Anybody who thinks wind and other intermittent renewable energy sources are the answer to Ontario’s power supply problems needs to monitor the electricity system operator’s website. Here we are, in a major heat wave, and the provincial wind fleet is operating at a ONE PERCENT CAPACITY FACTOR. That’s right: wind, the mainstream greens’ preferred power source, is contributing one tenth of one percent of the province’s electricity.
So where is the other 99.99 percent of Ontario’s power coming from? The top four souces, from highest to lowest, are: nuclear (9,321 megawatts), natural gas (5,382 MW), coal (5,035 MW), and hydro (3,796 MW). It is those four that are powering the province’s air conditioners right now.
Good thing we have the nuclear plants. Together with hydro, they are ensuring that 55 percent of the electricity in Ontario’s grid comes with zero emissions. Now, if the mainstream greens had their way, those 9,321 MW of nuclear power would be coming from natural gas plants. Well, over the past hour, natural gas—a supposedly clean fuel—would have dumped 5,126 extra tons of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas the mainstream greens pretend to hate, into the very same atmosphere the greens pretend to love.
No policy maker should listen to anything the mainstream greens say.
Next time somebody tells you wind and solar are the answer to Ontario’s power problems, remember this date/time.