Economy let us delay nuclear plan, says premier

subscribe

The worldwide recession has made it easier for Ontario to shelve plans for costly new nuclear reactors, admits Premier Dalton McGuinty.

McGuinty, whose government announced it was putting off a $20 billion expansion of the Darlington nuclear station, said "we have more breathing space than we originally thought" before new energy generation capacity is needed.

"The estimates that our best experts gave us three and four years ago are pretty different from those that we're getting right now," the premier told reporters at Georgian College.

"We didn't factor in the single greatest global economic recession in the past 80 years," he said.

That has led to more and more manufacturers and mills in the province shutting down and shaving demand for electricity.

"We've had a massive slowdown in economic growth. I think every year for the last four years we've required less and less electricity – not more, less," said McGuinty.

"Now that will turn around, there will be an increase in demand. We cannot meet all of that through renewables (like hydro, wind, and solar power) and aggressive conservation programs.

"There will be a need for more electricity."

McGuinty said federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is "the front-runner but definitely not the clear-cut winner based on the price" if and when any new nuclear reactors are eventually built.

The premier said his staff has been in touch with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office in hopes that Ottawa, which is trying to sell AECL's reactor business, will help Ontario pay for new atomic needs.

Related News

map of europe

Europe Is Losing Nuclear Power Just When It Really Needs Energy

PARIS - As the Fukushima disaster unfolded in Japan in 2011, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a dramatic decision that delighted her country’s anti-nuclear movement: all reactors would be ditched.

What couldn’t have been predicted was that Europe would find itself mired in one of the worst energy crises in its history. A decade later, the continent’s biggest economy has shut down almost all its capacity already. The rest will be switched off at the end of 2022 — at the worst possible time.

Wholesale power prices are more than four times what they were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Governments are having to take emergency action to support domestic and industrial consumers faced…

READ MORE
hay river power office

N.W.T. green energy advocate urges using more electricity for heat

READ MORE

offshore windpower

Covid-19 crisis hits solar and wind energy industry

READ MORE

canadian protest

How Canada can capitalize on U.S. auto sector's abrupt pivot to electric vehicles

READ MORE

world-bank-backs-india-low-carbon-transition

World Bank Backs India's Low-Carbon Transition with $1.5 Billion

READ MORE