Renewable eneRgy
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OntariO gOes green with its energy needs
Learn how to use anything — from solar to ice — to power your house.
Energy managementLearn how to offset your utility bills
Careers in green energyLucrative, relevant, and rewarding
Sustainable citiesThe importance of energy conservation
June 2013
A SponSorEd fEATurE by MEdiApLAnET
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CHallengeS
In the past decade, Ontario has brought more than 3,300 megawatts of renewable energy online — enough to power 900,000 homes.
aiming for clean, reliable, affordable energy
Our Green Energy Act has attracted billions of dol-lars in private sector invest-ment, created
31,000 jobs and cleaned up the air we breathe. We are also phasing out coal-fired generation by the end of next year, which will have the same effect as taking up to seven million cars off the road.
Public involvementTo build on our success, Ontario is improving how we plan and build renewable energy. We’re creating a stronger foundation to continue growing our clean energy sector.
This summer we’ll talk to people across Ontario about updating our Long-Term Energy Plan, with a focus on conservation and clean energy targets. You can find the public consultation closest to you, or submit comments online when we launch our website.
We are also engaging communi-ties and municipalities through several new initiatives, including increasing local control over the siting of renewable energy proj-ects. Ontario’s municipalities asked for a greater voice in clean energy, and we listened.
Local procurementBy creating a new competitive procurement process for large renewable projects, we’ll enable municipalities to work directly with energy planners and develop-ers to tailor projects to local needs. As part of those changes, we’re also
encouraging municipalities to develop Municipal Energy Plans focused on energy conservation and energy infrastructure. In the next few months, municipalities will be able to apply for funding to help complete these plans.
As we continue to work with communities to create a better siting process for large renewable energy projects, Ontario is also creating a predictable, sustainable procurement process for renew-ables. For the first time, we’re set-ting annual procurement targets, so that industry can plan for the future to create jobs and grow their businesses.
Sustainable futureBetween now and 2018, Ontario will procure 900 megawatts of clean energy online through the Small FIT and microFIT programs. These measures are expected to create 6,400 jobs and produce enough electricity each year for more than 125,000 homes.
As we move forward with sig-nificant new clean energy genera-tion, a top priority is to ensure it’s fully integrated into our electricity grid. Ontario is investing in new technologies such as energy stor-age, so that we can save the energy produced by renewables for peak consumption times. Recently, Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator also announced new rules to to turn wind gen-eration on and off as needed — like other forms of energy. The IESO estimates this will save the prov-ince at least $200 million.
Ontario is now a world leader in the growing clean energy sector. We’re conserving energy, cutting fossil fuel use and cleaning up our air – all while creating jobs and eco-nomic growth. Together, let’s take pride in what we’ve achieved and work toward a clean, sustainable energy future.
Hon. Bob Chiarelliontario Minister of Energy
Energy managementimprove your company performance by introducing energy efficiency practices.
renewable energy1St edition, June 2013
Publisher: dmitry [email protected] Developer: miguel Van den oever [email protected] Managing Director: Joshua [email protected] Manager: maggie [email protected] Designer: alana [email protected]: laura [email protected]
Contributors: hon. bob Chiarelli, andrew hejnar, Sarah hoedlmoser, robert hornung, Joe rosengarten, andreas Schotter, tim weis
Special thanks to: aimy bazylak, robyn Cross, Sandra Strangmore, bala Venkatesh
Distributed within: toronto Star, June 2013this section was created by mediaplanet and did not involve the toronto Star or its editorial departments.
Mediaplanet’s business is to create new customers for our advertisers by providing readers with high-quality editorial content that motivates them to act.
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hon. BoB Chiarelli
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JunE 2013 · 3A sponsored feAture by MediAplAnet
CHallengeS
Aided by significant improvements in the design, manufacturing, and installation of solar panels, Ontario has seen explosive growth in the solar industry.
It’s now time for this stable and reliable form of energy to be rec-ognized by all Ontarians as an immediate, and viable, replace-ment for fossil fuels.
