Ontario’s electricity system is searching for more power producers as demand rises and a major nuclear plant nears retirement, a process likely to secure more natural gas generation while the government seeks to end reliance on it.
It means that for at least the next two decades, greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector are set to increase.
But the electricity system operator says Ontario is already using hydro to its max, while solar and wind power rely on the weather, and natural gas generation can provide the reliability and flexibility needed to support green initiatives and an ensuing increase in electricity demand, such as from electric vehicles and electric arc furnaces in steelmaking.
By about 2038, the Independent Electricity System Operator projects the net greenhouse gas emission reductions from electric vehicles will offset electricity sector emissions.
While the IESO has acknowledged that more gas generation will be needed in the near term, Energy Minister Todd Smith has asked itto explore a moratorium on new gas plants.
“We want to get to net zero in the electricity grid,” Smith said in an interview.
But he noted that an IESO report last year examining whether natural gas generation could be phased out by 2030 found that it would lead to rotating blackouts and higher electricity bills.
“We have to ensure that we have a reliable system and one that’s affordable, and if we have an affordable electricity system, then we’re going to see electrification happen in other areas to reduce emissions,” he said.
Interim NDP leader Peter Tabuns, also the party’s energy critic, said it’s hard to reconcile the pursuit of more gas generation at the same time as exploring a moratorium.
“They’re stepping on the gas and hitting the brake at the same time,” he said.
“I would say that their interest in getting more proposals for gas plants is probably far more an indicator of where they’re going than any words about ‘Tell us what we can do about reducing gas burning in the future.'”
Rupp Carriveau, director of the Environmental Energy Institute at the University of Windsor, said Ontario should wean itself off natural gas generation, but it’s very difficult to do.
“It’s incredibly reliable, it’s quite efficient, and it until recently had been quite cost-effective,” he said.
“But to me it’s a little bit disappointing that there isn’t more of a focus on pushing more renewables even though they are apples and oranges, for sure.”
Renewable energy in Ontario comes with a fair amount of political baggage. Electricity prices became a major source of anger ahead of the 2018 election that saw the Liberals reduced from a majority government to losing official party status.
Bills had roughly doubled over the course of a decade due in part to the Liberals’ green energy initiatives, which saw consumers pay above-market rates to power producers who had long-term contracts.
The Progressive Conservatives cancelled 750 of those contracts during their first term, saying the province didn’t need the power and the contracts were driving up costs for ratepayers.
Tabuns said those cancellations have made the supply situation worse.
“There’s just no two ways about it,” he said.
The energy minister said while Ontario is looking at a supply gap “for a short period of time until we get those nuclear reactors back on the grid,” cancelling the green energy contracts was the right thing to do
“Those projects were going to continue to make the system unreliable and expensive,” Smith said.
“They weren’t going to fill the reliable affordable electricity gap that we’re experiencing. We’ve seen that unfortunately, with renewables, they’re not able to fill the gap on a reliable basis. So we would continue to have to back up with other forms of generation to balance the need.”
The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station – which accounted for 14 per cent of electricity generation last year – is set to start a phased shutdown in 2024.
Other nuclear units are undergoing refurbishment this decade, with several out of service at a time in overlapping schedules. The IESO says it’s confident it can fill the nuclear gap with the procurement it’s undertaking.
But even as those units come back online, the IESO projects a growing supply gap of electricity, as broader electrification takes off, particularly in the transportation sector.
Demand from growth in electric vehicles and electrifying public transportation is expected to rise much more quickly starting in about 2035. Around then, the projected gap between needed and available electricity is expected to hit 5,000 megawatts – enough to power five million homes – during the summer, even if all current power producers renew their contracts.
A spokesperson for the IESO said the current procurement process will address Ontario’s resource needs into the next decade, and the operator is looking at adding more in order to keep the grid reliable over the long term.
It is looking to include more non-emitting resources to the generation portfolio, including small modular nuclear reactors and storage capacity, as well as new energy efficiency programs.
Smith asked the IESO to provide recommendations this month on new conservation initiatives. It is also set to report back to him in November on the potential gas moratorium as well as a plan to get to zero emissions in the electricity sector.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 17, 2022.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
