Shivering and other ways to keep warm

[chuckChuck]

We also subsidize the oil industry with, low royalties,excessive profits, externalization of costs.

If Sask Power and Brad Wall are investing in alternatives then there has to be a good case from the most strident of anti-green Premiers. Why don't you ask Brad why?

Most of the small scale solar and wind technologies are still too expensive for individuals in this cheap energy era when building efficiently. But that will change as unit numbers go up and costs go down.

Extra insulation and high efficiency heating systems are already installed on this farm and have already paid for themselves.

Which is a better investment, tungsten bulbs that last a few months or LED bulbs which last for years and use a fraction of the electricity?

Sounds like a lot of you want to live in the dark ages and rely on "old" technology when new and green technology will be cheaper and better.

What was wrong with the old telephones and party lines? Why not use typewriters and send a letter to Editor expressing your views? Why use Agriville?

[Oliver88]

Comedy for today from chuckchuck.

"Sounds like a lot of you want to live in the dark ages and rely on "old" technology when new and green technology will be cheaper and better."

Did you read how the wind power is affecting prices in Ontario with their $38 billion boondoggle?!

[chuckChuck]

China should be given more credit for its investment in clean electricity, the head of the International Energy Agency says.

Maria van der Hoeven says most people think that China is frantically building coal-fired power stations.

The reality, she says, is that China is spending as much as the US and Europe put together on clean power.

She says its coal-fired power stations are state of the art - and should be copied in other developing countries.

Maria van der Hoeven told BBC News: "People think about China in a way more representative of previous decades.

"They are now the largest wind power market in the world. They have increased their power generation from renewables from really nothing 10 years ago - and now it's 25%. These are very important signals that China is moving into the right direction."

Her organisation - the rich countries' energy think-tank - says in 2014 that China spent more than $80bn in new renewables generating capacity; higher than the EU ($46bn); Japan ($37bn) and the USA ($34bn).

China's commitment to renewables has benefited the rest of the world by creating a mass market that prompted a 70% reduction in the cost of solar panels in recent years.
Paris summit

The country is also building 50 new nuclear power stations and creating economies of scale in nuclear too, the IEA says, at a time when the industry is moribund in Europe.

Ms van der Hoeven's comments come in the week that China is expected formally to declare its climate change pledge in preparation for the UN climate summit in Paris in December.

Last year the nation reported that its emissions had fallen by 1% as coal use slumped.
Image caption A power plant near Hengshui in China's Hebei province.

Ms van der Hoeven said China was still investing heavily in coal-fired power plants, but that the power stations were highly efficient and enabled old inefficient plants to be retired.

This was an example to some other developing nations that still used much less efficient technology, she added.

The IEA says if other nations can be persuaded to use better technology to improve performance by just a few percentage points, it would equal the entire carbon reductions effort from the EU.

But despite its admiration for China's achievement, the IEA is still critical of what it says is the nation's lack of transparency on data.

And it says that because of China's vast size and its growing wealth, the country's emissions are expected by 2030 to be two and a half times higher than the next bigger emitter, the US.

[chuckChuck]

Oliver 88 please explain why Brad Wall is investing in green energy? Does he not understand that oil and fossil energy is the only way to go? What is wrong with Brad? Also please explain why there are so many wind mills between Minot and Bismarck? Are they stupid in ND?

What about China?

From the BBC:
China should be given more credit for its investment in clean electricity, the head of the International Energy Agency says.

Maria van der Hoeven says most people think that China is frantically building coal-fired power stations.

The reality, she says, is that China is spending as much as the US and Europe put together on clean power.

She says its coal-fired power stations are state of the art - and should be copied in other developing countries.

Maria van der Hoeven told BBC News: "People think about China in a way more representative of previous decades.

"They are now the largest wind power market in the world. They have increased their power generation from renewables from really nothing 10 years ago - and now it's 25%. These are very important signals that China is moving into the right direction."

Her organisation - the rich countries' energy think-tank - says in 2014 that China spent more than $80bn in new renewables generating capacity; higher than the EU ($46bn); Japan ($37bn) and the USA ($34bn).

China's commitment to renewables has benefited the rest of the world by creating a mass market that prompted a 70% reduction in the cost of solar panels in recent years.
Paris summit

The country is also building 50 new nuclear power stations and creating economies of scale in nuclear too, the IEA says, at a time when the industry is moribund in Europe.

