The cost to build and…

The cost to build (and operate) a brand new battery backed intermittent renewable power plant is less than the marginal (a.k.a. operating) cost of a new combine cycle natural gas (NG) power plant (Lazard 2020, et al).

As early as 2014, the last time the auditor general of Ontario compared and published the total costs and production amounts of various generation types (Figure 5 "Breakdown of Generation Cost By Energy Sources, 2014", page 212, 2015 Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario), wind power, at 11 cents per kWh, was cheaper than NG, at 16 cents per kWh.

Adding more NG power plants will drive up the wholesale cost of energy in Ontario.

Ontario businesses, forced to use a planned future NG powered Ontario grid, will be uncompetitive with businesses located in power regions where renewables are/will be the dominant power source.

If the Ontario government is so insistent on pushing a NG agenda, then the Ontario taxpayer cannot be tapped for any form of capital raise, even in the indirect form of "tax breaks", for construction of any of these new plants.

In other words, if the NG business plan is so good, the government must only use private equity to build these new plants.

The government will find private lenders unwilling to risk thier capital becoming stranded by 2030, lost within a NG investment.