Until there are enough charging sites that drivers feel no constraints on travel, electric vehicle purchase will be a hard sell. And until there are enough electric vehicles to create demand for those charging stations, there isn’t an urgent push to install them.

When Western Canada’s premiers met last month, federal clean energy regulations were one of the topics discussed. A June 27 summary of the conference noted that premiers “expressed concern that the federal Clean Electricity Regulations are unattainable and unaffordable for some jurisdictions given current technologies and timelines.”

When it comes to electric vehicles in rural Canada, they have a point.

For rural Canadians as a whole to be convinced to buy electric, I suspect the inconvenience of finding a charging site will have to equate with the current level of hassle in finding a gas station.

If that’s the line, we’re nowhere close.

A directory of public charging stations run by the website ChargeHub shows 68 locations within the City of Winnipeg and 37 in the City of Brandon. The rest of the province, together, has 13, five of which are in Headingley, barely outside the perimeter.

That isn’t a robust network, especially when most aspects of rural life require driving.

If the federal government wants vehicles out here to ditch gas, a veritable explosion of infrastructure investment is needed. No wonder the provinces are nervous about who would foot that bill.

To compare another technology, consider cell phones. Almost everyone has one, and they’ve been in common use for the last 20 years. Although most residents need service and decades have elapsed in which to build the necessary infrastructure, there are still wide swaths of rural Canada with little to no coverage.

After all, providing a high level of service to a sparse population is a hard financial case to make.

As vehicle electrification moves forward, we need to guard against similar service gaps.

None of that considers the indirect issues of a widespread switch to electric.

There is the question of the power grid. Manitoba may have an advantage there. Our ready access to hydro is frequently cited by companies who set up shop in this province. Manitoba Hydro’s own info page on electric vehicles boasts low rates and locally produced power.

At the same time, though, the Crown corporation recommends charging vehicles between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to help free up electrical supply during the day.

Fire is another indirect consideration. Electric vehicle fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish.

As the electric vehicle wave approaches, fire departments are adding new procedures, training and equipment geared specifically for that kind of threat. But in rural Canada, many fire departments rely on volunteers and may not have the resources of larger, urban departments.

If everyone’s going electric, local first responders must also be given the tools needed to properly serve their communities.

Yet another consideration brings us back to infrastructure.

Electric vehicles are fun to drive, or so says everyone I’ve met who has tried one. They have torque in spades.

They’re also a lot heavier, as much as 33 per cent heavier for new electric SUVs and trucks, according to an April report from Global News.

That has obvious implications in terms of accident severity, but that much extra mass will also weigh heavily on road infrastructure.

Aside from the added burden of electric passenger vehicles, electric semis are being introduced by companies like Tesla and Freightliner. But road maintenance is already a perennial struggle in a climate that freezes, thaws and floods with regularity.

READ MORE: BEV Sierra to debut in 2024

Every spring, trucks need to navigate around weight restrictions. What kind of adjustments will be needed if suddenly the traffic is so much heavier? How much extra maintenance will it mean for the province in the long run?

I’m not trying to be a naysayer. Innovation should be encouraged and sustainability solutions sought. But when it comes to rural Canada and electric vehicles, there are very real logistical questions that must be answered.

The post Editor’s Take: The rural problem with EVs appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Five crushing plants in the northern city of Tianjin closed this week, said Tianfeng Futures in a note on Friday, including a facility owned by top trading house Louis Dreyfus Co. (LDC).

The LDC facility in Tianjin has a daily crushing capacity of 4,000 tonnes. It has been closed since Sept. 22, the company told Reuters.

Global crops trader and processor Bunge, which has a crushing facility in Tianjin, “responded to the government mandate but total production is not materially different from what we expected,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Around five plants in the eastern province of Jiangsu have also closed, said a soymeal buyer with a major feed company.

At least 20 plants nationwide are affected, said a Singapore-based trader at an international firm with soybean processing factories across China.

Cash soymeal prices in Tianjin are up by about 100 yuan a tonne, to 3,920 yuan (C$767), in the last two days as worries grow over short-term supply ahead of the week-long National Day holidays beginning Oct. 1.

“Cash is on fire,” said the soymeal purchaser.

“Those shutdowns impact our plans. This is normally the time when feed mills need to build stocks ahead of the holidays,” he added.

China is the world’s top soybean consumer, crushing the beans to make soymeal to feed livestock and oil for cooking.