Ms van der Hoeven's comments come in the week that China is expected formally to declare its climate change pledge in preparation for the UN climate summit in Paris in December.

Last year the nation reported that its emissions had fallen by 1% as coal use slumped.
Image caption A power plant near Hengshui in China's Hebei province.

Ms van der Hoeven said China was still investing heavily in coal-fired power plants, but that the power stations were highly efficient and enabled old inefficient plants to be retired.

This was an example to some other developing nations that still used much less efficient technology, she added.

The IEA says if other nations can be persuaded to use better technology to improve performance by just a few percentage points, it would equal the entire carbon reductions effort from the EU.

But despite its admiration for China's achievement, the IEA is still critical of what it says is the nation's lack of transparency on data.

And it says that because of China's vast size and its growing wealth, the country's emissions are expected by 2030 to be two and a half times higher than the next bigger emitter, the US.

[Oliver88]

This is what a having a "green/Suzuki" fan running the province leads to:

Ontario Hydro Auditor's Report Finds Consumers Overcharged By $37 Billion

By The Canadian Press 12/03/2015

TORONTO -- Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says electricity customers in Ontario have paid billions of dollars for the Liberal government's decisions to ignore its own planning process for new power generation projects.

The Ontario Power Authority's 20-year technical plan, which was updated every three years and reviewed by the Ontario Energy Board, would have offered protection to consumers, said Lysyk.

"Instead of following the legislated process, the Ministry of Energy itself effectively assumed responsibility for electricity planning," she said.





The ministry issued policy plans and 93 directives that the auditor said "did not fully consider the state of the electricity market, did not take long-term effects fully into account," and sometimes went against the OPA's advice.

"Ontario electricity ratepayers have had to pay billions for these decisions," she said.

The electricity portion of hydro bills for homes and small businesses rose 70 per cent between 2006 and 2014, which Lysyk said cost consumers $37 billion dollars in so-called Global Adjustment payments to generators -- and will cost ratepayers another $133 billion by 2032.

The auditor found the Green Energy Act is also driving up rates. Hydro customers will pay a total of $9.2 billion more for wind and solar projects under the Liberals' 20-year guaranteed-price program for renewable energy than they would have paid under the old program.

Ontario's guaranteed prices for wind power generators are double the U.S. average, while the province's solar power rates are three-and-a-half times higher.

The auditor said the lack of a co-ordinated planning process resulted in additional cost of $408 million to pay generators for the increased power they produced, or for not producing power at the request of the system operator.

Ontario's average annual electricity surplus between 2009 and 2014 was equal to the total power generation capacity of Manitoba, and in the next five years its base load generation will exceed Ontario's demand by an amount equal to Nova Scotia's power needs for five years.

In her report, the auditor general said the reliability of Hydro One, which owns the province's transmission grid and also serves as a local distribution company for 1.3 million customers in rural and northern Ontario, has "worsened considerably." Its distribution system was consistently one of the least reliable in Canada, said Lysyk.

"There is a risk of more power failures because Hydro One is not replacing transmission assets that have exceeded their planned useful service life," she said.

The auditor's report is also critical of the way the Liberals hand out taxpayers' money.

Lysyk found 80 per cent of $1.45 billion in funding from the Ministry of Economic Development and Employment went to companies the Liberals invited to apply, but they couldn't provide criteria they used to select firms or say if they created jobs.

Nine other ministries gave out another $1.8 billion in funding for similar projects, but the auditor found there is no co-ordination of the government spending, and there was no follow-up to see if the jobs created or retained still existed after the funding ended.

The Ministry of Finance provides over $1.3 billion in corporate income-tax credits targeted to economic development and jobs each year, but the Ministry of Economic Development "rarely considers these when determining which businesses to provide grants and loans to."

The Ministry of Research and Innovation does not track the total amount of money invested by the government in research and development, nor does it evaluate the impact of research funded by the province, which gave universities $1.9 billion over the past five years.

The auditor also takes the Liberals to task for poor oversight and inconsistent service levels at Community Care Access Centres and Local Health Integration Networks, and for not responding quickly enough to reports of critical incidents at the Ontario's 630 long-term care homes, which get $3.6 billion a year in provincial funding.

She also wants more specifics on how they plan to lower the province's debt-to-GDP ratio to 27 per cent from the 39.5 per cent reported in March, and warns net debt of $284.5 billion will soar to $319.5 billion by 2017-18, which is when the Liberals have promised to eliminate the deficit.

