Energy Probe

Expanding wind doesn’t fit with phasing out coal, says Norm Rubin of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental policy organization. If these were pieces in a puzzle, “you couldn’t bang them together with a hammer.”

Yesterday’s scorcher scorched wind power’s reputation and its bottom line, too.  A simple analysis shows why no company can make a profit supplying wind power to the electricity system without government subsidies, and why no society can count on wind power when the power is most needed.

Opponents of a proposed wind farm off the Scarborough Bluffs have adopted the old Bob Dylan folk classic, with their own spin, as a rallying cry: ‘the answer is not blowing in the wind.’

Residents try to protect their little part of the planet from clean-energy windmills.

If governments didn't so distort the energy marketplace, most of the variables that potential Bloom Box consumers and investors would need to consider would disappear, making the risks involved in a Bloom Energy IPO much more knowable. Without the distortions, in fact, the Bloom Box could already be economic in niche settings, such as in some remote regions, in some military applications, and as a backup to the grid in settings where space (but not money) is an issue.

A March 6 meeting, outlining the downside of wind turbines, drew close to 200 people to Creemore's Station on the Green.

Only six or eight people would have shown up 18 months ago, said one speaker, concluding that the groundswell of opposition to wind turbines is gaining momentum.

Wind power is unreliable, expensive and doesn’t result in lower C02 emmissions. Why is Ontario still rushing ahead with it?

The full report by Michael J. Trebilcock and James S.F. Wilson.

Ontario's strategy of picking winners likely to fail

Ontario’s provincial auditor or other independent groups should periodically audit the programs and subsidies being offered through the recently passed Green Energy Act to ensure the programs are producing the promised environmental and economic benefits, says an Energy Probe report published today by Michael Trebilcock, Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Toronto, and James Wilson, a recent University of Toronto Law School Graduate.

With more than a trillion dollars a year going towards green technology, companies, cities, countries, even whole continents are proving Kermit wrong. It’s easy to be green.

Energy Probe’s Norm Rubin on “The Agenda” discussing the recent Samsung deal and Ontario’s renewable energy future.

A media round-up of the reactions to the renewable energy deal Ontario recently signed with Samsung.

Premier McGuinty has committed Ontario to a generous deal for a soon-to-be forgotten energy source.

Wind reduces CO2 emissions at a subsidy cost of about $124 per tonne — one of the most expensive plans in the world.

Energy Probe’s own Norman Rubin was recently quoted in an article in the Ottawa Citizen examining the approval of subsidies for a 200-acre farm in West Carleton, just west of Ottawa. As part of the program, the government will pump at least $100-million for the construction of 300,000 solar panels.

Toronto's plan to mandate green roofs on new buildings could seriously threaten the city's building stock.

Thanks to record government deficit spending, there is one economic sector that appears to be flush with money that needs to be spent: green projects.

A Spanish study found that every green job kills 2.2 jobs elsewhere.

Ontario’s new energy plan heavily subsidizes green energy projects at the expense of conservation

Studies are being done to monitor the impacts of wind turbines on landscape ecology and wildlife, such as birds and bats.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources' Ontario Wind Atlas, winds off of Lake Superior blow more incessantly than anywhere else in the province.

As the province ramps up its supply of "green" energy, the 126 turbines spinning in Prince Township are likely a harbinger of more to come -- and a storm of debate over the pros and cons of harvesting power from the wind.

Nanosolar's breakthrough technology is 10 times more powerful than a nuclear reactor and cheaper, too.

The CBC Radio series, "The Hydrogen Solution," features a debate between Energy Probe's Norm Rubin and hydrogen expert David Sanborn Scott. This debate is now available for download online, via podcast.

To recap:

THE HYDROGEN SOLUTION

Ideas, CBC Radio One

Energy is not just a fuel. It’s an entire system that links our civilization together, says David Sanborn Scott, a hydrogen energy

Energy policy isn't just consuming U.S. lawmakers. It's also dominating the Canadian agenda and particularly the province of Ontario.

The current government there recently unveiled its long-term supply roadmap that plans to double the amount of renewable energy by 2025 and refurbish or replace the province's base-load nuclear capacity. But it also expects to phase-out the use of coal-fired generation by 2014 -- a strategy that had to be put off for seven years.

Global warming is the biggest threat that farmers face, and not because carbon dioxide threatens their crops -- carbon dioxide is actually a boon to crops, and increases yields. Thanks to increased carbon dioxide emissions, in fact, the world's biosphere is on an upswing, the terrestrial NPP (net primary production) growing by more than 6% in the last two decades of the century.

For the full story, please click on Source.

Last month, the Conservative government joined the long line of governments around the world subsidizing the production of wind power.

A study released yesterday by Ontario's electricity authorities says wind power could represent nearly 20 per cent of the province's power-generation capacity with little compromise to system reliability.

Critics say the numbers are suspiciously high.

Ontario has four major wind farms in service now with a potential of producing 396 megawatts of emission-free electricity. About 1,300 megawatts are to be operating by 2010.

