News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

With any luck, the Province of Ontario will be able to phase out their coal-fired power plants within five years, due in part to a new hard line energy act to get the province into a green plan.

Starting December 7, negotiators from the international community will be in Copenhagen for talks about the climate and will have numerous pledges and commitments to reduce their countries carbon emissions. However, the switch over to cleaner and greener energy solutions has been slow out of the gate on the North American continent. Canada and the United States are the highest producers of carbon dioxide emissions amongst all the major economies.

Now, Canada’s largest province, Ontario, would like to set its own path regarding energy. Recently, the province instituted what many authorities are saying is the most determined policy for climate change on the entire continent.

After his Mosque just north of Toronto, Ijaz Rauf points to an array of solar panels. Rauf claims to be an environmentalist, at heart, but is also the mosques educational director as a career. Three years previous, he constructed a small photovoltaic unit to aid with the power at the community’s exhibition center. His solar energy plans now, however, are much more ambitious.

Roth says they are planning to develop a project that will have 200 solar powered residences that will be tied to the grid, enabling them to sell unused electricity back to their utility.

Roth says that his project will cost individual homeowners approximately $25,000 each. It sounds like a large front and investment, but suddenly, it appears to make sense over the long-term. It makes sense since the local utility company will now be paying homeowners who invest in solar installations. $.80 for each kilowatt-hour of power they generate over the next 25 years.

Rauf and those in his neighborhood are planning to take advantage of the provinces new renewable energy policy. Ontario’s new plan means it will close all of its carbon-based coal-fired power plants over the next five years, replacing these with a broad spectrum of cleaner, renewable power projects. Before he re-signed from office, Ontario’s energy minister, George Smitherman introduced the new policy to the parliament this past spring.

He stated,” Mr. chair, the Green energy act would, if passed, truly make this province North America is green energy leader,” Smitherman continued.” The act has two equally important components. It will make it easier to introduce new renewable energy projects to the province. It would also help us to create a culture of conservation, which will encourage all Ontarians to use less electricity.”

The aggressive plan is meant to boost investment in renewable energy programs from home solar installations to biogas facilities and enormous offshore wind turbine farms. The province has yet to set particular objectives for electricity when utilizing these new renewable resources. The energy minister said that he would allow as much as individuals, as well as companies are willing to build. Analysts however, are saying the quantity could reach as high as 10 to 15% of the provinces entire electrical capacity in approximately 5 years.

According to Warren Mabee, an energy policy analyst at Queens University the scope of certain projects being planned is going to be rather huge. There could be wind turbine facilities that are generating enough electricity to power more than a million homes. There could be vital energy facilities that are generating hundreds of megawatts of electricity. He also believes that by installing rooftop solar units, quite a few residences could potentially go off the grid.

If he were correct, the European Union would be the only international region, generating more power. Anyone who believes that Ontario is punching above its weight should know that Ontario has some real advantages. The province is very large, not extremely well populated and it is blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources. Ontario has much potential for biomass, there are a lot of rivers, suitable for hydroelectric and there are also fantastic opportunities for wind, some of the best in the world. Moreover, the solar potential is unlimited.

Ontario also does not have a very large dependence on coal-fired facilities. Just 18% of its electrical power is generated from coal. In comparison, the United States is approximately 50% coal-fired electricity. Nevertheless, this new green shift energy program will not be inexpensive, and cynical pundits are stating that this could be the plan’s Achilles’ heel.

Ontario has an older power grid, essentially constructed to transmit electricity from large centralized power stations and the output could be controlled as required. This grid now needs to be updated so it can transfer power in from different sources, both big and small, and quite often, an inconsistent basis. This will cost the province billions of dollars in infrastructure.

The political concern is that by building an energy infrastructure that is this large and costly will shock the province’s constituents, this according to the opposition party’s critic for energy.

The opposition party, had the new policy put through a study, and it was concluded that residential electricity rates could quite easily double and cost. He stated that this would be an awful price to pay in order to reduce the province’s carbon emissions by only 14%. His concern is that if other territories and regions do not make like-minded choices that have the same costs, Ontario could be placed at a distinct competitive weakness.

The Liberal government on the other hand, believes that the continued pressure on the international community to reduce carbon emissions is going to dramatically raise electrical costs everywhere. Ontario is merely making the required moves first. Ontario’s green energy policy also features energy conservation standards that will reduce electricity usage up to twenty percent. The politicians have fingers crossed that as rates are rising, consumption will be coming down.

Back at the Mosque north of Toronto, Rauf is sure his solar energy development will be worth following up. He is excited that all the roofs are wide and that they face south which is perfect for capturing the sun by the photovoltaic technology and there are row upon rows of houses with this potential for solar. He believes that the new law will have many more Ontarians doing the same thing as him.

All indications are leaning in that direction since a solar company in Kitchener, Ontario, located sixty miles west of Toronto just announced plans to build a new solar manufacturing facility. The will spend close to $30 million dollars and be hiring 500 employees to produce solar power systems for Ontario.

This is only one of many ventures planned or already under way in the province. Ontario may just be on to something here with their aggressive new energy plan.