Ready to Go Green?: The Prospects for Premium-Priced Green Electricity in Waterloo Region, Ontario‪.‬

Abstract: In Ontario, electricity industry restructuring and growing air quality concerns mean that the prospects for `green electricity' (that is, electricity generated by environmentally-friendlier means) are greater now than they have ever been. However, given that government support for green electricity does not appear to be immediately forthcoming, any increase of market-share on the part of green electricity will be by virtue of customers' willingness to pay a premium for it. A survey was conducted in Waterloo Region (Ontario) to try to assess potential consumer demand for premium-priced green electricity. Eighty per cent of all respondents (n = 480) declared a willingness to pay more for green (or greener) electricity. Although this is largely consistent with the results of surveys in other parts of North America, experience elsewhere suggests that, when given the opportunity to purchase premium-priced green electricity, a much smaller share of the population will actually do so. Consequently, the actual market will probably be of the order of 1% to 2% of Waterloo Region residents. Those who say that they will purchase premium-priced green electricity generally share the following characteristics: they live in a household where someone has a higher level of formal education, they believe in the certainty of human-induced global climate change, they are younger, they live in a household with a higher income, they know more about the causes of global climate change and they are more skeptical about any `green claims' issued by proponents of nuclear power and large hydropower facilities.