'If we don't go nuclear, what type of energy will meet our future energy needs," I'm often asked. "Do you think fringe fuels such as solar energy can take the place of nuclear? Or windmills? Bio fuels? Small dams? Tidal power? Burning garbage?"

A Guelph-based company is building a $200-million grain processing plant in Saskatchewan that will also make ethanol out of production wastes.

The plant will be a technological first for Canada, said Chris Findlay, president of International Debranning Inc., or IDI.

"There's 100 per cent utilization; there are no waste products," he said.

IDI is a private company run by four Ontario-based businessman.

Darlene Leader sits on a deck at her family farm near Shelburne, north of Orangeville in Dufferin County. She watches as the huge blades of four giant wind turbines slowly turn. Critics say they are noisy, but on this day, the sound, if there's any, is negligible.

The four white towers on the 500-acre Leader property are part of a 45-tower operation in Melancthon and Amaranth townships that represents the first large-scale wind farm in Ontario.

As Muppet philosopher Kermit the Frog so aptly observed, it's not easy being green. It's not cheap, either, as it turns out. But that's not stopping Margaret Atwood or David Crombie. Tragically Hip front man Gord Downie and chef Jamie Kennedy have gone green too.

Ontario is offering to subsidize homeowners and businesses that switch to renewable power sources like solar panels or wind turbines.

It's the first program of its type in the country and Premier Dalton McGuinty says he hopes the plan will see a quarter of a million homes powered by renewable energy within a decade.

While Canada is far behind European countries like Germany in providing renewable energy, McGuinty says the incentives are the most progressive in North America.

Up in our rural neck of the woods, where very little happens, everyone is in a tizzy. The wind companies have arrived. Suddenly, there are giant wind farms sprouting 30-storey turbines on our horizon. The wind company salesmen are knocking on doors trying to sign up the local landowners. They put a turbine in your field, and you get $7,000 a year for letting your wind blow through it. Sure beats growing potatoes.

Toronto: A provincially appointed body is recommending Ontario refurbish or replace its fleet of 12 nuclear power plants at a cost of $30 billion to $40 billion, according to a report released yesterday.

It also recommends transforming Ontario into a North American leader in the use of wind technology, bringing the total projected cost to about $70 billion.

Hurricane Katrina's destructive swath may have caused a spike in oil prices, but it also spiked interest in alternative energy technology.

Take Maple Leaf Foods Inc. Though they earn their bread in the food business, the company recently announced it is set to open Canada's first large-scale biodiesel plant.

Don't like fossil fuels? Nuclear power? Hydro dams? Go fly a kite. Really. The next great energy technology may well involve implausible-sounding machines called Flying Electric Generators, windmills 30,000 feet high and tethered to the ground by power lines.

A fifth Centre of Excellence has been added in Ontario – this time for energy.

The Centre of Excellence for Energy will receive $8 million in provincial funding over the next four years, Economic Development and Trade Minister Joseph Cordiano said earlier this month.

Toronto: Economic Development and Trade Minister Joseph Cordiano today announced $8 million in funding, over four years, to create a new Centre of Excellence for Energy.

Join a fascinating online dialogue on a topic that holds the possibility to transform our buildings and our communities - the adoption of green building practices. Economic issues must be addressed in order for green building to take hold and significantly contribute to environmental sustainability. Moderated by Dr. Ann Dale, Trudeau Fellow and Canada Research Chair on Sustainable Community Development, and Rodney C.

With Prince Edward Island poised to reveal its strategy for renewable energy, Maritime Electric wants to make sure its traditional forms of power generation are part of the picture.

Energy Minister Jamie Ballem is getting ready to release a report looking at the viability of renewable energy sources as a means of supplying electricity for P.E.I. needs. A more extensive study of provincial energy options as a whole is expected next year.

Letters re: The Corn Isn't Green, Lawrence Solomon, Sept. 25.

An ecological response to North
America's energy concerns

BIOENERGY 2002, Sept. 22-26, 2002, Boise, Idaho

Uniterre Resources Ltd., a small Vancouver energy company, signed on to a joint venture yesterday to develop what would be one of the world's biggest wind power generating projects, in northern British Columbia.

But a leading power industry expert said the project will never see the light of day unless Ottawa is prepared to dish out millions in subsidies.

R. Jannasch^a , R. Samson^a, A. de Maio^a, T. Adams^b and C. Ho Lem^aa

Resource Efficient Agricultural Production-Canada,

Turning Ontario's drinking water operations over to private hands in an attempt to fix the ills in the system would be tragic, the Walkerton inquiry was told yesterday.

"We are by no means arguing for the status quo. But the private sector option is not the solution," said Ron Crawley, representing the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

"It would be a tragedy if water was privatized in the province," Crawley told Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor, who heads the inquiry.

WALKERTON, ONT. -- The provincial Tories' fixation on the bottom line contributed directly to deaths from tainted-water in Ontario, a lawyer for the provincial Public Service Employees Union argued Thursday.

