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2006 11 16
A Green Power Corridor
by Toby A.A. Heaps (First published in the October edition of Corporate Knights Magazine) How we can quench our thirst for energy and break our addiction to fossil fuels. When Amory Lovins, the Colorado-based energy efficiency guru and chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute, learned that Ontario plans to plough $40 billion into nuclear power, he blew a gasket.
Download the pdf of the full article, which includes photos and charts.
Still, the Ontario government is moving full bore ahead with plans to build two new nuclear reactors and refurbish up to half a dozen others. What gives? Simple economics. Ontario is a power-hungry province and if nothing is done, demand will soon exceed supply. By 2025, the Ontario Power Authority estimates the province will need between 30,400 and 36,000 MW of power generation to meet peak demand times for a population projected to grow by 25 per cent, up from peak needs of 24,200 MW today. Ontario has a little over 34,000 MW at hand today, which seems enough to satisfy even the upper end of the OPA’s estimated demand in 2025. But the problem is, previous NDP and Conservative governments did almost nothing to address Ontario’s future electricity supply. As a result, most of Ontario’s current power base will be decommissioned by 2025 and only about 12,000 MW of today’s current generating capacity will be around by then (hydro, oil and gas, and one unit of Pickering A nuclear station). Interestingly, the renewables part of the provincial power portfolio seems to have the longest lasting power. Ontario already has procurement initiatives in place for 9,520 MW, mostly from natural gas. That leaves a power gap of more than 10,000 MW on the horizon. Critically important is the fact that most of this gap is for base-load [‘reliable power’] generation capacity, which the OPA says “... dictates the types of resources which must be used to meet this need.” ‘Dictates the types of resources’ is a euphemism for ‘pump up the nuclear.’ Notwithstanding some initial political enthusiasm for energy conservation and new hydro and wind resources, Queen’s Park’s confidence in these resources as base-load supply has wilted. No wonder, when you consider the heat wave in July that drove Ontario’s energy consumption (read ‘air conditioning affinity’) to a record 27,000 MW. Meanwhile, droughts reduced water flow to hydro facilities and—the straw that broke the camel’s back—any MPPs driving past Toronto’s landmark Wind Turbine at Exhibition Place could see the turbine blades hanging motionless, contributing absolutely no power to the grid. At the same time, the province was trying to woo businesses to relocate to Ontario and having a tough time answering questions like: “Where is my factory going to get MWs when you close the coal plants?” Energy-efficient light bulbs and wind turbines don’t cut it for these guys. The government’s answer: Natural gas-fired plants, and a promise not to get rid of coal until enough nuclear base-load capacity has been brought online. That answer seems to have worked for companies like Linamar Corporation and Toyota Canada, which recently announced investments in Ontario totalling $1.9 billion, which will create 4,300 high-quality jobs. When you adopt this mindset, a rational person might understand why the government decided to pump $40 billion down the old nuclear path. But when you consider that this nuclear path is littered with 300 (...read more...)
2006 11 14
Water & Pollution = Waterlution
 The U.S. had this water bottler remove its product from shelves due to choking hazard created by value-added cap design.
This months Corporate Knight magazine detailed the coming fresh-water crisis. Scientific American’s December issue offers similar warnings:
Given the general uncertainty about pure water’s future, is increasingly being packaged as a luxury consumer item. But does bottled water offer us any more than locally available tap water? Here is Corporate Knight’s view on bottled water.
2006 11 13
Traffic Without Control
There is a buzz in the environmental press that so-called “modern” traffic systems that rely on red, yellow, and green lights, are not as efficient as they seem. A small town in Holland, Drachten, removed most of its traffic signals replacing them with roundabouts and smaller intersections. That decision resulted in fewer dangerous crashes and more bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Anyone who has travelled to the world’s less developed nations knows that automobile traffic there, while chaotic by north american standards can, in fact, do a better job of moving millions while reducing all that wasted fuel consumed idling at stop lights. Don’t believe us? Here is proof. This video from India illustrates how traffic systems can be self-organizing and efficient even if the results look like an experiment in chaos theory. I doubt if Toronto’s modern traffic control system could manage the throughput that this “control-less” T intersection achieves:
2006 11 10
Streets Are For People, Cars Are For - Gardens?
Yvonne Bambrick of Toronto’s Streets Are For People emailed us with the news that the “Community Vehicle Reclamation Project” was moved from Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market, to its new home behind Segovia Meats.
