GE urges Ottawa to extend ecoENERGY program
"Canada's ecoENERGY Investment in Renewables Pays Off for Taxpayers," declares a new study released by GE Energy Financial Services this week. The study urges the federal government to renew the popular ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program. Not only is the program effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it also is a net money-maker for the government.
The ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program provides a one cent per kilowatt-hour subsidy for the first 10 years of operation for eligible renewable energy projects. The program, which was launched in 2007, has been extraordinarily popular: 10,924 megawatts of projects have registered to receive funds; 4,154 megawatts of projects have been approved for funding.
This response has been so strong that the program is now in limbo, having fully allocated virtually all of its $1.5 billion of funding. The government stopped accepting new applications in December 2009. The renewable power industry has been waiting with bated breath for an announcement from Ottawa that the program's coffers will be topped up.
The GE study strongly encourages the government to renew the program. Having prepared financial models of the program, GE determined that the government will receive more back in the form of incremental tax revenue that it pays out under the program. Specifically, the study estimated that injecting an additional $1.5 billion into the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program could spawn 5.2 gigawatts of new wind projects and carry a net present value benefit to Canada's governments of $287 million.
In a press release that accompanied the report, Mark Tonner, Managing Director for Canada at GE Energy Financial Services, noted, "Canadians want to be leaders in green energy. It's high on the social agenda as the right thing to do. In Canada, the ecoENERGY initiative has been effective in stimulating renewable energy deployment, and as our study shows, it's time to view the program not as a cost but a net contributor to Canada's treasury. EcoENERGY helps Canada compete globally for renewable energy investment, at a time when such competition is becoming more intense."
GE's enthusiasm for the program is no doubt influenced by the fact that GE is a supplier of turbines to several Canadian wind farms.
GE and the rest of the renewable industry will learn the fate of the ecoENRGY for Renewable Power program when the federal government releases its 2010 budget (which is expected to occur on March 4, almost immediately after Parliament resumes, having been controversially prorogued by Prime Minister Harper at the end of 2009).