Ontario Liberals change rules for wind, solar projects

May 30, 2013

Ontario Liberals change rules for wind, solar projects

Municipalities to get more say over green energy projects

Ontario’s Wynne-Liberal government announced changes to its controversial green energy program, granting municipalities more say over future wind and solar projects.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli says that wind and solar developers will now have to go through a new process and will be required to work with municipalities before they can apply for approval from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).

The feed-in-tariff (FIT) program is being replaced by a competitive procurement process. Developers who successfully partner with a municipality will be given top priority for approval, while others who are unsuccessful in swaying municipalities to be willing hosts will be less likely to be granted approval.

Prior to this announcement, the FIT program allowed developers to apply directly to the OPA, with communities having little to know say into the project approval process – which has caused a rift between several municipalities and the province. While the changes will give municipalities a greater voice over industrial wind and solar projects, they won’t be granted veto power.

The province still aims to have an additional 900 megawatts worth of green energy projects installed over the next four years. Chiarelli will formally announce the new changes Thursday at a solar and energy conference in Niagara Falls, ON.

The Liberal’s green energy policy costs them seats in rural Ontario, when they were reduced to a minority government in the 2011 election.

Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.