We pay $85.50 per month on equalized. How much is your bill?
What green power?
Blame solar for sky-high Ontario power bills | Financial Post
Solar energy – one of the key pillars of the Green Energy and Economy Act (GEEA) – is casting a dark cloud over Ontario electricity bills and is a big factor in recent and future bill increases. In 2013, solar projects caused electricity bills to be about $550-million higher than they would otherwise have been. For a typical homeowner, this works out to $47 per year. Ontario will have an estimated 1,100 MW of solar installed by year-end and roughly 900 MW will be added in 2014. This addition will cause 2014 electricity bills to increase by another $435-million – equal to a typical homeowner increase of $37 per year. By the end of 2014, solar will be costing Ontarians $1.25-billion per year – while generating a paltry 2% of Ontario’s total electricity requirement.
How did Ontario get here?
Under the previous Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP), Ontario contracted for 475 MW of solar capacity, to be paid $0.42/kWh for 20 years.
Ontario’s green disaster | Financial Post
The GEA may have been well-intended but a recent Fraser Institute analysis, called The Environmental and Economic Consequences of Ontario’s Green Energy Act, demonstrates that it is driving up Ontario’s energy costs and poses a threat to economic competitiveness for the manufacturing and mining sectors. What little environmental benefit it is expected to generate could have been achieved at a fraction of the cost. Unless the province changes course, the GEA will saddle Ontarians with needlessly high energy costs for decades to come.
As our study demonstrates, the GEA will soon put the province at or near the top of North American electricity costs. Already the GEA has caused major price increases for large energy consumers, and analysts in both the government and the private sector anticipate additional hikes of 40% to 50% over the next few years. We estimate that the manufacturing and mining sectors will be hard hit, with energy cost increases reducing returns to investment by between 13% and 29%.