How is wind power promoted?

A number of important initiatives are under way at government, utility and industry levels to encourage the development of wind power in Canada.

Government policies and incentives play an important role in encouraging the adoption of wind power by consumers and the development of wind power generation facilities. These can take the form of:

• production subsidies that provide a guaranteed payment to wind developers for electricity produced from wind
• investment subsidies (such as grants and loans) to wind developers to support the capital cost of wind turbines
• renewable portfolio standards that require utilities and retailers to provide a certain portion of their power and energy sales from renewable sources such as wind
• procurement of new generation from wind power for government facilities

In 2002, the federal government established the Wind Power Production Incentive to assist in the development of wind power in Canada. The $260-million program is intended to assist in the development of 1,000 megawatts of new wind power capacity by 2007. The incentive currently provides a payment of about one cent per kilowatt-hour to approved wind power projects.

The federal government has also established a $25-million market incentive program to provide funds to power retailers trying to create customer demand for green power products. The program is used to help cover the cost of marketing to promote the products.

Provincial governments are also carrying out or planning programs that could further increase wind power capacity. Ontario, one of North America’s largest power markets, has established tax incentives and a support package for renewable energy, including a target to procure 20 per cent of energy for government facilities from renewable energy sources. Alberta has committed to a green procurement target of 90 per cent for government facilities. And in British Colombia, the provincial government has committed to obtaining half of all new power from renewable sources.

Several provinces have introduced renewable portfolio standards in their electricity markets. For example, Prince Edward Island has set a target to achieve 10 per cent of its electricity supply from wind by 2010 while Ontario has set a target of 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.