This article was written by Mike Brigham, the president of the renewable energy co-op, Solarshare, and was published in the Toronto Star on July 1, 2023.

I’m deeply supportive of environmental protection, but I also come at energy issues with the pragmatic attitude of a business person.

I’m currently president of a renewable energy co-operative and for many years ran a successful company.

As a member of the corporate sector, I can say without hesitation that the business case for renewable electricity — including solar and wind power — has never been stronger.

For a start, renewables are extremely cost-competitive.

The global financial services firm Lazard estimates that onshore wind power now costs about five cents and utility-scale solar about six cents per kilowatt hour. By contrast, new nuclear is about 18 cents per kilowatt hour — three times more expensive than power from the sun!

Renewables are being embraced by some of the world’s most successful economies.

Nine European nations — including Germany, Denmark and Norway — recently agreed to vastly increase the capacity of North Sea wind farms. The Guardian reported that “the nine countries aim to boost their combined North Sea offshore wind capacity to 120GW by 2030 and 300GW by 2050.”

This is a massive amount of wind power. By way of comparison, installed generation capacity from all sources in Ontario is about 38 GW.

These leading economies are certainly concerned about the climate emergency but they’re also ramping up renewables because it’s good for the bottom line.

It’s not just that the cost of wind and solar is dropping dramatically; it’s also that widespread adoption of renewables frees us from the vicissitudes of dependence on gas.

As a recent report from the International Energy Agency makes clear, questions about gas’ reliability abound: “Global gas supply is set to remain tight in 2023, and the global balance is subject to an unusually wide range of uncertainties. The risks include adverse weather factors, such as a dry summer or colder-than-usual end of the year, lower availability of LNG, and the possibility of a further decline in Russian pipeline gas deliveries to Europe. These factors could easily renew market tensions and price volatility.”

Importantly, the IEA recommends that countries cut their gas usage: “There is a continued need to reduce gas demand in a structural manner through improved energy efficiency measures, accelerated deployment of renewables and heat pumps, as well as behavioural changes.”

Unfortunately, the Ontario government seems not to have read this report. Ontario is planning to vastly expand its current gas-fired power plants and is set to build new ones. (Greenhouse gas emissions from existing gas plants alone will increase by over 300 per cent by 2030.)

This makes no sense. Why would we hitch our grid to a climate-destructive fuel that traps us in an endless cycle of price volatility determined by factors outside our control?

If Queen’s Park won’t accept common sense, we need to look to Ottawa. The federal government will soon be releasing its Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) with the goal of a net-zero grid by 2035.

These regulations have the potential to reduce GHG emissions significantly, but some experts are concerned the regulations will include a loophole that allows Ontario to run gas plants into the 2040s. That would be a disaster.

The business community should speak with one voice and urge the federal government to enact a CER that’s watertight and removes all fossil fuels from the grid over the next decade.

Such a policy would protect us from the costs, risk and volatility of international gas markets.

It would also allow us to procure more hydro, wind and solar power — much of it made right here in Ontario — which would lower energy prices and make our province a more attractive place to do business.