Parker Gallant to Energy Minister Chiarelli: another idea?

[Tongue in Cheek Letter # 3]

September 22, 2013

The Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Energy,

Dear Minister:

By now you have probably received both my September 9^thand my September 13^th letters but haven't had the chance to reply because of your busy schedule.  I saw a picture of you smiling while at the International  Plowing Match in Mitchell last week, and a delightful picture of you with the Mothers Against Wind Turbines, so I know you have been running around the province doing lots of things.

In the meantime my family has been doing a lot of research and they have almost convinced me that instead of not producing electricity from industrial wind turbines I should look at not  producing it from solar panels.  They pointed out to me that rooftop solar pays 39.6 cents for not producing as long as you have 5 megawatts or more installed.  Now that would take a pretty big roof as I understand that solar needs about 44,000 square feet per megawatt, so you would need a darn big barn.

My barn is pretty small so wouldn't work but I was thinking that the old Picton Air Base might be just the place.  I could look into renting the roofs if you could promise me one of those nice Ontario Power Authority contracts for the solar power that I will not produce.   I have attached an aerial photo of the Air Base (look at all those empty roof tops) so you can get some idea of what we are talking about.  I wouldn't actually put any panels up because it doesn't make sense to spend all that money on panels to produce power that you plan on paying me to not produce.

If you think I need to put up some solar panels I will, but, if that happens, I hope that I can get one of those nice grants from Deborah Doncaster at the Community Energy Partnerships Program (CEPP) that your Ministry gave money to.  I sure hope they still have some of that $10 million left.  A $500,000 grant would sure buy a lot of panels that I could use to not produce power and be paid $396.00 per megawatt hour for what they won't produce.  I am hoping that I won't need to install any, however, so that we can save some money for other people that are going to produce power that we might export to New York or Michigan.  

I would greatly appreciate it if you could you put in a kind word to Ms. Doncaster for me just in case I need some panels for show.  In the meantime I will look into renting those roof tops. Looking forward to your positive response,

Parker Gallant

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily Wind Concerns Ontario.

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Dear Minister Chiarelli...

September 9, 2013

[Tongue in Cheek Letter]

The Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Energy,

Dear Minister Chiarelli:

It has come to my attention that the Independent Electricity System Operator will start paying industrial wind developers for not producing any electricity, starting on September 11, 2013.  I understand that they could possibly receive as much as $200,000 per megawatt of installed power for not producing that electricity.

 This leads me to believe that I could also be persuaded to not produce any electricity in order to obtain the benefits of that program.  I would start small and perhaps not produce electricity for say 2 megawatts, which would mean a payment of $400,000 per year. In a few years I could expand and not produce electricity for, say, 10 megawatts.

I understand that IESO put up meteorological stations to determine what electricity is not produced and that these stations are also paid for by them.  I would be delighted to have IESO put up a station to measure what I will not produce.   In fact, it seems to be fruitless to actually put up any wind turbines if I am paid for not producing electricity so perhaps we could agree to skip the process of obtaining a Renewable Energy Approval—it just takes up too much time for that other Ministry. Another benefit of the latter is that the wind turbines I would not put up would not kill any birds or bats, thereby saving money that would have gone to paying someone to collect the carcasses.  I trust you will find merit in this suggestion and hope that you agree.  It has the added benefit of stopping those pesky naturalists from complaining.

  In studying the electricity system I see that those industrial wind turbines that will be paid for not producing electricity will be backed up by gas plants who will also be paid for not producing electricity.

In a couple of years I would also like to apply for some of the money that I could be paid for, say, a small gas plant generator of 10 megawatts that would not produce electricity.  That payment of around $1.8 million a year would allow me to expand my non-producing industrial wind turbine production by perhaps as much as another 100 megawatts.

  I certainly applaud the efforts of your ministry to not produce electricity and am sure that those efforts will be endorsed by the Environment Commissioner, Mr. Miller, as he is adamant that he wants us to conserve energy: what better way to do that than not produce it!

  No doubt there are many companies and businesses throughout the Province that are supportive of your efforts to pay for not producing electricity and many among them are those large and small solar generators who will also (we understand) be paid for not producing electricity.   At this juncture I do not plan to get into the business of not producing electricity from solar panels but will consider it for the future.  Any information that you can send me on that program would however be appreciated as I have other family members who are considering getting into solar panels so they can also be paid for not producing any electricity.

I look forward to doing business with your Ministry by not producing electricity.

Yours truly,

Parker Gallant



The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not Wind Concerns Ontario policy.

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