Yesterday was a busy news day for the energy sector in Ontario. First, the provincial government announced a $60 billion, 20 year plan for generating electricity. Second, Greenpeace was out on Lake Erie preventing delivery of coal to a power plant.
The government plan will rely heavily on nuclear power, use hydroelectric, wind and solar, and implement demand reduction programs to meet the electricity needs of the province as well as fulfill and election promise to close coal burning power plants by 2007, now 20014.
Greenpeace's exercise yesterday was designed to bring energy to the forefront as an election issue this fall. They are focusing on the broken promises of closing the coal plants and how they are major greenhouse gas emitters.
I haven't spent much time reading the plan because it will probably never be implemented except for spending billions on nuclear plants. I'll look to see if they have a plan for handling nuclear waste other than hoping it doesn't leak. The plan is more of building capacity on the existing system rather than a new direction for a distributed generation system where individuals can be more responsible for their own use and power generation. The demand reduction looks like money to be spent on intangibles. Maybe if they focused on setting higher efficiency standards rather than giving away coupons for a CF light bulb they could actually reduce demand.
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