CONTRACTS CANCELLED FOR SOLAR PROJECTS
More than half a dozen small-scale “green energy” projects may not be going ahead as planned in AlfredPlantagenet Township because of a mass cancellation of alternate energy contracts by the new Progressive Conservative government.
The lights went out for 758 renewable energy projects in Ontario when Greg Rickford, the new Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, announced July 13 that the Progressive Conservative government was cancelling their contracts. The decision follows up on an election campaign promise of Doug Ford, Ontario’s new premier, to reduce Hydro rates by 12 per cent through a variety of cost-cutting measures.
All of the projects listed in the masscancellation of contracts had not yet reached their “project development milestones” according to the government news release. Both Rickford and Ford have claimed the cancelled contracts represent $790 million in combined savings for all Ontario ratepayers on their electricity costs. Rickford also stated that the government will introduce legislation to protect ratepayers from the costs of any legal fallout from the contract cancellations.
Local project contracts
The biggest project contract in the Prescott-Russell region hit by the mass cancellation is the one for the Eastern Fields wind farm project proposed for The Nation Municipality and Champlain Township as reported in the July 18 editions of the Tribune-Express and Reflet-News.
Eight proposed solar projects for the Alfred-Plantagenet Township area are also affected by the provincial government’s decision. They include a municipal solar project at the township sewage treatment lagoon, three small solar setups in the Village of Curran proposed by ML Solar Projects LP, two projects of ASM Solar LP in the villages of Alfred and Plantagenet, and one in the township for Sunny Curran LP.
Also hit by contract cancellations are two biogas projects for local farm operations in near the Village of Lefaivre in Alfred-Plantagenet Township and near the Village of Casselman.