Category Archives: Canada Wind

Canada Wind, Cost Benefit

Canada Pension Plan~Follow Your Money

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money burning turbine

November 13, 2019|Chief Investment Officer

Top Canada Pension Plan Embraces Energy, Both Fossil Fuel and Not

CPPIB is plying the oil and gas sector for investment opportunities, as well as going into renewables.
Canada’s largest pension fund is not letting go of its investments in oil and gas, as well as renewables, anytime soon. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO, Mark Machin, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg in Toronto last week that the sector, including pipelines and other resources, are appropriate for the fund’s portfolio.

“We will look at traditional oil and gas, whether it’s pipelines or other resources,” said Manchin, referring to renewables. “As long as we can understand all the risks behind the investment, that the regulation may change, that preference may change, that geography may change. If we can understand those and can still be compensated sufficiently, then we’ll continue to make that investment.”

The program is still committed to renewables. The fund, which has a value of about $300 billion, acquired North American wind farm operator Pattern Energy last week for $6.1 billion. Shares cost $26.75 per share for a total of $2.6 billion. The remainder covered the company’s debts. Pattern has built 28 renewable energy projects in the US, Canada, and Japan. The investment is one of the largest M&A deals in US renewables.

In relative terms, though, energy, whether green or not, is not a huge chunk of CPPIB’s portfolio. The fund is invested in more than 20 energy companies ranging from pipeline companies to renewables. As of March 30, the end of its most recent fiscal year, just 1.6% of the fund’s portfolio was invested in the traditional energy sector, and 1% in a category called “power and renewables.”

Manchin’s remarks follow a setback for the Canadian energy industry. Last week, legacy energy firm Encana announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Denver, and drop references to Canada in its branding. Pipeline shortages, Canadian anti-oil sentiment, and the availability of capital in the US are reasons for the relocation.

The Pattern Energy deal demonstrates the delicate balance Machin is striking between reaping the rewards of oil and gas revenue and acknowledging the “multi-faceted” and “very complicated risk” of climate change, including public outrage over fossil fuel investments.

“It’s important as an investor that we understand all of those risks and how fast the energy transition is going to happen,” he said. “When we look at every investment, we understand all the risks that climate change could present…We are able to understand the risks in a more granular way now because of some of the tools and the disclosure practices that have really improved.”

Manchin is referring in part to the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on climate-related disclosures that have pushed companies to provide more information, data, and metrics for funds like CPPIB to make investment decisions. (The CPPIB is one of two global pension fund managers on the board.) In April, the fund launched a framework for teams to evaluate climate change-related risks and opportunities. About 4% of the fund is invested in traditional and renewable energy.

The Canadian fund is stopping short of joining the throngs of investors lining up for the Aramco initial public offering. Saudi Arabia is taking its giant oil company public amid great fanfare and international investor interest….

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Adverse Health Effects, Canada Wind, Environment, Unite the Fight!

No time to be silent

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silent night
Advocating for the return of silent nights free from industrial wind turbine installation noise and the return of our natural dark skies.

DEADLINE TO COMMENT~ January 18, 2019

Ontario is playing fast and fancy with recent amendments to the renamed Green Energy Act.  It is not the time to be silent.   Use your voice and let them know what you think about Grand Fathering existing renewable energy approvals (REA) of  industrial wind turbine complexes being built and those operated in our province.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is also proposing a regulation to address transition issues related to restoring municipal planning authority.

The proposed regulation would:

  • establish the transition rules for grandfathering existing renewable energy projects, as these projects may not comply with municipal planning documents and would require regulatory protection to continue
  • provide that, despite its repeal, section 62.0.2 of the Planning Act would continue to apply to specific renewable energy projects in specific circumstances.

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4040

Oppose the recommendation to simply grandfather existing renewable facilities and to protect these projects as they continue to be the cause of adverse health injuries, trespass and havoc across Ontario.

Grandfather;  aka forgiven

Short List:

  • Ask the Ministers/Ministry to resolve, to the complainants satisfaction  aka the 4500+ complaints and growing provincially.
  • Ask the Ministers/Ministry to address and resolve the water well destruction to the satisfaction of all affected well owners.
  • Advocate fiercely for a health hazard investigation – Please reference Dr Bray’s recent letter Riina_Bray_IWT_Niagara recent and independent researcher Carmen Krogh’s documents.
  • Cancel the contracts.

CEASE TO OPERATE – Reverse the onus of no harm back to the industry and have them prove the safety of their electrical generation. (to include testing and resolution of impacts of noise such as infra sound, low frequency, non- ionizing radiation, stray voltage, EMFs and all the other discharges and emissions from these installations and their associated infrastructures)

Addition: looks like we have more work to do!

Please don’t go silent now!

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4265

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-3800

Adverse Health Effects, Canada Wind, Environment, Health, Health Canada's wind Turbine Noise and Health Study, Uncategorized

Health Canada’s Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study- A Review

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house and turbine 1

A new paper has just been published.  It is open access.