[rook]

Renewables are great but we need ways to store electricity, either batteries or a brand new technology for when the sun isn't shining or its calm out.
Personally I think we should burn coal until it's all gone and then switch to nuclear.

[dalek]

Keep in mind that the old steam tractors running on wood are about as renewable as wind or solar if you're selective cutting and using an axe and a crosscut

[dalek]

Rook - this project http://www.northlandpower.ca/What-We-Do/Development-Projects/hydro/Marmora_Pumped_Storage.aspx would basically "store" all that power we don't currently use and release it when we need it. McGuinty and now Wynne have been stalling it for almost a decade now even though it might just be the best option going

[furrowtickler]

lets force the industry to use 50% bio diesel from canola . It's renuable . Also push for at least 50% ethonal from wheat . Come on greenies lets do it ...... Let's save the planet from horrible fossil fuels

[greybeard]

Have to get in on the biggest cut and paste in the history of aggriville:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2237rank.html#ca
Acording to the numbers we are almost insignificant,many smaller economies generate much more from fosil fuel electrical plants.
If we have all these natural resource advantage's, can we logically expect to replace those high paying jobs with something as subsidized as green energy?
Where will our cash come from to subsidize that growth?
I can't see anything but layoffs and deficits.
Back to going down east asking for support.
Canada won't survive as we know it.

[Hamloc]

Why is it that none of our resident left of center thinkers on Agriville will come to the defence of the Ontario Liberals and their green energy debacle?

[oneoff]

Perhaps the practical answer is that someday society must look at the big picture.

And what energy consumers will find is that your energy supplies must be depend and center on the "electrical grid"; as a hundred thousand interconnected solar or wind panels aren't going to happen overnight ...(if ever at all). Do you not know that there isn't one "flare gas" connection less than 100KW capacity hooked to Sask Power's grid. And with the red tape associated (and deliberate road blocks); not to mention the total economic impracticality of even contemplating such connections; we are condemned to let some government or major company do things that make 20% plus rates of return.

AND its bad enough trying to keep warm and "productive" in the middle of winter north of even the 49th parallel in a snowstorm; let alone with the wind blowing and doubling the energy losses due to wind chill factor.
And we do need wind for wind power; and the sun while warming can't even melt snow banks in winter time when given full access to whole quarter sections.

Unless you hunker down in your cabin; under layers of blankets; and have your supply of wood or natural gas capable of full capacity; and don't open the doors for even a minute; when you'll feel the temperature dropping in less than seconds.

And then there are those wonderful LED light bulbs. We're going to notice that the furnace runs longer because those don't give off much heat. Now where is there any negative benefit when the inefficient bulbs contribute necessary heat at 100% efficiency.
Its a big assumption that everybody just needs a wind mill to generate energy needs. First the wind must blow continuously enough and not too strong or too feebly. I assure your energy producing project will succeed or fail on that factor alone.

And for the forseeable future that furnace is going to be fed either by carbon taxed natural gas (but with the oil industry planned to be capped and wound down in the forseeable future that apparently isn't a long term option) and North American coal fired power plants all shut down even sooner. Or some other suppliers hydroelectric supply ( which many would say should be returned to Mother Nature). And solar panel that will get destroyed by the next hail storm.

Perhaps we use the concentrated and pretty well suited fossil fuels for some compelling reasons.

Naw...some people would have Westerners in the wrong place at definately the wrong time.

However it won't unwind in the ways that
minds of marijuana clouded supporters have planned.

First of all they have already figured out that jumping on a jet (preferably using the dimes provided by the public or employer) can get you to a beach where you can offer trinkets or a tip of a few "pesos" to live like a king. Just think what's really in the minds of those maids.

There never was much competition to live in Sask....and never will be to live in Canada in the winter eh!!

We're here because we don't know any better...and on our own (with a little help from some friends) the grass grows quite green (on average).

An with some practical coal and oil and uranium resources and manufactured goods produced from materials available in this province; and what minor amounts of wind and sun's rays that can be captured without going bankrupt; a modest amount of people can and will survive here.

[oneoff]

DESPITE ALL ODDS

[burnt]

Oneoff, that was succinct, comprehensive, brilliant and right on the "money".

[TOM4CWB]

Imagine what will happen to the Wind Turbines and Solar panels... with the first big Sun burp... Mass coronal ejection event... something much more a clear and present danger.... than C02. Are we stupid or ...