Ontario's Innumerate Environmental Commissioner's Latest Misguided Post

From the innumerate Mr. Miller's latest musings on the wonders of things that spin and shine:

Raising the Bar on Renewable Energy in Ontario - ECO Blog:

" If the government chooses the latter path, it won’t be embarking alone. Germany, which decided last year to entirely phase out it’s nuclear generating capacity, is forecasting a greater than 60 per cent share for non-hydro renewables by 2030 and Denmark intends to supply 100 per cent of its entire energy supply (electricity, heating, industry and transport) by renewable sources by 2050. While Ontario has yet to set such lofty goals, there may be a window of opportunity open next year when the government reviews whether a higher target for renewable electricity supply is warranted."

From the National Inventory Report filed in 2009 for Germany "...in the public electricity and heat production sector CO2 emissions have been growing again slightly since 1999."  Their emissions fell with the 2009 recession but returned to trend - increasing - after that.
Readers of this blog will know there are multiple indications Germany will abandon it's coals as it fails to control costs.



From the most recent (NIR) from Denmark:

The fuel consumption in electricity and heat production was 10 % higher in 2009 than in 1990''...Coal is the main fuel in the source category ... The coal consumption in 2009 was 31 % lower than in 1990.


Interestingly, the replacement of coal in Denmark, while coming largely from natural gas, includes contributions from wood, straw, and particularly municipal wastes.
Try those solutions on the GTA's NIMBY's.

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Ontario's emissions intensity, from electricity generation, is about a quarter of that in the countries Mr. Miller would model his emissions reduction strategies on.  After escalating in the later half of the 1990's, as nuclear units were taken offline in a period of excess supply, emissions from the generation of electricity in Ontario have dropped well below 1990 levels after nuclear units were brought online between 2002 and 2005 and demand declined starting in 2005.