The Canadian government will not extend its successful ecoENERGY for Renewable Power Program in its 2010 federal budget.
“The failure to extend and expand the ecoENERGY program will slow wind
energy development and reduce our ability to compete with the United
States for investment and jobs at a critical time in our economic
recovery,” said Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) President,
Robert Hornung. “While we remain committed to working with the federal
government to find ways to attract new investment in the world’s most
rapidly growing source of electricity, we are shocked and disappointed
that it has chosen not to extend a cost-effective program that
facilitated record levels of investment and job creation in Canada’s
wind energy sector in the midst of the recession of 2009.”
The Canadian government has previously expressed its desire to harmonize climate change and clean energy policies with the United States. The U.S. federal government‘s key incentive program will provide support for new wind energy projects constructed through to the end of 2012. However, Canada’s ecoENERGY program has now allocated all of its funding and is supporting no wind energy projects built after March 2011–almost two years before U.S. support is scheduled to end.
The fact that federal funds are no longer available to support new wind energy projects in Canada means investors will increasingly shift new investments and wind jobs out of Canada to the greater policy certainty and more attractive investment climate found in the United States, CanWEA said.
“While the federal government continues to identify clean energy and job creation as a priority, the actions taken in the 2010 federal budget make it clear that it has decided to download responsibility for attracting wind energy investment and jobs to provincial governments,” said Hornung.
The ecoENERGY for Renewable Power Program was created in January 2007 and has now allocated all of its funding and met its target to support the deployment of more than 4,000 megawatts (MW) of new renewable energy projects in Canada. A recent study by GE Energy Financial Services concluded that the government revenues generated by the economic activity stimulated and leveraged through the program represented a 5.3% internal rate of return on this investment by the federal government.
Between now and 2020, it is projected that $1 trillion will be invested in wind energy projects globally, creating more than 1.75 million wind jobs.
The province of Ontario has attracted massive investment in wind and other cleantech sectors since launching a feed-in tariff last fall.
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