China’s provincial authorities have stepped up enforcement of emissions curbs in recent weeks, leading to strict limits on power loads that have hampered production across a swathe of industrial consumers.

Soybean imports by top buyer China have, however, been weaker than normal amid soaring global prices, leaving little risk of excess stocks building up at ports or crushers.

But rising meal prices will pressure hog farmers, already incurring heavy losses because of weak hog prices and rising feed costs, said Darin Friedrichs, senior Asia commodity analyst at StoneX.

LDC declined to comment further on the impact. It is not known how long the curbs on power consumption will continue.

— Reporting for Reuters by Dominique Patton in Beijing; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

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Manitoba has become a “very difficult place to sell and install solar,” Daniel Lacovetsky said during Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association’s (ManSEA) virtual conference on March 23.

Lacovetsky and business partner Jacob Kettner own Powertec Electric, a Winnipeg-based electrical company specializing in renewable energy sources.

Based on data from Energyhub.org, Manitoba ranks third among the provinces for best natural capacities for solar production — particularly in the southwest and south-central regions which score near the top of the site’s scale for potential solar energy generation.

“When you look at solar over its lifetime of 30 years, it produces some of the cheapest kilowatt hours you can get. Cheaper than hydro, cheaper than nuclear, cheaper than basically any source out there,” said Lacovetsky.

However, it seems Manitoba is no longer very friendly to solar installation.

Manitoba saw a boom in solar energy projects between 2016 and 2018 as Manitoba Hydro rolled out a rebate program that would pay one dollar per watt out of the cost of installation, up to 200 kilowatts.

By the end of 2016, Manitoba Hydro received 110 applications for the program, the Crown corporation reported.

“That was a very generous program. Pretty much the most generous program in the country,” said Lacovetsky.

It was probably too generous, he said, as it attracted contractors to the province seeking to capitalize on demand. When the program ended, some companies vanished and left customers without support, Lacovetsky said.

Though Manitoba still has some incentives for energy efficiency, Powertec installs most of its solar panels in Saskatchewan and Ontario.

This year Energyhub.org rated Manitoba as ninth among the provinces and territories on the relative feasibility of installing a solar power system. Lacovetsky argued the province should rank lower, below Saskatchewan (ranked 12) and Nunavut (ranked 10).

Saskatchewan buys back excess solar power for more than double the price Manitoba does, he said. Solar power there offsets natural gas power, while in Nunavut it offsets diesel-powered generation.

Manitoba ranks at the bottom of the list based on utility costs and connection policies, according to Energyhub.org. The site says Manitoba Hydro will pay just under three cents per kilowatt hour for excess solar power fed back into the grid.

This low buyback rate is the real struggle, said Lacovetsky.

Some provinces have a ‘net metering’ policy, which exchanges credits for any excess power the solar system generates, says Energyhub.org. It’s common to produce extra energy in the daytime or summer. A net metering policy credits the user for the excess, then uses the credits when the solar system can’t produce enough energy for the homeowner’s needs.

Lacovetsky said Manitoba would benefit from a policy like this.

Lower electricity prices in Manitoba also mean lower saving potential for switching to solar, the site says.

A solar installation in Manitoba can take 19 to 25 years to pay for itself, Lacovetsky said.

On the plus side, Manitoba Hydro has good financing options for solar, said Lacovetsky. He also held out hope that the province would instate a new solar incentive program soon.

Crown corporation Efficiency Manitoba has promised a permanent solar energy incentive program by 2022 or 2023, according to its three-year plan.

The post Manitoba a difficult place to sell solar power appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The consumption of oil for transportation is one of the top contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, and fertilizer producers join a growing list of companies adjusting their business models to profit from a future lower-carbon economy.

By altering the production process for ammonia normally used for fertilizer, the companies told Reuters they can produce hydrogen for fuel or a form of carbon-free ammonia used either as a carrier for hydrogen or as a marine fuel to power cargo and even cruise ships.

The shift may improve their standing with environment-minded investors as fertilizer emissions attract greater government scrutiny in North America and Europe.

But the green fuels are not yet commercial and will require significant investment to turn a profit — a reality that has the world’s largest fertilizer producer, Canada’s Nutrien, staying out of the space for now. Oslo-based Yara is seeking government subsidies to proceed.

