The Coalition itself is often seen as a "counter- intuitive group of strange bedfellows", laser focussed on advancing the cause of "Green Power" in Canada. Our successes have come from laser focussing our vision and "checking our biases at the door" when we work together.

The Coalition has been most targeted on, and influential at, the Federal level of government in Canada by advocating measures to narrow the gap between the price of "green power" and the price of "conventional power".

During 2001, we advocated the need for some federal assistance for the green power sector, with the assistance of other industry associations, environmental organizations, individual corporations, and the Green Budget Coalition. In the December 10, 2001 Federal Budget, $260 Million was allocated to support 1,000 MW of wind power through the Wind Power Production Incentive - WPPI (basically at the rate of 1 cent per kWh). That Budget, announced but 3 months after the September 11th attacks, was ostensibly all about peace, safety and security. Therefore, the Coalition was extremely pleased with the creation of WPPI by the government of the day.

In the February 23, 2005 Federal Budget, WPPI was expanded to support 4,000 MW of wind power (3,000 MW net new of the original program). In addition, a program supporting 1,500 MW of non-wind renewable power technologies was created - the Renewable Power Production Incentive (RPPI) - also at 1 cent per kWh. The total budget for the two programs over their lifetime was $1.8 billion.

With the change of government in early 2006, the two programs were ostensibly merged under the banner of the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program. This program, announced January 19, 2007, supports 4,000 MW of all types of Ecologo certifiable renewable power at a rate of 1 cent per kWh. The total cost of this program is $1.48 billion over the life of the program.

The Clean Air Renewable Energy Coalition supports all types of Ecologo certifiable renewable electricity generation. This includes:

• Wind power (large wind farms and small turbines)
• Solar PV
• Run-of-river hydropower
• Geothermal electricity
• Biomass combustion, pyrolysis and gasification
• Biogas (anaerobic digesters and landfill gas)
• Wave and tidal electricity.

Fact sheets on these technologies can be found in our documents section.