Wind industry to back Ontario's USD 85bn renewable energy programme

(ADPnews) - Nov 25, 2010 - The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) on Tuesday announced its support to the Ontario province's plan to boost green energy capacity, investing CAD 87 billion (USD 85m/EUR 64m) in nuclear, wind, solar, hydro and biomass installations in the coming 20 years.

Ontario's Long Term Energy Plan (LTEP) seeks to eliminate the need to use coal-fired power plants by 2014.

Under the province's strategy, the share of wind energy in the spending is estimated at CAD 14 billion. A total CAD 9 billion will be invested in solar power, CAD 4.6 billion in hydro, while the biggest portion of CAD 33 billion will be spent on nuclear facilities.

As part of the LTEP, combined renewable power capacity in Ontario is seen at 10,700 MW in 2018.

Canada's wind power capacity has grown 10 times in the past six years, driven by the government's effort to meet increased demand, scale down ecological footprint and push up industrial and rural economic development. The country's total installed wind power capacity at present stands at 3,549 MW, of which 1,298 MW come from Ontario alone. Quebec has 663 MW, while Alberta has 656 MW of wind power capacity. According to CanWEA, every 1,000 MW of new wind power capacity bring CAD 2.75 billion in private investments, create some 1,000 jobs and provide enough power to satisfy the needs of 300,000 households.

(CAD 1.0 = USD 0.980/EUR 0.735)

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