Ontario’s wind efforts worth billion in investments and jobs: CanWEA
by Canadian Manufacturing Daily Staff
Applications have been made for an additional 6,672 MW of wind energy development in Ontario.
OTTAWA—Ontario’s 2,125 mega-watts of signed contracts for wind energy developments represent a multi billion-dollar economic opportunity for the province and a chance to create thousands of jobs, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA).
The study suggests that meeting the wind energy targets identified under the province’s Long Term Energy Plan (LTEP) would result in billions of dollars of private sector investment in the province. Investments would also create more than 80,000 person-years of employment between 2011 and 2018.
“There is no question the Green Energy Act and its Feed-in-Tariff program has made Ontario a leading destination for wind energy investment in North America and around the world,” says Robert Hornung, president of CanWEA.
CanWEA says each 100 mega-watts of wind energy development represents a minimum of 100 jobs, $2.5 million in private investment, and $300,000 in revenue to municipal governments in the form of taxes and an equal amount to rural landowners in the form of lease payments.
Each 100 MW of wind energy also provides Ontarians with electricity to power about 3,000 homes.
