Canadian wind farm revenues recover incentive costs for government
15 Jan 2010
GE Energy Financial Services yesterday released the findings of its study estimating that renewing a Canadian federal financial incentive that has now allocated virtually all of its funding for wind energy projects would more than pay for itself through tax revenues from the projects' income, vendors' profits and individual workers' wages.
The study estimated that injecting an additional C$1.5 billion into Canada's ecoENERGY for Renewable Power programme could generate 5.2 gigawatts of new wind projects and carry a net present value benefit to Canada's governments $287 million.
This analysis concludes that the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power programme is a government investment that yields a financial return as well as encourages development of wind farms that provide a source of carbon-free electricity and help create thousands of Canadian jobs in manufacturing, construction and operations.
''Governments worldwide are rolling out ways to encourage the deployment of green renewable energy generation,'' said Mark Tonner, managing director for Canada at GE Energy Financial Services. ''Canadians want to be leaders in green energy. It's high on the social agenda as the right thing to do. In Canada, the ecoENERGY initiative has been effective in stimulating renewable energy deployment, and as our study shows, it's time to view the program not as a cost but a net contributor to Canada's treasury. EcoENERGY helps Canada compete globally for renewable energy investment, at a time when such competition is becoming more intense. ''
To encourage the production of renewable energy by closing the economic gap with conventional electricity generation, the Canadian government established the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program in 2007 and committed $1.48 billion to it.
Renewable energy projects receive 1 cent (before tax) per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of power production. EcoENERGY for Renewable Power payments provide an important part of the developers' return on investment while reducing the price that utilities and their customers pay for the energy.