“Solar PV (photovoltaics) is unique in the sense that it can be distributed to very small instal-lations,” explained John Gor-man, President of the Canadian Solar Industries Association
(CanSIA). “It can be many mega-watts that occupy hundreds of acres, right down to being on the roof of a small household. We call that the ‘distributed generation quality of PV.’”
At times, the development of the industry has been tough
going. But, significant invest-ments, coupled with a will-ingness to adopt sustainable practices, have, over the past five years, seen solar become the leading form of renewable energy.
Sunny jobs“Solar PV creates more jobs than any other type of electricity gen-eration,” said Gorman. “We get the involvement of a lot of local expertise, and there are high-quality jobs being created in engineering and design, innova-tion, research and development, installation and construction.”
The rapid growth of the solar industry in Ontario looks set to continue. Two weeks ago, Min-ister of Energy, Bob Chiarelli, announced plans that reiterated the province’s long-term com-mitment to developing solar technology.
“That has sent a strong signal to industry,” said Gorman. “It’s a signal for leaders to continue participating in the growth of the market because it’s going to be attracting more investment and creating even more jobs.”
The province of Ontario will have shut down 17 of 19 coal-fired electricity generating units by the end of 2013.
By the end of 2014, Ontario will be one of the first places in the world to have proactively taken steps to com-pletely eliminate coal as a source of electricity production. This remark-able accomplishment was aided in a significant way by the addition of clean and cost-effective wind energy.
In fact, Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) now considers wind energy a main-line power source in Ontario. At just over 3 percent of electricity supplied in Ontario in 2012, wind energy’s contribution has now surpassed that of coal and the IESO projects that wind energy’s contribution will con-tinue to grow significantly over the next few years.
There are valid reasons why Ontario is phasing out use of dirty coal power, chief among them the fact that it is both a key producer of greenhouse gas emissions and is seriously harmful to our health. Wind energy provides electricity without emitting greenhouse gases or air pollutants, and uses no fresh water to generate electricity — cre-ating a healthier environment for people and wildlife.
Transition on the wayOntario is a North American leader in wind energy development at a time when the province — like most jurisdictions — is in the midst of updating decades-old electric-ity systems. According to a report issued this month by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Electricity in Canada: Smart Investment to Power Future Competitiveness: “Canada’s electricity sector is embarking on
a decades-long period of transition that will see a move away from fos-sil fuel-based thermal generation to an electricity system that is heavily weighted towards non-emitting, renewable sources of electricity.”
In terms of cost, wind energy is a smart choice and getting better all the time. The cost of wind energy is known and transparent under the province’s Feed-in-Tariff program, and the cost to build wind energy continues to decline.
All-in pricing currently places wind energy at a rate of 11.5 cents per kWh in Ontario, making it cost-competitive with virtually all other sources of electricity generation that
could be built today except for natu-ral gas. While natural gas is currently the cheapest form of electricity gen-eration, balancing natural gas with a mix of wind and other renewable sources of electricity will serve to both reduce environmental impacts and enhance long-term price stabil-ity, while also facilitating the inte-gration of variable renewable energy generation.
Smart energy choiceOntarians will soon be forced to make a choice with respect to future electricity investment. An expanded role for wind energy development will continue to be a smart long-term choice based on cost, environ-mental protection, and the distribu-tion of economic benefits to rural communities.
Solar sector on the rise
reshaping OntariO’s electricity system with wind energy
Joe rosengarten
roBert hornung
Energy management: a challenging but rewarding roleIn recent years, energy manage-ment has become an increasingly important element in business, as companies leverage sustain-ability efforts to lower their car-bon footprint, increase efficien-cies, and realize cost-savings that impact the bottom line.
Energy management controls and monitors the actions of peo-ple, equipment, and processes to achieve optimal energy perfor-mance, and is built on three fun-damental components.
■■ Operational excellence: First is a commitment to fund-ing projects to achieve a higher degree of energy efficiency. For instance, companies can do this by installing efficient hardware, such as lights, or enabling more efficient operational practices, like shutting down equipment during non-production periods.
