Modern farming? I'd say it is more like milking the taxpayer and hydro ratepayers. Given that conventional reliable, safe, abundant and dense energy sources like hydro, nuclear, coal and natural gas can produce electricity for about 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, paying the Heinzles 20 cents for biodigester electricity and 70 cents for solar photovoltaic electricity means other Ontarians are being forced to subsidize the lifestyle and income of the Heinzles and that lower income Ontarians, who pay the greatest fraction of their incomes for energy, are made to suffer the most to produce income for the "farmers".
While the article does not break down the more than $2M cost the Heinzles incurred to install solar and biodigester technologies, nor does it state their full income from solar, we can make a fair estimate from what is provided: $240,000 per year from biogas and $84,000 from solar. Given that the biogas is priced at up to four times and solar up to 14 times the cost of regular reliable forms of energy, if the Heinzles were paid a true market price they would be earning as little as $60,000 from biogas and $6,000 from solar per year. Thus, on a $2M investment they would be paid $66,000 which means a 3.3% rate of return on capital, before considering ongoing maintenance and operating costs - just over the rate of inflation. After operating costs the business would likely earn a return lower than inflation - a negative real return.
No rational investor would take such large risks for such a poor return and the fact that the Ontario Liberal government did just that shows how bad they were at managing Ontario's finances.
