In the National Post no less:
It is starting to look as though wind cannot meet more than a fraction of our energy demand even if other issues with the technology, like esthetics and wildlife impacts, are ignored. The problem, as engineers skeptical of wind power have been yelping for decades, is that power usage and production constantly have to be balanced in an electrical grid. Adding too much unstable, unpredictable power to the system creates a risk of failure and cascading blackouts. In fact, the EU is investigating the possible role of Germany’s heavy wind-dependence in causing a Nov. 6 blackout that hit 10 million Europeans. national post
Cosh cites a series of depressing facts about Jack Layton’s favorite Kyoto solution. But mainly the problem is that wind is predictably unreliable.
At some point people are going to realize that modern energy solutions are going to use a variety of technologies to reduce demand at the margins. Big wind may be one of them, little wind - the mini-turbine on your roof top - may be another. But the one which I am inclined to think has the most promise is household and neighbourhood geothermal for heating and cooling. It is always the same temperature six to ten feet underground and the differential between surface temperature and below ground allow heating in winter and cooling in summer. Yes, the front end costs are large. yes it is tough to retrofit; but the constant heat of the ground is potentially a way of providing all household heating and cooling, carbon free, everywhere in Canada but the High Arctic.
Written by jay on November 22nd, 2006 with 6 comments.
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Figures released last week by Statistics Canada, show that in 2005, people in B.C. travelled 50.86 billion kilometres in vehicles weighing 4.5 tonnes or less. That is, everything from a Hummer to a Smart car.
That compares to 2004, when they travelled 55.94 billion km by car or light truck, and 2000, the year surveys of this kind began, when they travelled 54.18 billion km. the times colonist
The Rick Mercer Effect, a commitment to Kyoto?
Then there’s the price of gas. “If they do the same survey a year from now, there will be less driving because the price of gas has gone up so much,” Hardie (BC Transit spokesman) said. “We have seen a significant shift to transit ridership this year, and we have to attribute that to a rise in the price of gas.”
B.C. Automobile Association president Bill Bullis also put the decrease down to prices at the pump. “I know of no other phenomenon to explain it,” Bullis said. “That’s a big mileage decrease. That’s an awful lot of kilometres.”
It is not a major bit of economic news that as price increases demand falls. Assuming that there are actual alternatives. In both Vancouver and Victoria a long term fully integrated transport strategy - where the people who run the buses also build the bridges and the Skytrains - is beginning to pay off. For all of the chat about carbon taxes and other harebrained schemes for meeting the Kyoto targets (and grant China even more room to pump CO2 into the atmosphere) price and a bit of planning will actually reduce miles driven and therefore CO2 emitted.
Taking the bus, working from home, riding a bike, carpooling; Rick Mercer can caper about for years and people’s habits will not change. But if the price of gas doubles you bet the SUV will stay in the garage.
Written by jay on November 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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