Province’s electricity plan won’t work if it’s only voluntary, think-tank warns
The Dexter government’s new electricity plan for quadrupling the amount of green energy over the next decade could fail without legislative teeth, says Tim Weis, of the Pembina Institute in Ottawa.
"Voluntary compliance doesn’t typically yield the results that you are hoping for," Weis said in a telephone interview Monday.
Last month, the Dexter government unveiled its plan to increase the renewable electricity supply by setting a goal of 40 per cent of electricity from wind, biomass, tidal and renewable imports by 2020.
But the plan to reach 40 per cent from renewable sources between 2015 and 2020 involve voluntary targets without any legislation to enforce that it be done by Nova Scotia Power, said Weis, a senior policy analyst with the independent think-tank on renewable energy.
"I’d rather see 2020 as an actual legislated target than . . . just a goal. It’s still a commendable goal, it’s definitely in the right direction, but it’s always nicer to see these things with actual teeth to them as opposed to voluntary," he said.
At the news conference last month just outside New Glasgow at the province’s largest wind farm, Premier Darrell Dexter announced he was proud that the target of 25 per cent by 2015 is no longer just a target — "it will become a matter of law."
In the next sentence of his speech, he said, "I am also proud to announce that as part of this plan, government is setting a new goal of 40 per cent renewable electricity by 2020."
Typically, regulated policies or goals have a better chance of success than voluntary measures, said Weis.
"The sooner that can get moved from a goal to actually some mechanism is probably in everyone’s interest."
Weis said the government is probably watching how the current renewable energy policy plays out and also how the potential of tidal power will evolve over the next few years.
Last week, the provincial government passed legislation to change the Electricity Act to include the goal of reaching 25 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The Energy Department is currently drafting regulations to be ready by the summer for public comment.
Department spokesman Matthew Lumley said the renewable electricity targets from 2015 to 2020 are "aspirational goals" by the government.
The energy mix required to meet that goal could include wind, biomass, tidal and renewable imports, he said.
"There are a number of variables that will have to play out," said Lumley, referring to power from the Lower Churchill Falls project and tidal power in the Bay of Fundy.
Though the first electricity from the $6-billion Lower Churchill Falls project is years away, Nova Scotia wants to be able to access the green energy to meet tougher provincial environmental laws.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy company, Nalcor, plans to begin producing more electricity from the Churchill River by 2015 — enough to light all the homes in Atlantic Canada plus parts of Ontario — using two sites.
Nalcor has said Cape Breton could possibly be a place to land a proposed multibillion-dollar subsea cable from Lower Churchill.
Meanwhile, an experimental turbine in the Bay of Fundy has run into problems with remote sensors not working for its developers, Nova Scotia Power and partner OpenHydro. The other two test turbines have run into delays and will not be launched until 2011.
Nova Scotia Power now produces 10 to 12 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, and supplies power to 470,000 homes and businesses in the province.
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