Doug Ford shifts direction on wind power in Ontario

One of Doug Ford's first acts as premier of Ontario, just days after taking office in 2018, was cancelling more than 750 renewable energy projects, including a large wind farm that was already partially built. 

Fast forward to today, and Ford's Progressive Conservative government is poised to oversee the biggest expansion of green energy that the province has seen in nearly a decade. 

Ontario has laid out plans to procure an additional 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2034. By comparison: the capacity of all wind power projects currently installed across the province totals about 4,900 megawatts. 

The move makes for one of the most dramatic policy shifts from a government that has had its fair share of U-turns. 

The expansion is driven by the anticipated rise in demand for electricity in Ontario — as well as the demand from many companies that the electricity supply be as emissions-free as possible — along with falling costs of producing wind and solar energy.

But the plan is almost certain to face some opposition, particularly when it comes to wind power.

The government has promised to greenlight projects only with approval from local councils, and more than 150 municipalities have passed resolutions saying no to wind farms.

CBC News requested an interview with Stephen Lecce, recently appointed by Ford to be Ontario's minister of energy and electrification, but he was unavailable.

Keith Brooks, program director with the advocacy group Environmental Defence, says the Ford government's apparent change of heart on renewable energy is good news.  

"The fact that the government has now had this about-face on wind power and solar power speaks to how amazing this technology is, how fast it's growing in other parts of the world, how much the costs have come down," Brooks said in an interview. 

"Around the world — in China, in Minnesota, in California, in the Netherlands — renewable power is experiencing a great boom. For Ontario to be sitting on the sidelines would be a real shame." 

The first step in Ontario's green energy expansion plan is to take place this year, with a call for proposals for 2,000 megawatts of power, roughly equivalent to the output from Ontario's proposed refurbishment of the Pickering nuclear plant.

The current timeline calls for that first phase of projects to come on stream by 2030, with another 1,500 megawatts to follow by 2032 and a further 1,500 megawatts by 2034.

While the province is not specifying in advance any breakdown of how much of this power will come from wind versus other forms of renewable energy such as solar or biomass, industry officials say they expect wind to account for the bulk of it.