Jim Harris

energy efficiency

Green Energy Act could create 90,000 jobs in Ontario

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By: Jordana Levine

The Green Energy Act (GEA) could employ over 90,000 Ontarians in green jobs. The government of Ontario is prepared to initiate the GEA, which focuses on the possibilities for employment if a large investment is made in green practices.  Along with increasing employment opportunities, the program could have a huge positive impact on the environment.

The main goals of the GEA are to ensure that Ontario is the country’s leading green economy, create over 50,000 green collar jobs, and generate billions of dollars worth of economic activity as quickly as possible – ideally in three years.  The plan involves phasing out the province’s coal plants by 2014 and shifting the province’s economy so that it is based on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

Building the Green Economy: Employment Effects of Green Energy Investments for Ontario is a report done by the Political Economy Research Institute, which gives recommendations and ideas regarding the GEA.  The report identifies two levels of investment that would help the GEA.  The first program is the baseline Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP), which would invest $18.6 billion over the next ten years in: conservation and demand management, hydroelectric power, on-shore wind energy, bioenergy, waste energy recycling and solar power.

However, the report also looks at an enhanced green investment program, which is referred to as the Green Energy Act Alliance (GEAA) plan.  The GEAA plan would involve spending $47.1 billion over ten years and would do everything the baseline IPSP would do, plus it would invest in off-shore wind energy and a smart grid electrical transmission system for Ontario.

Although the baseline IPSP would generate 35,000 jobs, the expanded GEAA program would create 90,000 jobs for Ontarians.  The occupations created would range from construction workers to financial auditors and engineers to research scientists.  For the most part, wages would exceed $20 per hour.

Three types of employment effects would come out of these programs: direct, indirect and induced effects.  The direct effects would be the jobs created within Ontario by the environmentally related activities, such as conservation, hydroelectricity and solar power.  The indirect effects involve jobs associated with these green industries that provide goods and services for the green investment activities, like hardware and metals.  Induced effects would be the employment that is created when the people who are paid via green investment projects spend the money they earn on other products and services within the province.

The baseline IPSP would lead to 15,500 direct jobs, 11,600 indirect, and 8,100 induced, while the expanded GEAA program would create 38,400 direct, 31,100 indirect and 20,900 induced jobs.

The IPSP would create nearly 12,000 MW of new electricity or conservation capacity; the expanded GEAA program would produce over 22,000, though.  In March 2009, the Ontario Power Authority operated with about 27,000 MW of electricity-generating capacity.  This means that the $47.1 billion investment program could either replace or expand capacity by 82 percent in the province (and the IPSP by 44 percent), leading to higher efficiency and a huge increase in renewable energy levels.

Energy Efficiency cheapest way to replace Ontario’s aging nuclear power

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ocaa-reportBy: Jordana Levine

Energy efficiency, renewable energy and co-generation alternatives provide cheaper, more secure, and less wasteful forms of electricity generation than nuclear, concludes a new report, Powerful Options: A review of Ontario’s options for replacing aging nuclear plants. Increased funding for electric utilities’ energy efficiency programs, establishing fees for natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) and making long-term electricity supply agreements with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador would all provide the power Ontario needs in the future as aging nuclear plants are phased out. The research report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) was released in May 2009.

By 2021, 47 percent of Ontario’s nuclear power will be gone because the generators will be past their service life.  That means 60.4 billion kWh of nuclear power will need to be replaced. The Government of Ontario plans to sign a contract to build two nuclear reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station east of Oshawa.  The report points out that conservation and efficiency would cost only 2.7 cents per kWh and, if the power authority was to aggressively promote efficiency — demand for electricity will fall by 28.6 billion kWh between 2008 and 2021.

The OCAA doesn’t support replacing old nuclear reactors with new ones, and recommends that, instead, the provincial government require the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to get serious about energy efficiency (EE), renewable energy (RE) and co-generation.

The construction of new nuclear generators costs more than any of the five other options that the OCAA gives for how to maintain Ontario’s power supply when the old generators die.  It costs at least 15.1 cents US per kWh (or 18 cents Canadian as of May 2009).  It also has a history of higher-than-projected costs, quickly aging equipment and unexpected errors.  Overall, nuclear power is suggested to be the least reliable option.

The replacement options that the OCAA gives are:
•    Conservation and efficiency to reduce need for electricity
•    Wind power
•    Natural gas-fired CHP (combined heat and power)
•    Renewable electricity imports from Quebec
•    Hydro-electricity imports from Labrador

In terms of wind power, Ontario’s onshore potential alone is 11 times as much as Ontario’s electricity consumption each year, meaning it could easily cover all of the lost nuclear power.  Also, even though the power is intermittent, Ontario and Quebec could join forces and share excess generation at times when winds are mild in some areas.  At the 2010 rates, Quebec could replace 40 percent of the lost power from nuclear at only 9 cents per kWh.  Labrador could also contribute 28 percent of Ontario’s lost power in 2021 for the same price.

