Friday, 27 May 2011

Idiot Wind

Let the Sun shine in on Ontario’s voters Brains


The Toronto District School Board has signed a landmark nearly half a billion dollar deal to install solar panels on schools. Not only will the board share revenue from the power sales, the private sector will repair school roofs as part of the deal. The Knuckle draggers are in full outrage. The reason is under Ontario’s Feed In Tariff program the power will be purchased at $0.80KWH. It’s difficult to explain to a certain mindset why this is a deal for Ontario citizens.  First the amount of power purchased from all green sources accounts for no more than 3 to 4% of future power bills and less right now. Secondly, the FIT plans have been a huge success in Germany, creating thousands of green jobs, so this is not some pie in the sky scheme, it is an industrial stratagem well proven.  The future of energy is renewable s, so we can pretend the worlds not changing or adapt. Third, reducing greenhouse gases is a must, and even if you do not believe that, you must agree that significant savings in health care are available by reducing pollution. Finally, generating power at the point of usage yields significant rewards. Up to              62% of power generated never reaches the end user due to losses in transmission and voltage adjustment.


Science proves cheap non renewable energy sources have almost reached the point where demand exceeds supply. Furthermore science tells us burning these fossil fuels has a disastrous and incredibly expensive effect on our climate. Governments cannot do nothing, like the previous Hudak Harris government did. The McGinty government has not only had to pay billions to repair the infrastructure neglected, but has also had the courage to take on visionary change that will provide the power need to keep a sophisticated economy like Ontario’s one of the world’s leaders, and allow people to enjoy the fantastic lifestyle we all share. The reason Ontario pays very high premiums for solar and wind energy is to create a critical self-sustaining mass of energy and jobs of the future for the future. Under the Hudak  Harris government up to 62% of energy generated was lost in transmission and  inefficiency’s, Liberals have spent billions to plug this pure waste.  Costing power is a complex equation. Scientist use the Energy return on Investment as a decision making guide. So when you measure the amount of energy needed to produce the fuel, wind is 25% cheaper than gas and oil, solar is less expensive than the Hudak- Harris alternative of burning dirty coal, and research funded by the Liberal government is already paying dividends by making renewable energy even more profitable. Had the Hudak Harris been in charge, power rates would still have gone up, but worse Ontario would be facing an energy crisis, and with no time to implement solutions that take years of incredibly complex management. Hudak Harris say the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine so forget wind and solar, expensive daydreams. Science shows us Ontario is a prime location(considering population maybe the best in the world) for solar and wind, it would be foolish to not reap this harvest. Yes we need better ways to smooth out demand peaks, and that’s exactly what the Smart Meter does, Smart Meters mean we don’t have to build a nuclear plant, we do have more opportunity to adopt decentralized power. However it is not enough, Ontario must embrace power storage, one project that should be considered is a massive hydro storage pool on the escarpment near Niagara Falls, use the Beck to fill the pool and drain the pool to feed the grid at peak.  Maybe parts of the walker quarry can be utilized right now, the pool is already there. There are many other opportunities like flywheels, vanadium batteries and hydrogen, which can be placed right where the power is demanded.  

Tim Hudak dropped a pander bear bomb on the Ontario electorate. He will take the HST off energy, and double down by removing the debt payment for the Nuclear plants from the power bills. Tim estimates this will save an average family $262 per year. Would you buy this shortsighted plan for $0.71 per day? There is no free lunch, power will have to be paid for, either in higher taxes someplace else or ruinous debt. Worse the incentive to change behavior is gone. People will increase consumption and in a vicious circle need more power plants, under Hudak likely coal. So instead of adapting and preparing for the future, we will stick our heads in the sand and pretend its 1959.



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  1. KM27 Jun 2011, 15:39:00

    Ontario has already dramatically reduced the use of coal, as occasional checks at ieso.com confirm (at 7% of total demand at the moment of this writing).

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