Rethinking Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan

Electricity towers at night with city light up in background

“Compared to hydro, other renewables cost twice as much for one-third less power.”

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by Marc Brouillette December 2014

In “Rethinking Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan” author Marc Brouillette outlines how Ontario’s 2013 long term energy plan will not achieve its stated objectives. His analysis using data from the plan itself shows that Ontario is locking itself into a higher GHG future at higher cost and with lower economic benefits than the 2010 plan which it replaces.

Brouillette finds this outcome is the result of increasing the proportion of wind power in the generation mix which requires a parallel duplicate investment in gas-fired generation to ensure reliability. His analysis shows that this supply combination pushes out nuclear generation which produces no GHG, has a lower life-cycle cost and creates significant spin-off benefits for the Ontario economy.

Marc Brouillette is the principal consultant at Strategic Policy Economics and has been advising provincial and federal government ministries, agencies, and crown corporations for over 20 years on issues in the aerospace, energy, and gaming sectors. He specializes in matters that involve technology based public-private initiatives in policy driven regulated environments.