Samsung, Ontario Sign $3 Billion Wind, Solar Deal

Thank you Retpower for clearing up the price increases confusion for me for the next five years but- I was just reading on a government of Ontario site and did you know that the price of electricity has gone up for the consumer 50% already since 2003 ?
Any way you mentioned on-going fixed charges and that got me going again. I`m sorry, but I`m going off topic a bit here but I think it still fits.
Delivery charges are not right and need to be eliminated as well - it`s not like they come to your house to deliver a pizza. If they don`t want the people`s business they sure are going about it the right way.
If they are making money they should be charging for the initial hook up to their service and that`s all. Any other reputable business would not do what they do.
What if all companies charged for delivery of an electronic service? Like cable tv - Do you think anyone would buy it?

It would be better for people to be able to hook up their own solar system and be compensated with some real government incentives (not only for the rich)and also to be able to sell their extra electricity back to the grid without having to go through so much red tape to get hooked up in this manner - and if I did hook up to sell my extra power would this mean I could charge them for delivery as well? NO.

It`s their business - take it out of their profits and quit soaking the consumers.If it`s a business start acting like one.

I agree with Nesha-Karad, The premier has steped on too many toes in Ontario to be deserving of any acolades wrt his contracts to foreign countries. Samsung is only the tip of the iceberg.
Does the premier not believe in the education system that is second to non in Ontario when many foreign students line up to go to universities and colleges here. We built the Candu nuclear program from scratch, and then we gave this technology to Korea. We built the Avro-Arrow, and gave that away. We have the ability to build a renewable program in Ontario, but first we must get rid of McGuinty because the people of Ontario have to take a back seat and will only get the low end of the jobs. How many jobs does this create for the Samsung owners over here?
Wind turbines have an annual capacity factor of about 25% and are virtually zero capacity in the summer in Ontario when there is the highest airconditioning load. Each wind turbine needs fossil fuelled back up. It will take about 10,000 wind turbines covering all of southern Ontario to replace the 6300MW of coal. Imagine that!

I believe Markoshoo11 is confused with the 80 cents/kWh as the price you'll be paying for electricity. The 80 cents/kWh is the incentive rate for roof mounted solar PV projects under 10 kW size (microFIT). Too many people are confusing this with what the ratepayers will have to pay for their electricity and that's simply not the case.

Yes, the provincial government has stated the Ontario hydro ratepayers could see an increase of up to 50% over the next 5 years for the cost of electricity. Renewable energy will not be the bulk of that increase as some people would like to believe. Ontario's electrical grid is over 100 years old and upgrading the system is inevitable. Increasing demand for electricity and rising costs to maintain this system is the main contributing factor for the predicted increase. The actual contribution from renewable energy would be a very negligible portion to that increase.

So let's put these figures into comparative dollars and cents (or sense)....If you currently pay $100/month for your electricity, a 50% increase means you could be paying as much as $150/month in five years for the same usage. Now if we say that $100 was the cost for electricity alone and not including the additional ongoing fixed charges, it would be an increase from 6 cents/kWh to 9 cents/kWh.

Ontarians are the largest users of electricity in the world, per capita. We currently pay one of the lowest rates in the world for our electricity than most other countries. When you combine aging infrastructure with low rates and high demand, something is eventually going to give. Renewable energy is simply a cleaner alternative to satisfy that demand. New jobs are created to replace a declining industry (coal fired generation) Corporate and private public investment is putting up the majority of the cost for these renewable energy systems in Ontario...not the government or the ratepayers.

This contract was signed quite a while ago and I think there`s something fishy with this contract.
One thing not present in this post is the amount that the residents of Ontario will be charged for their electricity in the coming future.
The government has said we will be charged 80 cents per Kwh.
Considering we paid 4-6 per Kwh cents prior to this contract - it looks like a lot of people won`t be having any fun anymore - they`ll be busy working overtime trying to pay this ridiculous increase in rates.
Shut off the air conditioners and the TV it`s time to pay the bills.
Why Samsung ? I bet the premier of Ontario has a lucrative contract waiting for him there.

I would like to see why one of the leading Ontario solar companies, ARISE Technologies (TSX:APV), with manufacturing and R&D divisons and headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, is not awarded a single MW for solar installations. The contract could generate hundreds of new jobs for Ontarians at ARISE in all three divisions: Photovoltaic (PV) Cell, PV Silicon and PV Systems.

Great to hear Samsung plans to build massive wind /solar installations in Ontario. South Korea has plans to go in for offshore Wind farms in a big way.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP),India
Wind Energy Expert
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com