■■ Employee engagement: Second is a focus on engaging employees. An energy manager must sell the benefits of effi-ciency to upper management, and a key to success is involving employees through training and awareness campaigns.
■■ Showcase achievements: The third component is the most difficult; finding a way to make energy management visible. For example, at 3M, our Brockville Tape Plant achieved Superior Energy Performance (SEP) with ISO 500001, Platinum level, achieving 15 percent energy intensity reduction in three years. This plant is the first in Canada to achieve this standard and only second in the world.
andrew heJnar,
energy Manager, 3M Canada
Robert HornungPresident,Canadian wind energy association
John GormanPresident,Canadian Solar industries association
! CheCk thiS out
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inSigHt
Hydropower is continuing to generate waves in the arena of clean, sustainable energy, but its positive effects can be seen in Ontario’s economy and communities as well.
Hydropower — harnessing power from a rush of fast-flowing water — is an ancient technology that has lost none of its relevancy in the modern age: it remains a viable answer to the evolving challenges facing the global community for securing renewable sources of energy. For Ontario, hydropower
represents not only an answer to the need for clean energy, but also a sustainable way of developing the provincial economy, supporting rural communities, and empower-ing First Nations and Metis groups within the province.
Providing clean powerHydroelectricity is crucial to the province’s power grid because of its flexibility in responding quickly to demands for increases in power supply, and doesn’t carry the same dangers of smog, pollution, green-house gas emissions and large car-bon footprints that come with non-
renewable carbon-based energy sources. And since generating sta-tions typically remain in service for 100 years or more, hydroelec-tricity is a long-term power source that minimizes environmental disruption while maximizing the production energy on-demand when it is most needed.
Giving back to the communityHydropower projects around the province also create stable new jobs that bolster the local economy through employment opportu-nities and the involvement of
local businesses. These initiatives accomplish the dual goals of pro-ducing clean, renewable energy and engaging in important com-munity development work by creating new jobs, stimulating existing businesses in the area and providing valuable job training for members of rural and aboriginal communities around generating sites.
A positive contributionThe ‘Lower Mattagami Project’ is just one such example of the inter-section between sustainable clean energy and community develop-
ment through hydropower proj-ects. In partnership with Moose Cree First Nation, Ontario Power Generation is rebuilding four exist-ing generating stations between Kapuskasing and Moose Factory. The project has already exceeded its target of employing 200 First Nations and Metis out of the 1800 total positions it will create, and will add enough energy to the province’s grid to power up to 440 000 homes by 2015.
hydrOpOwer sets the bar high fOr sustainable develOpment
sarah hoedlMoser
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Ontario is home to over 21,000 residents in remote communities living in 38 remote sites, 25 of which are Aboriginal communities.
Across Canada there are almost 300 remote communities with thousands more off-grid com-munities around the world. Many of these communities rely on diesel power to generate elec-tricity.
Some remote communities in Canada’s north can pay up to ten times the cost of electricity that those of us living in the south do. Wind energy has established a growing track record of reliable operations even in some of the
harshest climates. Alaska alone has more than 20 wind-diesel hybrid systems already up and running.
Integrating wind energy into small elec-tricity sys-tems is not w i t h o u t its chal-lenges, but technical a d v a n c e s and per-sistence have led to systems that are capable of shutting die-sel systems off and operating entirely on wind for extended periods of time. Other systems will have excess wind that they
can use to help heat the school or supply additional heat into dis-trict heating loops.
It is not just remote commu-nities taking advantage of mod-
ern technology advances; from Canada to Antarctica, mines and research stations are also deploying renewable energy systems to keep costs and fuel import risks down.
Renewing the north
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inSigHtThe Northwest Territories’
Diavik mine became home to world’s most northern large-scale wind-diesel hybrid system displacing five million litres of imported diesel fuel every year.
