A Manitoba Hydro solar installation. Photo: Solar Manitoba
***Original published in South Mountain Press, March 1, 2019***
The Future of Renewable Energy in Manitoba
Energy. Literally, humanity’s existence revolves around harnessing various forms of energy. It started with ancient humans surviving the dark night by learning to make fire. Later, great civilizations sprung up by utilizing the wind to explore the world in armadas of ships. A patent for the first real internal combustion engine was granted in 1854 London and soon the world was taking advantage of what had been a relatively useless substance called crude oil. Finally, in the 20th Century, humanity created the technical expertise to understand the very nature of the atom in order to produce nuclear electricity.
Now, in the 21st Century, there is mounting pressure for the world to again change energy gears and embrace renewable energy. All governments, including Manitoba’s, have been tackling this issue for decades. But after many decades, has Manitoba made any meaningful headway with respects to replacing old energy technology with new ‘green’ energy technology?
To begin, where exactly does Manitoba derive our power and energy needs from? According to the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board 67th Annual Report for the 2017/2018 fiscal year, this is how the numbers break down: the grand-daddy of power generation at 96.01% of all of Manitoba’s electricity is created by 15 hydro-electric stations. The natural gas (formerly coal) thermal generating stations at Brandon and Selkirk created .12%. Purchases excluding the wind farms in the south of the province accounted for 1.16% and wind power was 2.72%.
Also, according to Manitoba Hydro’s reports, over 280,000 private and business customers in 132 communities burnt over 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas last year.
In 2005, Manitoba Hydro partnered with a large Ontario energy conglomerate to create the province’s first wind farm by St. Leon. In 2010, Hydro partnered with a large US corporation for a second wind farm nearby in St. Joseph. Total capacity for the 133 wind turbines amounts to peak electricity generation of 258 Megawatts (MW). According to the Board’s Annual Report, the corporation has contracts to buy wind power from the two farms out to 2038.
According to figures starting in 2013, the wind farms have provided 2.6% of the province’s electrical production which amounts to 1 billion wind generated Kilowatt Hours (kWh). Hydro keeps the price paid for wind energy confidential but if you look through Hydro’s Annual Report it can be determined that compensation is in the range of 7.3¢/kWh.
So to meet Manitoba’s 21st Century energy needs, would it make sense for the province to go into a massive wind expansion program? After comparing published costs of the new northern Keeyask Generating Station with the two wind farms, it appears that wind power could be millions of dollars cheaper to produce per MW capacity. But in order to meet the present generating capacity, the province would need over 7000 wind turbines covering an area over 10 times the size of Riding Mountain National Park. Then you return to the problem of what happens when the wind stops blowing (or blowing too much)? No spinning blades, no electrical generation. Just imagine Manitobans shivering in the dark this past February because of lack of wind.
Moving on to the other darling of the green movement, what about solar energy? According to Hydro Media Relations Officer, Bruce Owen, about 650 customers are generating their own electricity (primarily solar photovoltaic) of which they may intermittently sell their excess to Manitoba Hydro. Many of these self-generating customers probably took advantage of Hydro’s 2-year Solar Energy Pilot Program which ran out on May 1, 2018.
One such couple was Shoal Lake area farmers, David and Diana Hyde, who are in their third year of using their solar panel system. They have 72 standard size panels (about 3 X 5 feet in size) that are designed to create about 2/3rds of their farm’s electrical needs. Most of their excess power is produced in the spring and fall and they receive credits back for their winter usage. They were lucky as they were grandfathered into the old rates where they are credited at about 8¢/kWh whereas newer customers are only being compensated at 3.3¢/kWh (rates will increase to 4¢ beginning April 1st).
Although the Hydes are happy with their system, they would not recommend solar to the average home owner. For example, they were able to write off their installation costs as a farm expense. The Hydro Solar Program was great while it lasted but with the lower compensation rates, they would need twice as many panels to replace their current system and their credited hydro this year ran out in January. It would be nice to have mobile panels that could follow the sun, especially in the summer, but Manitoba storms would wreck the panels. In their opinion, the only way solar makes fiscal sense would be for a homeowner who was too far away from the existing grid.
Manitoba Hydro still will provide assistance to homeowners and businesses who are interested in solar power but do not count on any good compensation deals in the near future. According to Mr. Owen, ‘Previously, the price paid for excess energy was aligned with the rate charged for residential electricity. However, the rate charged for residential electricity is structured to recoup the costs of not just electric generation, but also transmission, distribution, maintenance, billing, customer service, emergency response, etc. Those non-energy components account for the majority of the cost of delivering electricity. Therefore, to pay the full residential rate for someone to intermittently generate electricity would be to over compensate them beyond its actual value. The current method uses the previous year’s export spot market power price of electricity which is more equitable for all Manitobans.’
According to the Hyde family, a good solution for the low compensation hydro rates would be if people could just battery store the extra electricity. But in their opinion, current battery technology is too expensive and inefficient.
So despite some token efforts regarding the other ‘green’ energy generation technologies, it appears that Manitoba should stick with renewable hydro-electricity. Until there are technological breakthroughs that negate the fallibility and expense of wind and solar systems, it would make more sense to rely on an energy system that has already had a rock solid reliability of more than a century.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.