In yet another sign of the crisis caused for many in the province by soaring electricity rates, the Ontario Association of Food Banks says the fallout is putting the squeeze on the basic needs of many. “If people have to choose between keeping the lights on and going hungry, they go without food,” Carolyn Stewart, executive director of the association, said ahead of Monday’s release of the group’s Hunger Report 2016. Soaring hydro costs have become an Achilles heel for the Liberal government, which took a costly plunge into green energy in 2009. 

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

The poll suggests the issues Ms. Wynne has spent most of her time on – building transit and fighting climate change – are low on voters’ priority lists. Infrastructure investments was the top issue for just 4.8 per cent of respondents, and the environment clocked in at 4 per cent.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

Five years after Ontario pulled the plug on offshore wind installations, including a 130-turbine project in Lake Ontario, a NAFTA tribunal has ordered the province to fork over $25 million in damages plus $3 million in legal costs to Windstream Energy LLC, kicking up gusts of mixed reaction from environmentalists and trade activists. 

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Ontario

The levy German power consumers pay on their electricity bills to finance the build-up of renewables (EEG surcharge) next year will jump by 8.3% to €0.0688 ($0.0758) per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, re-igniting a heated debate on the cost of the country’s energy transition.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Germany

Sheppard Air Force Base has asserted that proposed wind developments in nearby Clay County would interfere with its radar operation and flight training missions. If erected, wind turbines in a 25-mile radius of the base could cause Sheppard's mission to be moved to another military installation, a move that likely would be a crippling blow to the Wichita Falls economy.

Safety Impact on Economy USA Texas

Highland-based industry watcher Stuart Young said: "I was disgusted how people were crowing about how much electricity had been generated by wind when customers are going to be hit so hard in their pockets. "The number of megawatt hours wasted - constrained off - was 46,150.

Impact on Economy UK

The province signed long-term contracts with a handful of lucky firms, guaranteeing them 13.5 cents per kWh for electricity produced from wind, and even more from solar. Obviously, if the wholesale price is around 2.5 cents, and the wind turbines are guaranteed 13.5 cents, someone has to kick in 11 cents to make up the difference. That’s where the GA comes in. The more the wind blows, and the more turbines get built, the bigger the losses and the higher the GA.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Ontario

Public opinion may back an increasing proportion of renewable energy being plugged into South Africa's power grid, but Eskom CEO Brian Molefe says further independent renewable power production will be impractical and what he really needs is nuclear energy.

Impact on Economy Africa

“There is a regressive nature to some of these things,” Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, noting that more than 1 million state households spend more than 10% of their income on energy. “We have to be sensitive to issues relating to energy costs.” ... renewable energy goals will require going far beyond putting up new wind turbines and solar array farms. 

Impact on Economy Energy Policy California

“The competition is brutal out there,” Brandt said. “Wind-on-wind and solar-on-solar competition is killing these businesses.” The problem, said Polsky, is there is a lack of discipline that is causing a “race to the bottom” with developers, especially bigger players, bidding in lower and lower prices just to win bids.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy USA

Rising energy prices fuelled by South Australia's ambitious renewable energy target  have helped send stricken Whyalla steelmaker Arrium cap in hand to governments seeking $150 million-plus in taxpayer aid. Higher energy prices may have added as much as $12 million to Arrium's annual costs, with rising gas prices and South Australia's wind and solar power among the main culprits. 

Impact on Economy Australia

The long-term contracts also burden electric ratepayers with more risk, according to the study. One of the reasons Massachusetts deregulated the electric industry was to shift the risk of building power plants from consumers to energy developers. Fixed-price, long-term contracts negotiated by utilities under the direction of the state would shift the risk needle back in the direction of electric ratepayers.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Massachusetts

"[South Australia] has moved so far ahead of the rest of Australia in terms of changes of generation", with a prominent role for renewable energy which has forced the closure of coal-fired power stations, he said. "Not only are they paying through the nose for their electricity, but with large price declines last year, and now the big rises this year – you can't get stability in household budgets.

Impact on Economy Australia

Did the wind industry ever tell you that their turbines are of no practical use for most of the time? Do you now understand the meaning of the capacity factor? Repeat: it is time to put the welfare of Ontarians ahead of your ego­ and stop this waste now. We all make mistakes, and the smart people learn from them. It is now clear to all critical and realistic thinkers that wind and solar will never replace or even moderately supplement nuclear and other reliable sources of the electrical energy in Ontario.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

For Springfield aldermen opposed to the 10-year-old Sierra Club deal that required the city to buy power from two wind farms, December 2018 can’t come fast enough. By then, both contracts will have expired, at which point City Water, Light and Power estimates it will have spent up to $150 million. So far, the utility has spent about $101 million. ...“There’s definitely a lesson for the future,” he said. “We have to be very, very careful when this contract comes back up. I don’t know how I could vote for it in most any form.”

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Illinois

Highland anti-windfarm campaigner Lyndsey Ward said: “These are mind-boggling sums of money that enriches the already wealthy wind multinationals to not generate electricity – and it comes out of our pockets. “It’s time to end this madness.”

Impact on Economy Energy Policy UK

Along with the oil and gas industry, manufacturing companies and the university, Sheppard Air Force Base was identified in the study as one of the primary drivers of the area economy. The loss of any of those employment hubs "is going to have a profound impact on the surrounding counties," Martinez said in an interview. 

Impact on Economy Texas

Because the power grid is overloaded, more wind wheels must always be limited. This costs the network operators hundreds of millions of euros.

Impact on Economy Transmission Germany

For a year, Germans could hope for decreasing, or at least stable electricity prices. But now they know their expectations will not met. Quite the opposite: A recent analysis of price comparisons by TopTarif reveals that consumers are currently paying as much for their electricity than ever before.

Impact on Economy Germany

A second round of bids to build two wind turbines off the Virginia Beach coast appears to have lowered the price, but Dominion Virginia Power officials haven’t decided yet whether to green-light the demonstration project. “We are optimistic, but it is a fairly hefty cost to deploy these turbines,” Mark Mitchell, a Dominion vice president, said in an interview Wednesday.

Impact on Economy Offshore Wind Virginia