Winds of changeIncreasingly remote communi-ties are seeing the opportunities
that renew-able energy s y s t e m s can afford them in increasing their long-term sus-tainability,
as projects are being developed from the Yukon to Northern Que-bec. Also, the rapid decline in the price of solar systems has meant that mixed renewable hybrid systems are quickly becoming a
reality.While costs and risks of spills
have long hampered remote communities’ energy systems, southern communities, and sys-tems will soon have lots to learn from their neighbours in the north as smart grids, electricity storage and renewable energy become the new norm.
Tim Weis, Ph.D.director, renewable energy and efficiency Policy, Pembina institute
“Wind energy has established a growing track record of reliable operations even in some of the harshest climates. ”
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although giant strides have been made in the utili-zation of renew-able energy, and policy commit-ments to envi-
ronmentally friendly practices are becoming more common, now is not the time to get complacent.
To commit whole-heartedly to reducing our carbon foot print we need to embrace this progress; we need to realize that a truly green system, whether it is business or domestic, needs to incorporate dif-ferent forms of renewable energy.
Integrated solutions“Advocates of conservation or energy technologies, such as batteries, solar photovoltaics, or wind turbines, dan-
gerously assure us that one technol-ogy or philosophy is the answer,” explained Professor Aimy Bazylak, Associate Director at the Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Toronto.
“However, the green energy land-scape of the future will not be real-ized with one single item,” she con-tinued. “For example, wind turbines can be used to convert the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. However, what happens when the wind doesn’t blow? We need a large portfolio of policies and technolo-gies: ones that exist today and that will be invented in the future.”
Demand managementUrban areas consume huge amounts of energy, so if any significant improvements are going to be made in carbon emissions our cities have to become more energy efficient.
One concept designed to assist with this is demand reduction. “It’s where electricity demand during peak hours is reduced and consumed at a later hour,”explained Professor Bala Venkatesh, Academic Director at the Centre for Urban Energy, Ryer-son University.
“An excellent example would be the IceBear Unit installed on Ryer-son University campus through a joint program with Ontario Power Authority and Toronto Hydro. Ice is made during nights, and used to cool a building during the day — reduc-ing peak demand on the electricity system.”
intelligent energy infrastructure
Joe rosengarten
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City of Toronto’s Environmental projects
■■ An initiative launched in Sep-tember 2012 saw ten city owned buildings fitted with more than 8,800 solar panels. The energy produced by the panels will feed directly into Toronto Hydro’s grid, creating a forecasted $16 million in gross revenue for the city over a 20-year period.
The city’s ‘High performance new Construction’ program offers financial incentives to building own-ers and architects who exceed the electricity efficiency guidelines in the ontario building Code.
■■ The Toronto green Standard (TgS) is a set of measures related to sustainable building and design. Applicants that reach certain per-formance levels may be eligible for a development Charge refund.
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■■ Why should the average, everyday Canadian be informed about the renewable energy industry?
! There are four major issues related to energy production
and consumption that affect “everyday Canadians” directly including; increasing energy costs due to greater global demand of our depleting fosill fuel reserves; the aging and limited capacity of the existing Canadian electricity production infrastructure; poor air quality due to high CO2 emis-sions especially in population dense areas like southern Ontario; and finally decentralized energy access in remote locations. Renewable energy technology provides a solution for comple-menting and eventually replacing existing infrastructures, while providing an opportunity for the creation of new skilled trades jobs to install and maintain these systems.
■■ Fast forward 20 years. What would the renewable energy market look like? Will we drive solar-powered cars, live in wind-powered cities or make coffee using geothermal power?
! There might not be a solar coffee maker in our future,
by 2020, but with the right policy in place we will see substantially more renewable energy in the overall energy mix. Also, new
Andreas Schotter, Ph.D.professor, international business and Strategy, ivey business School at Western university Canada
transportation solutions growing fast in popularity including car-sharing like the one offered by car2go with an electric version of its smart-car . Key is making renewable energy easy to install and use while keeping investment costs and most impor-tantly energy prices down. There is nothing wrong when a Canadian technician installs and services a photovoltaic system that was in parts cost-efficiently manufactured in China.