Krogh, C. M. , Dumbrille, A. , McMurtry, R. Y. , James, R. , Rand, R. W. , Nissenbaum, M. A. , Aramini, J. J. and Ambrose, S. E. (2018). Health Canada’s Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study—A Review Exploring Research Challenges, Methods, Limitations and Uncertainties of Some of the Findings. Open Access Library Journal, 5, e5046. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1105046  

or  http://www.oalib.com/articles/5301313#.XBr6_PSno9M

Adverse Health Effects, Canada Wind, Children Affected, Environment, Government Misrepresentation, Green Energy, Noise, Turbines run on Subsidies

Canada Pension Plan buys NextEra projects

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nextera xNext Era has taken the money not once but thrice.  It used your money to help build the wind projects in Ontario,  it took your money for electricity generated and curtailed.  It sold the projects to the Federal Government and continues to generate income with service contracts for some of the projects.   You paid, are played and continue to pay.

About Cordelio Power

Headquartered in Toronto, Cordelio Power owns and manages a 396MW power generation portfolio, including four operating wind projects and two operating solar projects in Ontario. The company was launched in June 2018 to complete the purchase of this portfolio from NextEra Energy Partners. It is focused on working with all stakeholders to operate its projects in an efficient, safe and environmentally-responsible manner. Cordelio Power is owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Projects now owned by your pension plan:

money and turbines

Bluewater Wind Energy Centre | Conestogo Wind Energy Centre | Jericho Wind Energy Centre | Summerhaven Wind Energy Centre
Moore Solar Energy Centre | Sombra Solar Energy Centre

Source: Cordelio Power

 

 

Adverse Health Effects, Canada Wind, Cost Benefit, Environment, Government Misrepresentation, harm to wildlife, Noise

Why on Earth?

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“Tens of billions in tax subsidies have failed to make “green” energy the steady source of power promised. And now, for instance, Germany’s subsidies for wind power are coming to an end, so as many as 20% of German wind turbines will have to be decommissioned each year with nowhere to dispose of the 30-metre concrete bases or the huge turbine blades.”

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Niagara Wind- Enercon Industrial Wind Turbine Construction 2015

Lorne Gunter|Toronto Sun|July 21, 2018

GUNTER: Why on earth is Trudeau still so committed to the failing carbon tax?

With the new Ontario government of Premier Doug Ford announcing it will fight the federal Liberal government’s national carbon tax, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s flagship “green” initiative is in far more jeopardy than might be obvious.

Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Ian Brodie, has pronounced the carbon tax “politically dead,” while former Liberal whisperer Warren Kinsella tweeted the tax is “dead, pretty much.”

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Canada Wind, Cost Benefit, Government Misrepresentation, Green Energy

Canada Keep your Hands off Our Pension Dollars!

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money canadian.png

Credit: Andre Coyne| National Post| June 29, 2018

Andrew Coyne: Liberals, keep your moralizing mitts off our Canada Pension Plan

McKenna’s tweet was just the usual non-stop, 24-hour moralizing we’ve come to expect from the primly ideological fanatics in this increasingly ridiculous government

It’s probably nothing. It was just a tweet, after all.

But when the federal environment minister, Catherine McKenna, posted her approval of a recent Canada Pension Plan Investment Board decision, it caused a little flutter of alarm among those who follow these things.

“Now, this is something that Canadians can be proud of,” she cheered, linking to a story about the CPPIB’s plans to invest more than $3 billion in green energy projects, “as it prepares for the global transition to a lower-carbon economy.”

Ministers of the Crown do not normally comment on CPP investment decisions, approvingly or otherwise, and with good reason. Though the federal and provincial governments set the broad terms of the plan’s operations — how much it collects in “contributions” from employers and employees, etc — the CPPIB, which is responsible for investing the $356 billion accumulated in the CPP Fund, is supposed to operate at arm’s length from all of them.

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Canada Wind, Corruption, Cost Benefit, Direct Effects, fighting big wind., Government Misrepresentation, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

Green Energy’s Canadian Black Eye

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wynne-hockey
Ontario’s Liberals lost official party status in the recent June 2018 vote for the provincial elections, under former Premier Wynne’s leadership.   Energy policies and rising electricity rates were a hot button election issue.

Struck by a Hockey Puck: Renewable Energy’s Big Canadian Black Eye

Renewable Energy World|June 8, 2018|By Chris McDermott

Everybody loves renewable energy, right? That’s what surveys tell us with global support for renewable energy consistently polling above 80 percent.

But don’t tell that to the people of the Province of Ontario, Canada. On June 7, the electorate handed a stunning defeat to its Liberal Government after 15 years of reign. The election winner: Conservative Doug Ford, brother of Toronto’s infamous crack-cocaine smoking mayor, Rob Ford. The issue in the forefront of voters’ minds: sky high electricity prices.

