flawed because it favoured some builders with ties to the federal government over others.
Farmers didn’t just like the doable encroachment onto farmland and joined the refrain to denounce the Greenbelt transfer. Final summer time, amid mounting public stress to reverse course, Ford walked again these Greenbelt plans.
Province taking a look at number of vitality sources
In line with the launch, the province can be taking a look at a wide range of vitality sources throughout procurement, together with wind and photo voltaic.
In 2019, Premier Doug Ford defended his occasion’s choice to tear up a whole bunch of renewable vitality offers, a transfer that his authorities has acknowledged value taxpayers greater than $230 million.
“If we had the prospect to do away with all of the wind mills, we might,” Ford mentioned on the time.
However extra not too long ago, the Ford authorities has taken a U-turn on renewable vitality, and is now poised to supervise the most important enlargement of inexperienced vitality the province has seen in practically a decade.
Ontario has additionally not too long ago been including electrical energy storage initiatives, with an eye fixed to about 2,500 megawatts, and the IESO mentioned the province’s rising battery fleet will pair properly with wind and photo voltaic, in order that the ability generated by these strategies might be saved and injected into the grid when wanted.
In response to Wednesday’s announcement, Mike Schreiner, chief of the Ontario Inexperienced Social gathering, mentioned in a press release that renewables are the cheaper and cleaner choice for increasing vitality manufacturing in Ontario.
“Whereas I am glad to see that the Ford authorities has lastly reversed its archaic, ideological anti-renewables stance, it has loads additional to go if it needs to undo the years of injury its fossil gasoline obsession has precipitated,” he mentioned.