Streets Are For People is the group behind the very popular Parking Meter Party held in September. This is the image from their web site:
For groups wanting to put on their own parking meter parties, here are SAFP’s tips:
The Politics Of Green: Canadians Want Change
Because of its size and northern climate, Canada’s consumption of energy trends above the world norms. However, we are also engaged in discretionary energy consumption like coal fired generators and tar sands processing that require burning vast amounts of fuel. The only way to reduce those emissions is through regulatory action by all levels of government. Yet, the public mood for conservation of our increasingly fragile environment is not registering on their political radars. That has to change. Now that the pollution denying neo-conservative ideologues south of the border have lost their grip on power, our own conservative party is quickly rethinking its environmental position. Meanwhile, all Canadians wait expectantly for the revised energy plan the minority government is promising.
2006 11 08
How Are The U.S. Green Funds Doing?
Outside magazine has this review of U.S. based green investment funds. The punch linne is that the funds have outperformed the S&P 500 Index over the last five years.
2006 11 07
Advances In Solar Power Technology Announced
The way Nanosolar Corporation explains it, the future of energy generation just may be clean and non-poluting after all. Nanosolar is at the leading edge of new generation solar cell technologies that do not rely on expensive silicon. In fact, their process is less than one-half the cost and only 1/100th the thickness of traditional solar cells. Even more remarkable is that Nanosolar power cells can be “printed” on flexible substrates allowing for rapid scale production.
The company’s mission?
Here is how they explain Nanosolar’s breakthrough technology:
In other words, nanotechnology allows them to dispense with expensive, difficult to manufacture elements of traditional solar cells. What remains is easy to produce using thin-film technology.
Even the normally staid Economist is excited by the news. “The technology exists to enable a radical overhaul of the way in which energy is generated, distributed and consumed – an overhaul whose impact on the energy industry could match the internet’s impact on communications.” Now that is a future we can aspire to.
2006 11 06
Honda Civic Hybrid: Making A Difference
Maybe I feel the need to write a story on hybrid cars because a well-to-do family I know recently bought a Hummer, Their rationalization was the usual one: to help protect their kids. Sigh. Or maybe it is the recent surge of news about the environment or how the north american auto industry - once the world’s great economic engine - is just about officially dead. Whatever the motivation, Honda’s new hybrid Civic almost makes me believe that big automotive companies can get it right . This is what the Honda site says about the hybrid:
Those MPG ratings are in U.S. gallons. This is a seriously fuel-efficient car. Along with this car Honda is promoting its green “Environmentology“ campaign. Take a look at this site. Honda wins the best CEO quote of the decade award with this from their former President and CEO, Hiroyuki Yoshiro. “By the year 2010, Honda wants to be . . . a company that all people . . . from all over the world will want to exist.” Can we say that about north american auto producers? Not as they exist today but companies can and do change when faced with consumers who demand better products.
2006 11 04
November 4th, 2056: The Last Fish In The World Dies
Industry pundits are agreeing today that early 21st century environmental scientists and fisheries experts were right when they predicted the world’s fish stocks would be depleted by mid-century. However, the industry spokespeople explained that protein tablets made from tar byproducts were just as healthy as fish protein and cost far less. Plans to increase the number of drilling platforms around the North Pole were also announced. “Ever since the troublesome ice finally melted,” said one, “exploiting the world’s last remaining reserves of crude oil is now financially viable.”
2006 11 03
Sustainable Living Goes Mobile
The tireless Canadian architect and innovator Lloyd Alter has done it again. As a force behind Context Development’s seminal Niagara Street condo project, Alter showed the local design community he understands the market for smart, modernist design. He is back with a product that is so evolutionary - or perhaps revolutionary - that it is the answer to mass-produced, green living for the rest of us.
Alter and co. recently launched http://www.sustain.ca to promote his new miniHome line of self-contained, turn-key, ecological homes. While not completely zero-footprint, the new miniHomes come as close to it as anything found anywhere. This lifts Alter and the home’s designer, Andy Thomson, and indeed Canadian sustainable design, to the top ranks of the exploding eco-industry. Why? Take a look at the miniHome’s energy conserving features:
Now, all of those energy saving stats may have made you think that living in a miniHome is like living in a laboratory. Far from it. Thomson used his knowledge of modern, attractive design to make this a comfortable, well-considered home. That it is also environmentally leading-edge and affordable - prices start at just over $100k - makes it irresistible. Think of it as a Smart Car for living and you will be on the right track.
2006 11 01
Do You Have A Black Cloud Over Your Head?