Ever since the Ontario Government invoked its Green Energy Act in 2009 to transition away from coal power to wind and solar energy, electricity prices have risen a whopping 75 percent. In Ontario, electric bills have become as frequent a topic of water-cooler conversation as apartment rents are in Manhattan or San Francisco.

Without question, on every measure of ratepayer protection Ontario is an egregious case of how not to design a renewable energy program:

Most Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) rates set not by competitive bidding but instead by Government decree at levels as high as $C 80.2 cents ($US 62 cents) per kWh for 20 years
No mechanism to automatically adjust FIT rates downward as capacity deployment thresholds were reached
Domestic Content requirements that raised domestic equipment prices above global average selling prices
A rule that ratepayers still provide FIT payments for energy even when energy production is curtailed
An allowance of five years after FIT contract execution for facility construction, creating windfall gains for developers as equipment costs declined while preventing ratepayers from participating in any of those savings.
How did Ontario get their renewables policy so wrong?

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Canada Wind, Cost Benefit, Green Energy

Santa’s Moving to the South Pole

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santa moving to south pole
Source: http://www.horizons.gc.ca/en/content/santa-is-moving-to-the-south-pole
SAY WHAT?!  Seriously you cannot make this stuff up and it’s certainly no joke. The Canadian government has been spending our tax dollars on candy cane tainted fluff and it has truly lost its mind. The media world wide has been buzzing (Canada: Santa’s Moving To South Pole Because of Global Warming ) over a recent posting claiming Santa will be relocating to the South Pole as a refugee due to climate change.

Who is Horizons Canada? How is it influencing the political climate in the ongoing battle against the lived experience of harms from wind powered facilities?

Who we are

Policy Horizons Canada, also referred to as Horizons, is an organization within the federal public service that conducts strategic foresight on cross-cutting issues that informs public servants today about the possible public policy implications over the next 10-15 years.

Horizons’ mandate is to identify emerging policy issues and explore policy challenges and opportunities for Canada, as well as to help build foresight literacy and capacity across the Government of Canada. Horizons’ experienced futurists provide expert advice on emerging issues, foresight and scanning through one-on-one discussions, interdepartmental meetings, and facilitated workshops. All engagement requests are discussed collaboratively at the Horizons’ senior management table on a weekly basis. To engage with Horizons, please submit your request to questions@horizons.gc.ca.

Policy Horizons Canada is governed by the Deputy Ministers’ Steering Committee.

Vision: To promote a high and sustainable quality of life within a globally competitive Canada, through the co-creation and advancement of knowledge that informs and structures policy choices for the Government of Canada by way of an integrated and longer-term perspective.

Mission: To provide timely and integrated perspectives on emerging policy issues for the Deputy Minister community by: bridging people, ideas, data, issues and evidence in an open and constructive environment; co-creating knowledge for understanding complex Canadian policy challenges; and experimenting with new tools and methods.

Source: http://www.horizons.gc.ca/en/content/who-we-are

Exploring trends and postulating the future, Horizon Canada sees government policies dancing with wind and other renewables such as solar, fueling everything from the grid,  to the internet and transportation.

Emerging “Urban” Electric Grids

Increasing demand for electricity coupled with emerging sources of electricity production and storage could require new (smart, decentralized) approaches to managing the urban power grid. Over the next 10 to 15 years, cities’ power sources may shift to incorporate much higher levels of renewable energy. A growing digital economy powered exclusively by electricity, coupled with a rapid transition from fossil fuel to electric fuel for transportation(link is external) and housing could substantially increase the demand for electricity in urban areas. At the same time, declining costs of decentralized and distributed energy systems could reinforce urban energy security and pave the way for cities to reach their climate change targets. The installation of in-home batteries and renewable energy sources (solar or wind power) on private homes, public buildings and infrastructure facilities (such as warehouses and factories), and the use of vehicle-to-grid technology(link is external) could eliminate concerns over managing peak demand and allow power exchanges between households. This shift may increase pressure on centralized power utility companies to adopt a business model focused on decentralized energy systems with multiple owners.

Canada 2030: Scan of Emerging Issues – Infrastructure

santa and reindeer 3

 

Canada Wind, Green Energy, Ontario Wind

906 Farms in Ontario Host Industrial Wind Turbines

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tractor and turbine
Industrial wind turbine being erected on prime agricultural land 

Census of Agriculture recently released by Statistics Canada shines a light on some interesting statistics about renewable installations on Ontario farms.  There are 2 465 wind turbines erected in the province as of 2016.

Renewable Energy:

“About 10,255 farms have a renewable energy system, Stats Canada reports. Of those farms, about 85 per cent had solar panels and 15.7 per cent had wind turbines.

Approximately 5,180 farms in Ontario had renewable energy systems, the most of any province. 4,428 farms (85.5 per cent) of these respondents said they use solar panels compared to 906 with wind turbines.”

Farms.com

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Summerhaven wind turbines in Haldimand County, Ontario