Still, renewable ammonia represents a six billion-euro (C$9.2 billion) opportunity for fertilizer producers by 2030, according to Citibank, based on 20 million tonnes of annual sales globally for clean power and shipping fuel compared with virtually none now. Global ammonia sales currently amount to 180 million tonnes.

“We absolutely could be known more for being a clean energy company than an ag supplier,” CF CEO Tony Will said in an interview, speaking of long-term prospects for the Illinois-based company.

‘Everybody is looking for solutions’

Fertilizer plants separate hydrogen from natural gas and combine it with nitrogen taken from the air to make ammonia, which farmers inject into soil to maximize crop growth.

Production generates carbon emissions that CF says it can avoid by extracting hydrogen instead from water charged with electricity. It can then combine that hydrogen with nitrogen to make green ammonia, which the marine industry is testing as fuel.

CF is in discussions about selling green ammonia to a Japanese power consortium including Mitsubishi Corp., but buyers will break most of it down to pure hydrogen for use in transportation sectors.

“This is a market that easily can exceed what the total ammonia (fertilizer) market is,” Will said. “We’re going to grow into that over the next 20-25 years.”

Adopting green ammonia or green hydrogen to replace crude oil-based fuel would help the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meet a target to reduce emissions, and is suited to both short- and long-haul vessels.

Methanol and liquefied natural gas (LNG) are other clean alternatives.

“Everybody is looking for solutions and I think the jury is still out,” said Tore Longva, alternative fuels expert at Oslo-based maritime advisor DNV GL. “Of all the fuels, (green ammonia) is probably the one that we are slightly more optimistic on, but it’s by no means a given.”

Ammonia remains toxic and corrosive, requiring special handling on ships, Longva said.

Furthermore, combusting ammonia may produce nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, that ships would need to neutralize to prevent emissions, said Faig Abbasov, shipping director for European Federation for Transport and Environment, an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations. Fuel cells are another potential marine use for ammonia and hydrogen.

Still, Abbasov sees ammonia and hydrogen as the greenest and most practical shipping fuel alternatives, and cheaper than methanol.

Development of ammonia and hydrogen for shipping fuel holds decarbonization potential but is at the pilot stage for small vessels, while LNG and methanol are in use on ocean-going ships, an IMO spokeswoman said.

South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering , one of the world’s biggest shipbuilders, plans to commercialize super-large container ships powered by ammonia by 2025, a spokesman said.

The plans

CF is reconfiguring its Donaldsonville, Louisiana, plant to produce green ammonia. It plans to spend US$100 million initially to enable the plant to produce by 2023, about 18,000 tonnes. By 2026, production across its network could reach 450,000 tonnes, and 900,000 tonnes by 2028, Will said.

The hydrogen it will sell may have nearly 10 times the margin of ammonia fertilizer, according to CF, making the 75-year-old farm company’s newest product its most profitable.

Yara is developing a green ammonia project with power company Orsted in the Netherlands and also has green projects running in Australia and Norway.

Unlike CF, Yara is seeking government subsidies because green ammonia costs could be two to four times higher than conventional production, said Terje Knutsen, Yara’s head of farming solutions.

“The technology behind this is not mature enough today,” he said.

Yara, which aims to cut all CO2 emissions from its 500,000 tonnes-a-year Porsgrunn ammonia plant in Norway, wants funding from the Norwegian government to switch the plant’s production process to electricity by 2026.

Norway already supports hydrogen and green ammonia through a tax exemption on electricity used to produce hydrogen, Minister of Climate and Environment Sveinung Rotevatn said in an email.

“Hydrogen and hydrogen-based solutions, such as ammonia, will be important in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the future,” Rotevatn said.

Global ammonia production would need to multiply five-fold if it is to replace all oil-based shipping fuel, Abbasov said. But given the abundance of nitrogen in the air, potential supply is almost unlimited if production costs drop, he said.

Nutrien is looking into green ammonia, but sees high costs and insufficient prices as major obstacles, CEO Chuck Magro said.

Industry efforts underway to produce small volumes of green ammonia are largely “window-dressing,” Raef Sully, Nutrien’s executive vice-president for nitrogen.

“The reason (for Nutrien) to look at it is to position ourselves for when people are willing to pay,” Sully said.

“The problem is we’re just right at the start of development.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Victoria Klesty in Oslo; additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London.

