The Power of Nature: Benefits of Renewable Energy

Kathleen Wynne's approval rating is up to 15% from 12% in March.  It is still the lowest approval rating of all premiers in the country.  Hydro has been her undoing.

We have a powerful solar installation on my folks' Muskoka building.  Hydro rates for solar power have ranged from 80 cents per kilowatt hour at its pinnacle down to 29 cents per kilowatt hour now.  Ours pays out at 71.3 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 18 years and we have an option to purchase it over the next year.  In the meantime, the owners pay us rent for using the roof.

The Auditor General for the province was immensely critical of the government for the negotiation of solar and wind contracts, criticizing them for paying between two and three and a half times what other jurisdictions were paying for the same installations.  This has raised the issue of whether a future government might renege on the contracts in place that are paying 71.3 cents and 80 cents per kilowatt hour for solar power.

My daughters and I traveled to Windsor for my eldest daughter's baseball finals.  I was absolutely staggered and amazed by the number of windmills that turn continuously as you head out from London.  I had seen them before but every time I travel that countryside it continuously amazes me.  We came home at night and the red blinking lights on all of the windmills replaced the spider-like spinning that you see in the daytime.  Farmers in the countryside are making between $12,000 and $25,000 per year from them.

There is no doubt that converting from coal power to solar and wind power is good for the environment.  It is not good for the province's pocketbook.  The premier's approval rating reflects that reality.