Newly announced NDP energy plan could be profitable
A new report illustrates just how promising Alberta’s future is in renewable energy.
The renewable energy program initially launched in 2015 and pioneered by Rachel Notley’s first NDP government has generated an estimated $160 million in revenue for Albertans, according to a study released by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.
“The idea at the time was to help us market mechanisms to attract more renewables onto the grid,” said Kathleen Ganley, Renewable Energy Critic for the Alberta NDP. At the time, I think there were some people who were skeptical of whether renewables could compete in Alberta’s market. And this was kind of a program designed to prove that that was the case.”
“I think it was wildly successful in two respects, the first being that it attracted, you know, some of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen on renewable powers, and it proved that they could be competitive in Alberta’s market,” said Ganley. “And the result of that has been that Alberta has become a renewable leader in the country attracting huge amounts of private investment.”
We’re now in a situation where the government is making significant revenue off of this, said Ganley, with the University of Calgary paper’s numbers being what Ganley calls a “conservative estimate.”
“It speaks to the overall success of the program. Although I think what speaks even more to the success of a program is just how much renewable energy we’ve gotten. In Alberta, it sort of wildly exceeded the assumptions that even AESO made,” said Ganley.
The program was shut down by the UCP provincial government in 2019, but Ganley believes that by then, the project had run its course, and paved the way hopefully for similar projects in the future for newer and different technology.
“I think at this point, I would say something similar, would probably be a good idea in the future, but probably something aimed at attracting a new sort of non-emitting dispatchable power. So things like storage or potentially, you know, other forms of other forms of renewables,” said Ganley.
There has been significant skepticism from Albertans about the viability of renewable energy, but Ganley hopes that this newest report will help to illustrate how Alberta can continue to be a leader in the energy sector for the country, as well as how renewable energy can become and remain competitive to hopefully attract even more industry.
“I think the first thing to note is that, you know, this is really a good news story for Alberta. Absolutely, it’s brought on a ton of renewable power, it resulted in a lot of investment. And I think that we can model new programs in the future off of this program,” said Ganley. “There are still some changes that need to occur, with respect to our electricity grid. We need certain types of power at certain times, in order to kind of balance things out. I think a lot of people are struggling right now with high energy prices. And I think, you know, a program like this can be used to sort of extract things like storage, or geothermal or other sorts of power, you know, that could potentially continue to transform our grid.”
There is also an opportunity for the province to use these windfalls, said Ganley, at a time where many living expenses are high for Albertans. Energy prices are a piece of that, she explained, and there is a chance for the government to help offset these prices using the money generated.
“I think a lot of that is very important. I think it’s demonstrated that this is, you know, that renewable power is economic going forward,” said Ganley. “So I think all of that is great news for Alberta. It’s great news, in terms of attracting investment. And it’s great news, you know, for the future of our province.”