The post Facing green push on farm, fertilizer makers look to sea for growth appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Industrial power users are extremely concerned about the timing and impact of the bill and the increasing likelihood that Manitoba Hydro and the minister may impose large, near-term rate increases,” wrote Manitoba Industrial Power Users Group (MIPUG) in a statement earlier this year.

Why it matters: Cheap hydroelectric power has been Manitoba’s calling card for some time. Advocates worry farms and agribusiness are about to lose that edge.

Bill 35, introduced October 14, would amend various laws including the Public Utilities Board Act and Manitoba Hydro Act. It was initially introduced in March as Bill 44, but died when that session of the legislature ended in September.

If the bill passes as written, electricity rates and gas rates would come under the Manitoba Hydro Act. Electricity rates would be set by regulation until 2024 instead of being regulated by the Public Utilities Board (PUB). After that, the PUB would approve electricity rates every five years based on anticipated revenue needs.

General rate increases would be capped at four per cent or twice the rate of inflation, whichever is greater.

“This will protect taxpayer-ratepayers and clarify respective roles of government and the Public Utilities Board,” Finance Minister Scott Fielding said as he introduced the bill in the legislature.

“It will improve the structures, the governance and accountability of the PUB and improve the timing and cost efficiency of rate reviews,” he added, saying the changes would reduce costs and regulatory burdens.

However, MIPUG and Keystone Agricultural Producers are concerned that, with limited oversight, the province will raise prices significantly, and that the four per cent cap would become a de facto rate increase.

“This could significantly hamper the agriculture sector’s competitiveness at a time when farmers and producers are faced with increasing carbon tax and input costs, and an unpredictable global economy,” wrote KAP president Bill Campbell in a letter to Fielding on September 17.

“Our economy, disrupted by the effects of COVID-19, cannot withstand large-scale hydro rate increases,” he added.

KAP acted as an intervener in Manitoba Hydro’s 2017-18 and 2018-19 General Rate Application before the PUB where it emphasized the hit farms would take from large rate increases. The PUB eventually allowed a moderate rate increase, Campbell said.

Other than his gas barbecue, his farm is completely reliant on electricity, Campbell told the Co-operator. Hydro power runs the cattle watering system, heats the shop, powers block heaters on tractors, and runs aeration fans in grain bins.

His is not a large farm, said Campbell, but he estimated his hydro bill is in excess of $10,000 per year — $1,500 a month in the dead of winter.

“We don’t have alternative means of energy unless we want to go back to chopping wood to heat our homes,” Campbell said. “The infrastructure is set up to provide electricity to rural Manitobans. There is not widespread natural gas.”

David Wiens estimated hydro is about 6.5 per cent of his fixed operation costs on his Grunthal-area dairy farm.

“It’s a fairly significant monthly cost,” said Wiens, who is chair of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba.

He has access to natural gas, which heats a shop. His milk house is electric, as are feed mixers and unloaders, barn fans, and his milking system.

While rate hikes would bite into farmers’ bottom line, not knowing what those hikes might be makes planning more difficult, said Campbell.

Rising rates also reduce Manitoba’s competitive advantage when trying to attract new processors, said Campbell, in the letter to Fielding. It also doesn’t seem fair to reel in companies like Roquette, that has set up an enormous pea-processing facility in Portage la Prairie, only to jeopardize the low power rates it counted on.

“It’s like when you purchase a vehicle and all of a sudden your insurance doubles,” said Campbell.

MIPUG said the timing of the proposed changes poses a concern. Major Manitoba Hydro programs like the Bipole III transmission line and Keeyask generating station are coming into service. Meanwhile, Manitoba Hydro has not produced a long-term financial forecast for some time.

“This environment creates significant uncertainty for industrial customers needing to make long-term capital investment decisions,” the group wrote.

“Both the PUB and industrial customers have noted that Manitoba Hydro’s current financial condition is sound and can therefore allow for measured rate changes over time,” MIPUG wrote. “Instead, Bill 44 (or 35) establishes mandated financial debt-equity targets in legislation that will require material rate increases well above the current and projected rates of inflation.”

KAP understands that Manitoba Hydro faces a large debt burden, Campbell wrote to Fielding. He acknowledged that PUB proceedings are cumbersome and inefficient, but doesn’t believe reducing the PUB’s effectiveness is the solution to Hydro’s financial woes.