Natural gas-fired CHP, although it can emit more greenhouse gases than nuclear power plants, has an efficiency of 80 to 90 percent versus a nuclear reactor’s efficiency of 33 percent because it uses the same molecules of gas to produce heat and electricity at the same time.  Natural gas-fired CHP could supply 100% of the lost power from nuclear for a mere six cents per kWh.

Ontario will have phased out almost all coal by January 2010, accomplishing the largest greenhouse gas reduction initiative in North America.  The phase-out is the equivalent of taking nearly seven million cars off the road.  The next step is figuring out how to replace nuclear power to make the air even cleaner.

Renewable energy creates more jobs than fossil fuels

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By: Jordana Levine.

If renewable energy production in the US was increased 20% by 2020, 185,000 new jobs would be created in renewable energy development.  Consumers would also save $10.5 billion on electricity and gas bills and farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners would have $25.6 billion added to their total income.

The Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory in Berkeley discovered that renewable energy not only creates more jobs per megawatt of power installed, but also more jobs per unit of energy produced and per dollar invested compared to the fossil fuel energy sector.

In the European Union, net employment growth in the EU is projected to increase to 950,000 with current policies, and up to 1,666,000 jobs by 2010 under the Advanced Renewable Strategy (ARS) that has been implemented.  Renewable energy would also make up 22.1% of the EU’s total energy by 2010

The Environmental Energy Study Institute has a fact sheet discussing jobs from renewable energy and energy efficiency both within the US and around the world.  It lists the improvements in energy resources, including the increase in wind, geothermal, solar and tidal energy and well as biofuels and clean-coal plants.  The fact sheet shows the immense number of jobs that these industries add to the economy.

The full fact sheet can be downloaded at the EESI website

40M US green jobs by 2030

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By: Jordana Levine

In 2006, there were 8.5 million Americans working in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RE & EE) industries. By 2030, the country could potentially have up to 40 million green collar jobs.  That’s one in four Americans bringing in a total of $4.5 trillion in revenue for the US instead of the $970 billion in 2006.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century, released by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), discusses the importance of making RE&EE jobs available.  The report describes different types of jobs in the industry and the plethora of positions that could be available in the next couple of decades.

Roger Bezdek, the principal investigator of the study, stresses the importance of investing in RE&EE industries before other countries take the lead and reap economic and environmental benefits before the US gets the chance.  If little action is taken, there will be almost no increase in jobs and revenue, but if the US “pushes the envelope,” it could lead to a 30% increase in the amount of RE available and EE products b 2030.

The predictions include both direct and indirect jobs.  Direct jobs involve people working for a solar company, say building solar panels. An indirect job would involve someone working for a company that sells silicon to the solar company.

The report also examines job levels in:

* Federal, state, local, non-governmental  organizations and foundations.

* Manufacturers of energy efficiency (EE) products.

* Renewable Energy (RE) technologies include hydroelectricity, biomass, geothermal, wind, photovoltaic and solar thermal energy.  In 2006, renewable energy made up only 6% of US energy.

The report uses Ohio as a case study.  Over 10 years, overall US employment has increased more than five times as fast as Ohio’s.  However, a significant boost in RE&EE employment could increase the state’s number of jobs by over 1.7 million and revenues by over $220 billion.

All jobs in a renewable energy company, may not seem ‘green’ — for instance the majority of jobs created by the RE&EE industry are ‘standard’ jobs, such as accountants, clerks, secretaries, cashiers, factory workers and truck drivers.  In fact, the report explains that there are many more ‘standard’ jobs that will be created compared to ones you would naturally think are ‘green’ such as those for biochemists, environmental engineers, conservation workers and other environmentally specialized positions. ‘Standard’ jobs created in green industries are counted as ‘green’ jobs in the report.

$150B/yr Investment in Building Efficiency gives 2X long-term return of stocks

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A $150 billion a year can be invested in energy efficiency retrofits of buildings in six major markets with returns substantially better than the stock market and real estate investing.

 

In 2008 buildings account for 40% of the world’s energy use — resulting carbon emissions substantially greater than those from the transportation sector.

 

Aggressive reductions in energy use in buildings in order to reduce the planet’s energy-related carbon footprint by 77% (or 48 Gigatons) by 2050 to stabilize CO2 levels as called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

 

At $US60 per barrel oil, $150 billion a year can be invested building energy efficiency in the six markets which will reduce energy use and carbon footprints by 40% with five year discounted paybacks. That’s a 20% internal rate of return (IRR) – better than the long-term historical stock market returns (10% IRR) and better than real estate investment (16% IRR).

 

A further US$ 150 billion a year can be invested with paybacks between five and 10 years (10% to 20% IRR) will further reduce energy use and carbon emissions by 12% and bring the total reduction to slightly more than half.

 

Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Transforming the Market released May 2009 developed by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and published by Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) focused on six markets that produce more than half of the world’s GDP and generate almost two-thirds of global primary energy: Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan and the US.