Ontario residents paid to generate their own power

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Posted on October 12, 2006
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality, Renewable fuels

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

Now here is a truly innovative program that could become a model, if we had the social will to make it so.   From this morning’s Washington Post:

Canada’s Ontario province has ordered local utility companies to pay homeowners or businesses for any electricity they generate from small solar, wind, water or other renewable energy projects, beginning next month.

The campaign, described as “unique in North America,” pays electricity users for generating power.  The program has sparked a surge in individual home and neighborhood alternative technologies, especially in solar and wind.  Homeowners have created a huge demand for solar panels, and some small businesses are forming cooperatives to build neighborhood wind turbines.

And then this from London, where some folks are taking the initiative, adding wind turbines and solar panels to homes as a way to put energy into the grid, cleanly, rather than taking it from the grid in the form of coal, gas, or nuclear-generated power.

Now here is an approach to power generation that is appropriate, local, and do-able.  The Reuters article shows the resistance folks feel as soon as one thinks this could be a ‘forced’ program.  The incentive in Ontario is that people get something back for their investment in solar panels and wind turbines — money.  But regardless of the incentive, we MUST move in these directions if we are to save ourselves from the catastrophes of global warming and fossil fuel resource depletion.

Check it out and get the conversation going.  We could move in this direction, too, with the political will.

Comments

3 Responses to “Ontario residents paid to generate their own power”

  1. Alan on October 13th, 2006 2:08 pm

    Nice post. I am curious, how is this different from the type of net-metering rules in places like California?

  2. ecologicalhope on October 16th, 2006 9:23 am

    Dear Alan,

    The difference is this: with net metering, the idea is to generate power from renewables that gets your meter spinning backwards. You ‘bank’ this electricity in the form of credits. One example would be credits earned from generating energy from solar panels while the sun is out, which you can use then to pay for the power you use off the grid when the sun is not shining.

    That’s the idea, but then the rules vary by state or region or locality — like the amount of credit, how long you can save them, etc.

    So it can be a very effective program, but is different from paying users to generate power. The economic incentive with the latter is pretty powerful, as neighborhoods, clusters of small businesses, schools, etc. can band together to buy solar panels or construct wind turbines and actually get money back for the power they generate.

    Net metering, by the way is catching on. There is a version of it now in about 41 states. To see the list of states and the variety of rules in each, visit this site: http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/type.cfm?EE=1&RE=1

    Thanks, Alan

    Margaret

  3. Marc Theiler on October 17th, 2006 9:14 pm

    I love the economic incentive to use alternative energy methods. The next log home I built will have a wood burning furnace, and wind/solar hybrid electricity system.

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