Carbon tax: Enough to pay for Alberta renewables?
It's easy to shift your current reliance on fossil fuels.
At Green Alberta Energy, we actively support solutions fashioned to help green the grid.
Our support goes beyond hollow verbal endorsements. We’ve invested in biomass as a non-fossil fuel energy source and we are currently buying surplus green energy exported onto Alberta’s grid by solar micro-generators located all over Alberta.
Imagine 14,000 PV Solar Micro Generators in Alberta.
Yet, as we study Climate Change initiatives in Alberta, we ask our government to proceed cautiously and control the swing of the pendulum. Why? Because indiscriminate haste will be very, very costly for consumers who already are suffering with the downturn in our economy.
RECs attract investment to build renewable energy facilities
Alberta adopted a carrot and stick approach to the Climate Change issue. The stick is the carbon tax; the carrot is a renewable energy credit (REC) of possibly up to $35 per megawatt hour (MWh) of production from a renewable energy generator (hydro, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal). RECs are a form of subsidy that provides additional revenue for eligible renewable electricity projects. As proposed by Alberta, this will be pre-arranged rate and term. The process of establishing who will get the opportunity to help Alberta increase renewables will be based on the concept of a reverse-auction run by the Alberta Electric System Operation (AESO).
The price to be paid for the RECs will be determined by AESO’s auction process and, in total fairness, the subsidy might be lower than $35. Let’s put this number into perspective: The subsidy will be over and above what the generator would receive by selling their generation into the grid. On average, during 2015 the average power pool price was slightly above $33/MWh.
It is possible the new subsidy will more than double what consumers are currently paying for electricity generation. Where will the money come from? You guessed it. Your pocket because the government doesn’t have their own bank account.
How is the Alberta Government going to fund this strategy, if they cannot collect enough from the Carbon Tax? Most likely they will look elsewhere and impose other forms of direct and indirect taxes. This is not fear mongering; it is just a reality of the future we are going to face.
New, self-funded initiatives also green the grid
Generators are banking on the possibility of participating in a REC program. At the same time, smaller scale PV Solar Micro Generators are asking for a Feed-in-Tariff to help subsidize the cost of putting solar panels on the roof of their homes. At Green Alberta Energy, we have already started purchasing the surplus green and offering it to customers in the form of an offset. As this self-funded program grows, the grid will simply become greener and greener.
Today there are 1400 PV Solar Micro Generators in Alberta. Imagine if there were 14,000.
As an Albertan, you are being offered lower electricity rates from www.Green AlbertaEnergy.ca At the same time, you are encouraged to spend a little of what you save to take climate change action by “Greening the Grid”.