Ontario Ignoring Two Darlingtons-worth of Environmentally-Friendly Energy

Combined heat and power (CHP), also known as co-generation, refers to installing specialized turbines to capture and ‘recycle’ the waste heat produced by industrial or commercial operations to produce electricity. Many of Ontario’s large and medium-sized industries are candidates for co-generation, which would allow them to use a waste (heat) to avoid purchasing huge amounts of electricity, and potentially sell electricity into the grid, while cleaning up the air and reducing fossil fuel pollution that causes global warming.

WWF-Canada called on the Ontario government to more aggressively pursue combined heat and power plants at facilities such as paper or steel mills, chemical and petroleum refineries, smelters, food processing plants, pipeline compressor stations, cement kilns and car manufacturing plants, as an alternative to coal and nuclear plants.

“Big industries use huge amounts of energy and often produce huge amounts of waste heat which they could be using to generate electricity,” said Keith Stewart, manager of WWF-Canada’s climate change campaign. “Recycling waste energy will help their bottom lines while helping to clean up our air and protect the climate.”

Approximately 2,000 MW of electricity is already produced at CHP facilities in Ontario (out of a total generating capacity of 30,000 MW). A government-commissioned report found that the technical potential for this kind of ‘recycled’ power is over 16,000 MW, and industry experts estimate that at least 9,000 MW are cost effective now. Yet the government’s 20-year electricity plan, released on June 13 2006, limits CHP development between now and 2025 to 1,000 MW.

To capture this potential, WWF-Canada called on the Ontario government to:

Ø Eliminate the 1,000 MW limit on combined heat and power projects, and instead pursue all cost-effective projects.
Ø Pay a fair price for electricity from CHP, including recognition of its environmental benefits and reduced transmission costs. .
Ø Remove policy barriers to CHP such as costly grid connection charges and staffing requirements.

“Instead of investing tens of billions in nuclear plants and pumping out millions more tonnes of pollutants from dirty coal plants, the McGuinty government should pursue the cleaner, faster and cheaper options, including getting ‘double-duty’ electricity from energy already being used at existing industries,” said Stewart.

Combined heat and power, along with dramatically cutting energy waste and investing in green power sources such as wind and water power, is the quickest, cheapest and most reliable way to end Ontario’s dependence on dirty coal and dangerous, debt-plagued nuclear plants. Details regarding CHP’s potential were laid out in a report released last month by the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada, Ontario Clean Air Alliance, Pembina Institute, Sierra Club of Canada and WWF-Canada.