I spent a full day at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show last week and walked all through the huge EY Centre a few times to see what farmers, and visitors, were interested in. There wasn’t one thing that stood out. Ten years ago it was robot milking systems that had the curious interested. Robot milking exhibitors were still there but not many looking. Outdoor wood furnaces used to attracted some and huge tractors and combines were always a hit.
In 2009 the Ontario government announced the Green Energy Act and said that if folks put a solar system on their property to make electricity, property owners could sell it for 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour.
It sounded wacky to me. How could folks pay 6 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity used and be paid 80 cents for making solar electricity? Two years later the price was slashed to 52-cents.
At the 2010 Ottawa Valley Farm Show I counted 20 alternative energy dealers with exhibits. Solar was the main interest. There were a lot of old guys interested in making money from the provincial government. There were lineups waiting to talk to the solar energy reps. I watched in amazement and did a few columns on the subject. I vowed never to sign up for this program. And I haven’t.
Glancing over the exhibitor list for the 2017 Farm Show there was one exhibitor promoting solar power.
In an April 2011 column I wrote: “The so-called MicroFIT program has attracted about 25,000 applications from Ontarians with another 50 to 80 applications arriving each workday, according to the Ontario Power Authority. The program allows small scale (under 10kv systems) renewable energy projects to provide power to Ontario’s energy grid at a guaranteed premium for 20 years.
By February of 2011, 3,700 projects have been connected to the grid, another 2,500 are next in line and 13,800 have been offered a conditional deal but now must see if there is capacity to hook up.
As many as 2,000 project owners with conditional offers have been told they may not be able to connect onto the grid for some time. I know of two dairy farmers in Grenville County who have been told they won’t be able to hook up to the grid because upgrades have to be made to the transmission lines.
Many of the project owners borrowed money and were hoping to make a profit selling energy after the loan and interest is paid off. It’s said it takes nine years to pay off an $85,000 loan. Most projects cost $85,000 to $100,000.
The farmer I spoke with said the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) initially thought most applications would be from urbanized areas for roof-mounted systems. But it turned out that large numbers of farmers and other rural landowners with retirement income on their mind jumped in.
The cost of the grid improvements, ordered by Ontario Minister of Energy Brad Duguid will be huge –probably running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s an expenditure that you can bet on will eventually be added on our electricity rates.
What I can’t understand is why 25,000 people (applicants) believed the sales pitch that solar panels would be good for 20 years. How can they be sure? You know when you buy roof singles they are supposed to last 20 or 25 years. But put them on your house and you’ll have a roofer re-single them well before that.
I’ll never take out an application.” That was from my column in 2011. Every two years, there is a review of the program, and the rates for future contracts are adjusted. The microFIT rate as of January 1, 2015 is 38.4¢.
