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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEcon Dev Adv 2010-06-23 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES June 23, 2010 City of Kitchener The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Jeremy Auger; the following members were in attendance: Councillor John Smola, Mark Collins, Steven Voll, Rebecca Short, Brian Bennett, Bob Denton, Peter Benninger The following people sent their regrets: Adrian Conrad, Mark Bingeman, Bernie Nimer, Ian Cook, Alan Anderson, Dan Piedra, The following people were absent: Staff in attendance: Rod Regier, Terry Boutilier, Valerie Machado, Rob Pettapiece, Cory Bluhm, Tracey DeVille 1.1 Approval of minutes On motion, by Steven Voll seconded by Brian Bennett The minutes of May 2010 were approved. New Business: 2.1 Green Energy Rod Regier provided an introduction on Green Energy and what the city and the provincial government have been doing over the last 18 months. He advised that with the initiatives the city has been involved in, such as the solar roof on the CMF, there was an obvious economic opportunity in the green industry. As a division, we have begun the work on implementing this industry as part of the economic strategy for the city. He advised that there have been investments made into research, such as conferences in wind and solar as well as hosting networking events to get a feel for the local industry. Terry Boutilier provided the committee with a presentation on the green energy cluster. EDAC was asked to answer the following: ? Should renewable energy form part of our Economic Development Strategy 2011-2015? ? How can we facilitate the cluster? ? How do we compete? Mr. Regier advised that currently local companies in the region are world known; they are all major players in the world markets. He advised that Germany has been very aggressive with building sustainable energy and become self-sufficient for their energy needs. They have put in place an extremely competitive industry in Europe and have worked to position themselves correctly. He advised that the US is potentially the largest market in the world; however, they do not have the programs in place like Ontario does to support the industry. This makes Ontario universally interesting to many companies. We currently have a good amount of activity in this area and we need to take advantage of that. The Committee provided the following comments / questions: In terms of advances between wind and solar is one advancing facer than the other - It seems as though the growth is larger with wind due to the ability to reach a higher density. Typical turbine is 2 to 2.5MW with larger ones being installed offshore. What is the difference between wind and solar - They are different industries. Wind requires many moving parts and solar requires the ability to produce silicon. Is one better than the other? - They are seen as complimenting in other parts of the world. Both have the problem of storage capacity. - Germany is the worlds largest market for solar energy even though it is a northern climate with only modest air conditioning requirements. Wind is the additional challenge of transmission capacity in a place like Ontario. North American on the other hand is the opposite. Maximum solar production happens at the same time as Ontario experiences peek energy use driven by air conditioning. - Wind is less expensive with long term maintenance, solar is expensive to put in initially with very little maintenance Steven Voll provided an overview of what he is seeing in the industry. Brian Bennett advised that Canadian Solar is a publicly traded company with the ability to raise capital. Are there any restrictions on the OPA - It used to be that municipalities could not participate; however, that changed with the Green Energy Act What does that mean for the municipality? - It allows us to take on meaningful environmental initiatives. When we did the culture survey citizens said they wanted Kitchener to be a leader in this, Kitchener has never been afraid of taking that initiative to lead in creating revenue streams Kitchener Wilmot Hydro would have more experience and the city owns 92% why would we not have them do it - In time we can do that It is interesting to see what the role of hydro is. They have to accept the power going into the grid. Is there an opportunity for them to be more active? - They have been asked the question and they are interested on how they can make money on this, is there an opportunity for economic development. Some municipalities are being more proactive, Kingston in partnership with their hydro and they have just issued a challenge to other municipalities to meet their 1000 microfits to the grid. Homeowners get 80.5cents kw/h return for feeding into the grid. And pays for the system in 7 or 8 years. Steven Voll advised that the work they are doing with local utilities is still a learning curve as well to understand the OPA and with the rate increases only allowed every 3 years they need to figure out how to pay to get new lines in etc. they need to understand what it means, how to fund it and how to move forward. What direction and support would council expect? – The CMF solar roof speaks for itself, it is a perfect example of how Council sees the city going Hats off to the City for being so proactive, for going out there and seeing how we can build these industries here in Kitchener. It is great. What you are doing is what Economic Development should be doing. Response: It is very interesting to see the complexity of the solar industry that has developed in Germany. They have approximately 60,000 people doing installation. There are significant business and training opportunities. Conestoga College in particular, has a big opportunity here. People in Europe are interested in the Ontario story and a number are considering establishment of a North American branch in Southern Ontario. In the region are we further ahead in wind or solar ? - We are nicely positioned in North America for wind and we can look at that as a replacement of the automotive industry. Solar is more of a high tech industry in which the Waterloo Region already has 3 major companies. - In terms of power production in our region, we don’t have the wind so we would be solar. The wind is more concentrated around the lakes, but there are significant solar opportunities in the urban area, because the grid has the capacity to accept the power. Locally we have 3 OEMs in solar. We are missing the OEM in the wind industry and we need to work on attracting them. We have people that are selling into the supply chain. What about a buy American. Is this a worry for green energy companies in Ontario? - There is some uncertainty around this issue. The Green Energy Act has local content requirements which may be challenged under the NAFTA. However, the Province’s FIT program is very attractive and much easier to work within than comparable programs in the U.S. - This industry will benefit from the HST, and in two or three years we will have an advantage over the US with the corporate tax rates. Have we heard anymore on what Samsung is doing? What will the job numbers be? - We asked this question as well and we have not been able to get an answer yet. All we do know is that they need 4 plants in Ontario. The Committee discussed developing a resolution surrounding the cluster strategy with solar and wind designed to encourage partnership with the local utilities. so it was decided that a resolution would be draft and circulated by email for voting. On motion by Brian Bennett Seconded by Peter Benninger: Resolution: “That, the Economic Development Advisory Committee, encourage the city to continue working on development of solar and wind clusters; and, That staff explore opportunities to work with Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro in project development” The Committee asked that this resolution would be considered draft and would be circulated for voting on the final. Project updates Rod provided an overview of the project updates and advised they will be circulated by email. On motion, the meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.