Driven by ideological zeal, the government ignored numerous warnings about the risks its budget cuts posed to public health and the environment, lawyer Don Eady said in closing submissions to an inquiry into E. coli contamination that killed seven people and made thousands ill in Walkerton last year.

Ontario Premier Mike Harris survived his appearance yesterday before the Walkerton inquiry. More than survived: He triumphed. Facing an orchestrated ambush by smirking union lawyers, hired activists and placard-carrying demonstrators, Mr. Harris rose so far above the low politically motivated smears of his prosecutors that many citizens of Ontario must now be wondering about the validity of the Harris caricature they have been fed for most of the past year.

"Around here, we call it Saudi Arabia in a box," says Andrew Stuart, patting the washing machine-sized metal box that can turn ordinary tap water and household electricity into fuel for cars.

Its technical name is the "personal fuel appliance." It's like having your own personal gas station in your garage, except this one pumps hydrogen for cars that run on fuel cells.

Dear Friend:

Wind power has become economic, the Wall Street Journal reported recently. In areas blessed with steady winds and cursed by high gas and nuclear prices, windmills no longer need subsidies to compete against most conventional sources of electricity. In the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration plans to buy 1,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2003, enough to supply a city of 500,000.

The first anniversary of the Walkerton, Ont., water tragedy is approaching. Already the professional groundskeepers of public opinion are raking the town for the official laying of the blame ceremonies. They appear to have narrowed it down to two culprits, the Harris cutbacks and privatization. Despite overwhelming evidence that Walkerton is the product of gross inadequacies inherent in public sector ownership and major instances of individual public employee incompetence, opinion nevertheless appears to have gelled around the cheap political conclusions.

When Tom Touzel looks up on clear nights, he can sometimes spot a seemingly new star in the firmament — the International Space Station. And he feels a small tug, for the orbiting lab and his log house in rural Ontario are both powered by the brightest of heavenly bodies: the sun.

Last December, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau helped install 74-metre-long solar panels to boost the station’s energy supply. In 1993, Touzel was among the first in Ontario to connect his solar panels to the hydro grid.

Introduction
Unprecedented opportunities for biofuel development are occurring as a result of a combination of factors including: rising oil, natural gas and electricity costs, energy security concerns in the US, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 1.1 billion acres of farmland in North America could help mitigate these concerns if currently viable biofuel production systems were expanded.

The big chill this winter is the cost of heating your home. The prices of natural gas, oil, electricity and propane have all skyrocketed. The financial strain has some homeowners looking at new ways to heat their homes. And if agricultural scientists are right, all you need to reduce your home heating bills is an acre of land.

The way energy specialist Roger Samson sees it, a long, straw-like grass could be the home heating fuel of the future. Switchgrass has no has no other known commerical use.

The Northern Interior's third pellet plant is set to open before the end of the month in Vanderhoof, as investors try to capitalize on a renewable energy resource that's already established in countries like Sweden.

There are already pellet plants in production in Prince George and Quesnel.

A partnership between L & M Lumber, Nechako Lumber and Norm Avison, the $6-million plant in Vanderhoof will employ a dozen people, and more jobs will be created in trucking and distribution.

A Prince George wood pellet manufacturer hopes to capture new energy users in North America who are looking for alternatives in the face of escalating natural gas prices.

Right now, P.G. Pellet Flame exports 80% of its wood pellets to Sweden, where commercial consumers -- including a city of 180,000 -- take advantage of carbon tax credits for using pellets, which do not increase greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

For Immediate Release

STE ANNE DE BELLEVUE, QUEBEC, December 13, 2000--- A new agricultural energy system that turns fast growing grasses into a low-cost, environmentally friendly means of heat energy is set to change North American energy markets. REAP-Canada and Dell- Point Technologies made the announcement today following the successful commercial pelleting of switchgrass on the weekend at an alfalfa pellet plant in Ste. Marthe, Quebec.

ALLISON SMITH (CBC): If an election is indeed called in Ottawa this week you can be sure the rising cost of fuel will become an issue during the campaign. Oil prices have skyrocketed recently, especially with the crisis in the Middle East. And you've seen the results, both at the pumps and in your pocket books. Gasoline, diesel fuel and home heating oil are all more expensive. And as Kelly Crowe reports, it's forcing Canadians to take another look at alternative energy.

It was an unremarkable concoction, this mealy mush of wood bits cooked in steam. Pulpy, brown bog was what it looked like. But the American scientist immediately understood the significance of Patrick Foody's discovery.

Mr. Foody, a civil engineer and budding financier from Montreal, had stumbled upon a key step to making renewable energy.

Deal includes building test plant in Ottawa

Environment groups reacted ecstatically to yesterday's announcement that Petro-Canada will get into the ethanol fuel research business and hopes to start major ethanol production.

"It spells the beginning of a new energy industry. Petro-Can has made a wise investment," declared Louise Comeau of the Sierra Club, which campaigns against fuels that create "greenhouse" gases, which cause global warming.

Sarnia, Ontario: It smells like a brewery, looks like a small petrochemical plant, and what comes out the back end is at the centre of a debate over Canada's energy future.