2006 10 30
3.1 Billion Pounds of Exhaust To Bury 1.5 Billion Pounds Of Solid Waste
Dump image from York University’s Environmental Studies web site Mayoralty candidates Stephen LeDrew, Rod Muir, and Jane Pitfield joined the Alphabet City Trash Festival crew Saturday night at the MaRS Centre on College Street to discuss the city’s garbage crisis (Mayor Miller declined the invitation to attend). In spite of what many people in our city seem to think about political candidates in general, those people who came to listen and ask questions found that the three performed well - they had ideas that might even work to reduce our city’s ecological footprint. While researching my preamble to the evening’s discussion - I moderated the event - it occurred to me that the real cost in environmental impact terms of shipping tons of garbage hundreds of kilometers was never made public. I wanted to know how much air pollution a truck creates when carrying one ton of cargo one kilometer. With that information in hand it would be easy to determine how much invisible damage our NIMBYism was inflicting on the environment. According to a study sighted by the Victoria Transit Policy Institute, in 2002 transport trucks produced on average 12.7 pounds of pollution emissions per ton per mile (or roughly 8 pounds per kilometer). The Michigan dump site is about 260 miles from Toronto or 418 kilometers. In 2005 we sent 86 trucks a day 365 days of the year to Michigan. They carried a total of 750,000 tons of Toronto garbage. That is 1.5 billion pounds of solid waste. So, let’s do the math. For the sake of fairness, we will reduce the pollution generated on the empty return trip to Toronto to one-quarter. To do that we will say the trucks travelled only 100 kilometers on the way back. Total trip length 418 + 100 = 518 kilometers Total pollution per kilometer = 8 pounds Total Tons shipped = 750,000 Then 518 x 8 x 750,000 = 3,108,000,000 pounds of tailpipe pollution. There it is folks. To move 1.5 billion pounds of garbage so we don’t have to face our local responsibilities for waste reduction and management, we create at minimum 3.1 billion pounds of “Invisible” waste not to mention the other physical problems having those trucks on the roads produces (this does not factor in the pollution created by the truck drivers in turn driving to their jobs, manufacturing the trucks, producing diesel fuel, etc.,). The purchase of a new dump in Ontario reduces the amount of pollution but is still unconscionable. Toronto has to deal with its local waste issues locally. To the panelists’ credit, that was their position. Each offered different approaches. Given Rod Muir’s experience as founder of Waste Diversion Toronto, it was not surprising that he had probably the best practical solutions to reducing Toronto’s waste. Jane Pitfield was a close second given her long experience on City Council and as Chair of the Works Committee, she knew the issues from the perspective of an involved politician. Stephen LeDrew was a contender in spirit but seemed - and this is from the awkward perspective of the moderator who cannot be as objective as an audience member - passionate about the issue but not as informed. Incineration, or more accurately gasification, was discussed and all three agreed that it could be used if, and only if, pollutants we rigorously controlled. Rod Muir was least in favour of the option saying only 5% of the city’s waste need be dealt with this way. Still, when faced with the fact of how much air pollution we generate trucking garbage to Michigan, it is hard to imagine (...read more...)
2006 10 27
Wind Energy Financing Makes A Breakthrough
Image from www.dailkos.com of the North Hoyle wind turbine installation.
Corporate Knights editor Toby Heaps’ story this issue on green power in Ontario got me thinking about how antiquated methods of project financing are a major barrier to the wider development of sustainable energy sources. So I did some research on who in the international financial community is leading the way in green energy project financing. This announcement is about the first non-recourse financing for off-shore wind farms in the industry:
Ontario and Canada’s potential for these kinds of wind projects is virtually limitless as long as we have the financing on the front end and an adequate distribution network on the back end. The Dutch financing is a breakthrough and will no doubt become a reference standard for green financing in the future. If, as Toby writes, Canadian investors like the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are indeed looking for large, green infrastructure projects, they will reference Rabobank, Dexia, and EKF’s move as an indication that institutional funds are moving in the right direction.
2006 10 26
Smart Cars and Bicycles
With 100 MPG for the car and about 750 calories each per hour for the bikes, a quick calculation suggests that this combo can displace about six or seven normal cars. Not bad really. It’s economical too.
2006 10 25
Offsetting Your Company’s Carbon Footprint
http://www.cleanairpass.com
http://www.offsetter.ca
http://www.self.org
http://www.econeutral.com
http://www.carbonneutral.com
http://www.bullfrogpower.com
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