BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, in response to 'LETTER: Reader reacts to recent column about nuclear energy,' published on Feb. 13.
*************************
Despite Colin Hunt’s assertions to the contrary, we can triple our imports of low-cost Quebec water power using our existing transmission lines with Quebec.
In 2021, the average price of Hydro Quebec’s electricity exports to Ontario and the U.S. was only four cents per kWh. In contrast, we paid Ontario Power Generation (OPG) 9.6 cents/kWh for its high-cost nuclear electricity.
Mr. Hunt is correct that former premier Dalton McGuinty paid high prices for wind and solar energy. However, thanks to huge technological improvements, wind and solar are now our lowest cost sources of new electricity supply.
As a result, new wind and solar can keep our lights on at less than half the cost of OPG’s proposed new GTA nuclear reactor – without creating radioactive nuclear wastes what we don’t know what to do with.
The good news is that we can move Ontario to a zero-carbon electricity grid and lower bills by investing in energy efficiency and renewables.
Jack Gibbons
Toronto
*************************