Campbell suggested moving to a five-year approval process (such as mentioned in the bill) would provide stability, and would be a good “first step” to balance both the proceedings and Manitoba Hydro’s financial needs.

The post Proposed law could spike hydro prices for farms, processors appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

A potential solution from Ontario solar panel manufacturer Heliene is currently being tried on half an acre in a commercial greenhouse in Grimsby as part of a project funded through the Greenhouse Renewable Energy Technologies (GRET) research and development initiative.

“This is a distributive energy pro­ject that marries crop growth with electricity generation capabilities,” explains Scott McLorie, vice-president of business development at Heliene. “This pilot is demonstrating that both crops and solar energy can be harvested from the same land footprint using our technology, offsetting the need to generate power using fossil fuels and lowering carbon emissions from the greenhouse sector.”

The Heliene greenhouse solar panels each contain an energy-producing photovoltaic cell that generates electricity both from the top where the sunlight strikes it and from any reflection coming from underneath. Each cell also has a red polyurethane back-sheet.

It’s this back-sheet that transforms the green light spectrum into red before shining it on the plants below, while at the same time reflecting it back to the photovoltaic cell, which turns it into electricity that can be used in the greenhouse.

“The key is taking green light, which is less beneficial, and transforming that to red,” McLorie says. “Between that and the diffuse nature of the textured solar glass, we expect no reduction in plant growth.”

Students from Niagara College have been helping with the project, testing comparative growth under and outside of the trial solar panels. Electricity generated through the pilot is used in the greenhouse. The trial includes 600 panel modules that were retrofitted into the roof of a 25-year-old greenhouse building, with two different cell arrangements — a checkerboard and a stripe pattern — being tested for their impact on crop performance.

To date, the panels have been producing the equivalent of nine per cent of the greenhouse’s annual electricity consumption without any negative impacts on production. In fact, the plants have been performing better and as an unexpected side benefit, the red light has been found to hinder the growth of thrips, a known greenhouse pest.

The post New solar panels grab light from above and below appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“We won’t know the full extent of damage for some time, but we’ve already heard that some customers will likely be facing some financial hardship as a result of Dorian’s damaging winds and heavy rainfall throughout the region,” Faith Matchett, FCC’s vice-president of operations for Atlantic Canada, said in a release Monday.

“First, we want everyone to know that we are thinking of them in this challenging time,” she said. “We also want our customers to know we will work with them to find solutions to any short-term financial pressure they may face as a result of this storm.”

Specifically, FCC said it will “work with customers to come up with solutions for their operations on a case-by-case basis,” as it generally does in areas where farmers are facing weather-related forces majeures.

The federal farm lending agency said it would consider deferral of principal payments and/or other loan payment “schedule amendments” to reduce financial pressures caused by the storm.

On Prince Edward Island, it’s already known that “some farmers and fishers are dealing with damages, some significant to infrastructure, boats and crops,” provincial officials said Monday in a separate release.

Government offices were “delayed” in opening until noon Monday, the province said, adding that the “majority” of provincial roads have been cleared of debris.

In Nova Scotia, provincial offices where electricity is available are to open Tuesday, officials said Monday. Members of the public should call in advance to confirm if a particular office is open, the province said.

“We’re seeing that communities and people were prepared,” Greg MacCallum, director of the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization, said in a release Sunday.

“We continue to ask for the public’s co-operation. Many people are out today clearing up the mess. In case of power outages, residents are encouraged to check on their neighbours, particularly the elderly, who may require assistance.”

NB Power advised residents to stay away from areas where trees are in contact with power lines or blocking roads, adding that residents should not prune or remove trees hung up on power lines. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Minnesota has become a leading U.S. state for its adoption of solar and other renewable energy sources, thanks to legislation and policies that set a goal of a quarter of its energy use coming from renewable energy by 2025.

“We made some great strides. We are at 25 per cent renewables right now,” Melissa Pawlisch, director with the University of Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) told the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association conference in Winnipeg earlier this month.

Interest in renewable energy was initially sparked by Minnesota’s farmers who wanted to establish small-scale ethanol plants and own wind farms, she said in her presentation.

Incentive programs led to both initiatives and a good deal of thought then put into where the wider community fits into the picture of renewables.

Now solar is what everyone in Minnesota is talking about. In 2013 Minnesota passed legislation requiring its largest utility Xcel Energy to develop and administer its Community Solar Garden Program and provide broader access for more Minnesotans to go solar.

