City hits pause on new renewable energy facilities

Ottawa city councillors have supported a staff recommendation to bar the installation of new solar, wind and bioenergy production facilities — for now — as the city explores how best to zone the projects. 

"It's basically just making sure that we do this in an orderly fashion and make sure that they are done appropriately, and making sure that we save agricultural lands," city planner Mitchell LeSage told members of the agriculture and rural affairs committee. 

• Battery project planned for Napanee area would power 250K homes
• Ontario plunging into energy storage as electricity supply crunch looms

Right now, the city has no limits on where these facilities can be built. 

Staff called this an interim solution, but some environmentalists said they were taken aback by the temporary ban, which they believe was introduced with no compelling reason. 

No applications held up by decision

The review of renewable energy facilities and battery storage was sparked by a February motion from Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown. 

He said building solar farms or anaerobic digestion technology, which turns feces into energy, has the potential to help the city reach its climate change goals and strengthen the dependability of rural power supply, "so we're not beholden to long transmission lines that run for hundreds of kilometres." 

But he cautioned that kind of development needs to be done responsibly.

"We want to make sure that we protect our farmland. It's always better and certainly more attractive to have locally grown produce and foodstuffs instead of having to import it," Brown said. 

With no current applications set to be upset by this week's decision, Brown couldn't see any reason to hold off. 

Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability Ottawa, told councillors she was relieved to hear no work would be held up by the move after members of her group feared the worst. 

Future stability of energy networks discussed

The staff report presented this week also moved to limit the size of batteries used to store renewable energy on agricultural land to two per cent of the total lot size, up to a maximum of one hectare. 

The overseer of Ontario's grid, the Independent Electricity System Operator, is moving in this direction as a way to bolster stability, beginning with a battery project in the Napanee area that can power 250-thousand homes.

In Ottawa, council agreed to support a project on Upper Dwyer Hill Road at the same meeting where Brown called on staff to investigate new rules. 

Reliable storage for energy generated renewably will help manage the risks of climate change, said Keller-Herzog. 

"When the power goes out, when there are hurricanes, tornadoes, storms or whatever, how can we have energy storage that we can draw on so that your kids can still do their homework," she told councillors. "We have to have backup power."

The city has hired a consultant to look at what zoning rules exist in other municipalities and will consult with energy producers, environmental advocates and residents this summer, before presenting council with a proposal in the fall.