Aaron Hansen of Stratford, P.E.I., has been watching what is happening with a new change proposed for solar customers in Nova Scotia.
Hansen installed a 15 kilowatt rooftop solar system a little more than a year ago.
His $315 monthly electricity bill has been replaced by a $242 payment for his solar panels.
But he said he has no regrets. He said he’ll see the real benefits when the panels are paid off in 10 years, as long as the deal with Maritime Electric doesn’t change.
“I hope it does not happen here,” said Hansen.
“With governments pushing toward net-zero they should not be putting up any barriers whatsoever to [disincentivize] people to put up solar.”
Maritime Electric said it may propose a new rate structure for solar customers in the future. (CBC)
Nova Scotia Power had applied for a new “system access charge” of $8 per kilowatt monthly on net-metered installations.
That would mean a customer with a 10-kilowatt solar system, which generates about $1,800 of electricity a year, would have to pay Nova Scotia Power back $960.
On Wednesday, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said his government would pass laws to prevent the Nova Scotia utility from putting the new charge in place, prompting the company to announce it would withdraw the proposed charge from its current rate application.
We don’t have any immediate plans to make any changes.— Kim Griffin, Maritime Electric
P.E.I. Energy Minister Steven Myers said he has not been given any indication Maritime Electric is looking for a similar rate change, but he said if they put one forward he will block it.
More than 2,000 roof-top solar systems have been approved on the Island, with about half of them already up and running.
“We were encouraging people to do it and we want to continue to encourage people to do it but I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me since this Nova Scotia situation has started, worrying that it’s going to happen here,” said Myers.
“We would probably do the same as the government of Nova Scotia did, where we would move to block it. In good faith we told people this is the deal when they put roof-top solar on, that we had a net-metering program. Anybody who has it, we will stand by that commitment.”
No immediate plans for change
Kim Griffin, a spokesperson with Maritime Electric, said she doesn’t have a lot of details about the Nova Scotia Power proposal but at this point the P.E.I.-based, privately-owned utility is not considering changes for its solar customers.
Griffin said what is not known is how many more Islanders will sign up for solar.
Aaron Hansen’s $315 monthly electricity bill has been replaced by a $242 payment for his solar panels. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)
“You know if we’re in a situation where more and more people are doing it, that’s certainly the opportunity to not only need to consult with our customers but also to look at infrastructure changes that we’d need to make across the Island to support that,” said Griffin.
“Is it something that we look at? Is it something that is a consideration? It is. But there is also a lot of other things that are a consideration and we wouldn’t be a good utility if we weren’t looking at that. But we don’t have any immediate plans to make any changes.”
In a pending application for a general rate increase with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission, Maritime Electric argued increased uptake in solar will lead to higher rates for everyone, because it says net metering customers don’t pay for all of the fixed costs associated with providing their service.
The utility said it may propose a new rate structure for solar customers in the future.
“The company will continue to monitor the number of solar installations added to the system each year and will consider the resulting implications in future rate design applications,” Maritime Electric said in its application.
Myers said the province wants to continue to expand its green energy initiatives, and is already looking at home storage of energy, microgrids and smart meters. He said the province is prepared to make its own investment in smart meters to “help alleviate some of the situations that arise with people producing their own renewable energy.”
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.
