Right now, the 27 wind farms in Ontario are generating roughly 2,000 megawatts of power. Wind power proponents are applauding: this is one of the very rare moments when the “capability” of the wind fleet has been as high as it is right now, 94 percent. Single mothers and senior citizens on fixed incomes, who are either regular or prospective-regular Food Bank “clients,” are now watching their already meagre monthly income further eroded.
That is for two reasons. First, wind power in Ontario fetches a minimum of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour—nearly twice the nuclear rate. Second, wind power gets priority place on our grid, in spite of the fact that it is a notoriously unreliable power source. It does not matter that Ontario has more than 2,000 MW of hydro capacity sitting there doing nothing, or that that hydro goes for around 4 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind has been deemed green by the powers-that-be and their entourage. Therefore, it fetches high rates. High rates is the only way that wind “entrepreneurs” can make a profit selling electricity in Ontario. And since every business operating in this province (except mine and yours and everybody else who doesn’t own a wind or solar farm) is entitled to a profit, wind-farm profits are guaranteed by everybody who pays an electricity bill in Ontario—including single mothers and seniors who have to scrape to the Food Bank because high power rates have eaten into their already-low fixed monthly income.
How we ever fell for the green argument that it is good to force poor people to guarantee profits to private sector companies while preventing a public company from selling the exact same commodity for nearly one-third the price, especially when the public company, as per its charter, turns over 100 percent of its profits to us… well, it wonders me.
Single mothers and senior citizens who are psyching themselves up to the grim necessity of asking the Food Bank for help may be interested to know that wind-farm profits are taxed at 15 percent, of which the province of Ontario gets only a fraction. Ontario Power Generation, which owns most of the 52 hydro generators that sell their output at 4 cents, gives 100 percent of its profits back to the province of Ontario.
Which means that if wind farms did not get pride of place on our grid, these single mothers and senior citizens would be paying 4, not 11, cents for each kilowatt-hour in question. Plus, the profits that OPG would make by selling hydropower at 4 cents per kilowatt-hour would all go back to the province. The province could then use that money to spend on things like social programs, so poor single mothers and senior citizens would not have to use the Food Bank.
How we ever fell for the green argument that it is good to force poor people to guarantee profits to private sector companies while preventing a public company from selling the exact same commodity for nearly one-third the price, especially when the public company, as per its charter, turns over 100 percent of its profits to us… well, it wonders me.
And bothers me. I am glad the Food Bank is there, but I wish it didn’t have to exist.
If you need further ammunition for your argument, have a read of the recent Fraser Institute analysis of the impact that wind and solar have on the Global Adjustment. Their econometric analysis demonstrates how the rise of the Global Adjustment is due to increasing wind generation in the electricity supply mix, despite its relatively small contribution to the overall supply.
Ironically the charitable organizations in our area (one with more than it’s share of ongoing wind development) announced a couple weeks back their funds for assisting people with their energy costs were empty already.
Just checking generation today, we have 3 reactors off line, wind is at about only 1%. Wind went flat just as demand was peaking and produced a HOEP spike of $986.76/MW. At least that will make the big class A consumers share a bit of the price pain ordinary folks have been feeling.
25% NG use too. Ouch. Been a long time since I’ve seen that much fossil in use. It’s what the future will look like in when nuclear capacity starts to get reduced. It’s gonna be a wild ride with lots of victims I think.
Oh, and as far as the cost of wind, I believe the last Samsung contract awarded on Oct 30 was for 12.8 cents/kwh. That new higher figure must have been magically pulled from the energy ministers ass. So much for the decreasing price of wind. Perhaps elsewhere, but not in Ontario.
Re-blogged on http://www.quixoteslaststand.com
It would be a boon if nuclear would start stop enabling the CAGW alarmists in their irrational hatred of CO2; the consequences of the Agenda21 scam are inhumane.
http://climatism.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/shock-news-un-carbon-regime-would-devastate-humanity/
At present nuclear is the only energy source which might see us through a new ice age…not to be alarmist myself but political global “leadership” is so willing to kowtow to fanatics we need people who are actually responsible for developing modern energy technologies to find the courage to address more than irrelevant selling points.