A solar garden is a centrally located solar panel system people become subscribers and get the benefit of its production through a credit on their utility bill, said Pawlisch.

“The idea was that this would really democratize who can participate,” she said, noting that not everyone has the means nor space to put up solar panels.

A pilot program rolled out in December 2014 took everyone by surprise, she said. They expected there might be proposals for “maybe 10 or 20 megawatts of solar gardens.”

“Over 100 were proposed within the first week.”

Dedicated solar programs have since been established across the state, with residents now comprising the largest number of solar garden subscribers to the Xcel program.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association 98,000 homes in Minnesota are powered by solar and 1.3 per cent of the state’s electricity is now generated by solar.

The other part of Minnesota’s renewable energy story is new jobs created. A recent report showed clean energy jobs growing at just over triple the rest of the market. Minnesota now has over 57,000 clean energy jobs.

CERTs job is work connecting people and communities to the resources they need to first identify and then implement community-scale clean energy projects.

“These need to be solutions that are everywhere, across audiences across industries… so that everyone can see themselves in that future,” she said.

Pawlisch was one of eight guest speakers attending the Future of Sustainable Energy in Manitoba meeting hosted by MANsea this month.

Other speakers included Robert Elms, spokesman for the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association (MEVA), championing the use of some of the carbon tax to be collected in Manitoba to help build charger stations in this province and create incentives to purchase more electric vehicles.

MEVA estimates 19 stations could be installed at a cost of about $3 million. Right now 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Manitoba is generated by the transportation sector, and most of that comes from private automobile usage.

Jeff Kraynyk, with the food and agri-product processing branch of Manitoba Agriculture pointed out that Manitoba’s energy imports are still approximately at $4 billion a year worth of fossil fuels.

“That’s all money leaving our economy and going to other jurisdictions,” he said in his presentation.

Kraynyk noted Manitoba’s capacity for producing biomass is growing, and now at over 100,000 tonnes of biomass annually. More growth is expected as more institutional users, which need to replace their aging boilers, look to biomass, accompanied by changes to the regulatory environment to accommodate these systems.

“The energy landscape in Manitoba is large,” he said during a later panel discussion.

“There is room for all renewables. There isn’t one technology that’s going to address this. This has to be an approach that embraces all technologies.”

Wayne Digby, MANsea director, said later in an interview the Minnesota experience shows what can happen when communities and groups of individuals are given the information they need to look at their energy needs and options and make choices.

MANsea continues to push for more domestic energy use and production, he said.

“Community-driven energy projects, we think, are the way to go,” said Digby.

The post Clean energy can drive rural economy appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Hydro One and Niagara Peninsula Energy (NPEI) on Friday announced the AgriPump rebate program, which the two electricity utilities described as the first plan of its kind in the province.

For farmer customers who have Ontario farm business registration (FBR) numbers and meet program criteria, the plan offers “instant” rebates at point of purchase from participating suppliers for eligible high-efficiency constant-pressure pump sets.

To qualify for a rebate under the program, a pump kit must be between 0.5 and 10 horsepower and must be made up of a pump, motor, variable frequency drive (VFD) and accessories. Buying only a VFD for an existing pump is not eligible for the instant rebate, the companies said.

Listed AgriPump rebates per eligible unit range from $105 up to $610, depending on pump type (submersible, end suction, vertical multistage) and horsepower.

The two companies described the program — which is only available to Hydro One or NPEI agriculture customers within either company’s service territories — as “ideal for all farming applications” including livestock, greenhouse and vineyard uses.

Upgrading to a high-efficiency pump will improve performance and could save customers up to 40 per cent of their system’s energy costs, the companies said, based on a typical farm water use profile and run time of 3,000 operating hours per year.

The companies estimated the simple payback periods range at between one and six years on the costs of most constant pressure pump kits.

“Water conservation and high energy costs are a big concern for farmers in the Niagara region and across the province,” Drew Spoelstra, a Niagara-region director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said in the companies’ release.

“The Save on Energy Conservation Program and this type of cross-utility initiative to launch the AgriPump rebate program is great for agriculture.”

The Save on Energy program, run through Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), offers businesses incentives for equipment and lighting retrofits and building upgrades that reduce electricity demand and consumption.

