Canada promises $1.5 billion for renewables

VICTORIA, British Columbia, CA, January 24, 2007 (Refocus Weekly) The government of Canada will invest Cdn$1.5 billion to boost the supply of renewable energies.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the ‘ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative’ will include $1.48 billion in ‘ecoENERGY for Renewable Power’ to boost wind, biomass, small hydro and ocean energy, with a ten-year incentive program to fund projects constructed over the next four years. A second component, ‘ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat,’ will provide $35 million in incentives and industry support to increase adoption of thermal green heat technologies for water and space conditioning.

“There is no end to the potential of alternative, non-polluting energy sources,” says Harper. “The ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative will harness the power of our environment to help protect the environment for all Canadians.”

“The ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative is yet another example of real action our government is taking to protect the health of Canadians and the environment,” adds energy minister Gary Lunn. “It will help make renewable sources of heat and electricity a more affordable and realistic choice for more Canadians. We expect to add enough clean renewable electricity to power about one million homes.”

“The ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative complements the regulatory approach of our proposed Clean Air Act,” says environment minister John Baird. “It will deliver real results now to improve air quality in our communities and the health of Canadians by reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution.”

The funding will create 4,000 MW of green power and green heat, and will reduce GHG emissions equivalent to taking one million cars off the road, as well as significant reductions in other air pollutants. It is part of the government’s suite of ecoENERGY Initiatives to boost clean energy supplies, help Canadians use energy more efficiently and reduce air pollutants and GHG emissions from conventional energy sources.

“Clean, renewable energy technologies for generating electricity and for heating and cooling air and water in buildings and homes are not widely used in Canada ... because they are generally less familiar to Canadians and more expensive than traditional energy sources,” explains a government background document. Currently, 4% of Canada's electricity comes from emerging renewables and the program will provide an incentive of 1¢ / kWh to eligible projects using wind, small hydro, biomass, solar PV, geothermal, tidal and wave technologies.

Although 23% of Canada's secondary energy goes to space conditioning and water heating applications, “high economic and environmental costs of these traditional clean-energy systems, such as solar air and water heating, and geothermal technologies such as ground-source heat pumps, remain generally unfamiliar to consumers and more expensive than traditional sources,” explains another background document. The federal government will provide an incentive of 25% of the purchase and installation costs of a qualifying system.

By 2011, the program will support installation of solar space and water heating in 700 buildings while partnerships with utilities, energy service companies, community groups and other partners will explore projects to increase the market for residential solar water heating systems, resulting in the installation of solar DHW into “several thousand homes” across the country.

Earlier, the Canadian government had launched a $300 million ‘ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative’ to promote smarter energy use and reduce the amount of emissions. It will provide $220 million support retrofits of homes, buildings and industrial processes.


Click here for more info...

To receive news and features like this direct to your inbox sign-up for the Renewable Energy Focus E-News.

Simply register your details to receive a fortnightly roundup of the latest news from the renewables industries direct to your inbox.

If you would like to advertise in the enewsletter please contact our sales team.

If you have some news for the renewables industry or would like to comment on any of the articles on this site, contact our editorial team.

You can also access the full list of contacts here.