■■ Where do you see the most promising business opportunity in your sector for the next five years?
! Seventeen percent of Canada’s primary energy and 60 percent
of its total electricity comes already from renewables. Future solutions can only be a combination of central-ized (e.g. large scale wind farms) and decentralized (home installations and more energy efficient cars) solu-tions. This would put pressure off the grid infrastructure which is stressed right now. The big lever is the heating side of the energy mix. Here new solutions are needed.
EMPOWERInG uRBAn AREASSun ready to rise on solar farms.Photo: DuPont
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■■ What inspired you to get a career in this field?I was inspired by growing con-cerns surrounding global climate change; I felt the need to become involved in positive change for a better future. The program “Sus-tainable Energy and Building Technology” at Humber College provided me with a gateway to begin my career in the field of Renewable Energy.
■■ What should our readers know about the renewable energy job market?It’s a growing industry employ-ing hundreds of people in Ontario alone. A lot of new posi-tions are available to the younger generation, most of whom are having difficulty finding a job which will provide them with the necessary training and expe-rience required to start a career. Overall my experience within the renewable energy job market has been positive and the oppor-tunities that have been offered to me, as a recent graduate, have been excellent.
■■ What advice would you give someone looking to enter into a career in renewable energy?It is a fun, interesting, and chal-lenging industry to be in. Like any other industry, it faces hurdles, obstacles, and distrust, but at the end of the day, it feels good to go home and think that you are collaborating to build a better society, and that you are part of a new wave of humans who care about the triple bottom line.
■■ What’s your next career move? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?I am hundred percent certain that renewable energy is the industry I want to be in. I am a person who challenges him-self even in the daily basis, and always strives for accomplish-ing his goals. Solar energy has given me the opportunity to test my technical skills; however, I would like to enter in the wind energy industry as well.
There are not many sectors that are growing as quickly, and predictably, as renewable energy.
It’s an exciting industry to be in— constantly changing, upgrading and evolving— and it has a work-force that reflects its philosophy— thoughtful, conscientious, intel-ligent, and that important word: energy.
“Ontario’s Long Term Energy Plan places energy conservation and efficiency, as well as expanding renewable energy technologies, as key components of Ontario’s energy future,” explained Kerry Johnston, Professor of Sustainable Energy and Building Technology at Humber College “Opportunities in the conservation and efficiency sector include: energy auditing, energy modeling, energy manage-ment — including, building auto-mation systems and managing mechanical systems, and building envelope retrofits.”
Supporting career choicesRenewable energy a hot topic at the moment. It’s not just govern-ments that are working to help reduce this generation’s impact on the environment, big business is adapting too. Jobs are being created in all aspects of project management and development, design, maintenance, manufac-turing, meteorology, construction,
green energy careers
Joe rosengarten
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Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Local Distribution Companies (LDCs),” said Johnston. “Skilled workers are required to admin-ister and implement the mea-sures these incentive programs support.”
finance, and policy development. As the current crop of employees reach the end of their careers, there is predicted to be, over the next five to seven years, a severe shortage of qualified workers in the renewable energy sector.
“These opportunities are sup-ported by provincially funded incentive programs for the resi-dential, commercial and indus-trial sector administered by the
Markus Herzogproject Coordinator, Energy divisionClass of 2012Age: 25
Juan Sebastian FlechasEngineering Technologist, Class of 2012 Age: 32
ProFile on reCent gradS
salary breakdOwn $ Solar technician $30,000 – $42,000
Junior engineer $40,000 – $60,000
materials Scientist $65,000 – $95,000
$$ environmental engineer $50,000 – $108,000
intermediate engineer $60,000 - $100,000
Project/Construction manager $65,000 – $110,000
$$$ energy manager $85,000 – $162,000
environmental Policy maker $110,000 – $190,000
Senior engineer $100,000 – $130,000
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