Toronto-based Hydro One — the privatized and rebranded Ontario Hydro — remains the province’s biggest electricity provider for farming customers. NPEI serves residential and business customers in Niagara Falls, the towns of Lincoln and Pelham and the township of West Lincoln, all of which jointly own the utility. — AGCanada.com Network

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It’s costing a small fortune now to heat spaces like public arenas and curling clubs, said Al Abraham, deputy mayor of the LGD of Pinawa.

• Read more: AMM wants province to pony up

Rate hikes like those proposed by Manitoba Hydro this winter will push costs through the roof, he said.

The PUB has begun hearings on Manitoba Hydro’s rate application for annual 7.9 per cent increases over each of the next five years, potentially pushing current hydro bills up by close to 60 per cent.

That’s completely unaffordable, said Abraham. It would add another $12,000 to the yearly hydro bill just for Pinawa’s arena alone, he said. They heat all their other public buildings with electricity too.

“There is no pipeline to the northeastern part of the province so we can’t use natural gas for heating,” he said.

“Every time there’s a rate increase it affects the operation of all our facilities… the arena, the curling club, the municipal office, the public works department, everything.”

Pinawa’s resolution on use of carbon tax to offset costs for hydro users aims to support all Manitobans who’ll be hit twice by higher home energy costs, he added.

At last month’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention delegates also registered their opposition to the proposed rate hikes in another resolution put forward by the RM of Pipestone.

The November convention also afforded opportunities for leaders to lay out other ideas for recycling carbon tax revenue. In a special session devoted to the matter, others said the province should be incentivizing those who voluntarily lower energy consumption.

“We have an opportunity here with this carbon tax,” said David Minish, councillor in Swan Valley West.

The province should find a way to reward those whose homes are smaller and energy efficient and whose lifestyles consume energy modestly, he said. Hydro users who use less should be paid a dividend using this tax. Minish said that could start to change the types of homes people build and the amount of energy they use in them.

“It wouldn’t be long before people started to tailor their lifestyle, their buildings, and the way they did everything to stay within that lower rate,” he said. “That could have a huge change with very little other bureaucracy involved.”

Other leaders said it’s time Manitoba started looking outside its own boundaries at where other jurisdictions and countries use energy more efficiently.

“These are not Manitoba problems. These are problems everybody faces,” said Ste. Anne reeve, Art Bergmann.

“We would do well to spend some time looking at how others have solved those problems.”

Manitobans could and should become way more proactive about adopting passive solar systems, Bergmann said. Passive solar construction designs and locates buildings so that they take advantage of the sun’s rays to heat them, with window placement a key aspect of that design. Passive solar buildings also have heat storage systems that hold heat as required and deflect it in summer.

“Right now it’s a fringe element that does this but it should be mainstream,” he said. “I’d love to see the government spend some resources chasing this.”

Other leaders offered ideas about recycling, suggesting the province revert to past methods of refunding consumers who return drink cans and bottles.

“The province should buy it back from individuals. We’d have children picking them up again like in the old days of the bottle drives,” said Raymond Garand, reeve of the RM of Alexander.

That kind of program would reduce the littering of these items in ditches, he added.

Other leaders said they’re very worried about the impact of carbon taxes on school divisions that have tight budgets already. Rural students don’t have any other option to get to school right now except to ride the bus and there are no electric school buses around yet, one councillor said.

“How can you ask people to reduce emissions when there is no viable alternative right now?”

• Editorial: Wheels within wheels

The discussion was hosted by Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development Rob Olson who was at AMM’s convention seeking input on how best to spend the anticipated $260 million annually that will be generated from carbon taxes. Manitoba will have a flat rate of $25 per tonne carbon levy starting in 2018.

AMM has asked the province to consult local government as it develops its Made-in-Manitoba Climate Action Plan so that it doesn’t impact jobs and local economies.

The province is certainly looking at how to protect vulnerable individuals and vulnerable industries, Olson said, noting the exemption it has offered agricultural producers for its coloured fuel.

The province needs Manitobans to tell it where to invest in ways for adapting to climate change, Olson said.

“Everyone wants to talk about the carbon price,” he said. “But it’s going to be about adaptation. We’re going to have to adapt. We’re going to have to do things differently. We want to hear from you on this.”

The province continues its online survey since unveiling its Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan October 27.

To date 2,000 submissions have been received from Manitobans on how they want the province to address climate change and see carbon revenues recycled.

The survey remains online and the province has extended the deadline for submissions until Dec. 22.

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