McGuinty’s green-energy ‘vision’ begins to fade

In the The Globe and Mail - from columnist Konrad Yakabuski

McGuinty’s green-energy ‘vision’ begins to fade - The Globe and Mail:

With the bulk of Ontario’s baseload electricity capacity coming from emissions-free nuclear power, commissioning massive amounts of wind and solar energy at guaranteed sky-high rates was a dubious idea from the get-go. With energy surpluses galore, idling nuclear reactors so an overloaded electricity grid can accommodate intermittently produced renewable energy is costing Ontario dearly as it exports unneeded wind power at a fraction of what it pays for it.
“The loss rate will continue to grow with every new wind turbine installation because the mismatch between the timing of wind-powered generation and Ontario electricity demand is structural,” University of Guelph economics professor Ross McKitrick wrote in an April Fraser Institute report.
What’s more, because you can’t restart a reactor on a dime, and because the wind blows when you least need additional power, the province is increasingly forced to meet interim shortfalls with natural-gas-generated electricity. The net result is more greenhouse gas emissions.
So much for green energy supposedly replacing the the dirty coal-fired stuff the province has promised to phase out by next year. 

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