Mini Solar Tour in the Fog of Wood Mountain and Glentworth

I went on a road trip Saturday with my friend Adam K., down to my parents’ place, and his grandparents’ farm. On the way around southern Saskatchewan, we saw close to 150 deer and antelope, a snowy owl, a dozen hawks, a handful of Canada Geese, smaller birds, two dead raccoons, and the final resting place of four children who passed away in 1919 (Spanish Flu maybe?).

The road into Regina was ice, and the road to Moose Jaw was quite a bit better, but still partly covered in a thick layer of ice. There was a semi on the eastbound highway that had done a 180, and blew open its trailer door, strewing boxes across the ditch at Belle Plaine.

We filled up in Moose Jaw, then ate at the Steakhouse in Assiniboia (we had waffles). The GPS kept trying to convince us to turn off the paved road instead of going to Limerick. We went to Limerick, I took a couple photos, and on through flooded Flintof and dry Wood Mountain we continued. Many deer were along the way, and the misting rain continued through the trip after Moose Jaw’s southern hills.

- A hawk about to land

After second lunch we strolled around the various energy and heating systems my parents had installed for their home.

Convincing SaskPower that a generator ring/link was a good idea for a Saskatchewan power meter, took some convincing. Fortunately Dad is persistent.

- 1925 built Ukrainian Catholic near Glentworth, SK

More photos next time of the animals who made this print:

Tarsand Analogy

This is an unpolished analogy of Canada’s attitude toward the tarsand/climate change problem.

Let’s say Canada is a person complaining about their weight (they think their carbon footprints are too heavy). To solve this problem they read a diet book that their friend Europa suggested to them, and they even try to get FIT in the Ontario core area, but they continue to eat at the greasy Tar Sands Cafe every day and never learn to cook their own meals in a solar oven. Canada’s friend Alberta and Tex suggest a new method of eating at the Tar Sands which will improve Canada’s bank account by next year. The only catch is that it requires hooking a food line right into a vein and causes early death. Canada isn’t totally sold on the idea, but is addicted, so this mainline seems like an option. Plus, they’re scared about not having enough money.

Canada could choose to start using their solar oven, and make meals at home, but would have to convince Tex and Alberta to join them in making healthier food. That seems like too much work, and it’s so much easier to take the mainline and watch Rex Murphy rant on TV about how things should never change. The dough rolls in, and the weight piles on.

Oiled Up

There’s a suspicious situation uncovered at the UofR, by CBC. IPAC, the CO(2) CCS project was audited, and there were apparent conflicts of interest in how some of the money was spent. The report stopped short of saying there was crime, but implied there was the possibility of it.

Only last week I saw a CCTV ad for IPAC-CO2 appear out of nowhere, and I was unfamiliar with the logo they used until I spelled it out and realized it must be for the CCS project. This is the “heart of the Saskatchewan Party’s plan to tackle climate change”, according to Geoff Leo of CBC.

CVI is an IT provider, but they were getting over half of the budget. “There was no set of deliverables.”

One apparent conflict of interest, was Malcolm Wilson for a time being on the board of CVI. He reportedly returned shares so as to not profit from the work.

The Sask Party Minister for CIC, Donna Harpauer said “it’s a conflict of interest”. Wilson, through his lawyer told CBC that when the facts are all in, there was no conflict of interest. A Mr. Fitzpatrick, in the audio interview, said there was “no impropriety”.

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Side note: I’ve appeared in a Global TV report years ago with both Wilson, and Brad Wall.

Shell, along with the provincial and federal governments gave the UofR millions of dollars years ago to pursue Carbon Capture & Storage at their test facility at Estevan. I’ve toured it; they were using North Dakota’s CO2 gas, instead of gas from the coal plant the test site is built beside. To that point, in ~2008, no gas from power SK production had been stored. I assume that remains the case.

Why would Shell, which has little to do with coal power, invest millions into this R&D? CCS has the ‘side effect’ of forcing exhausted oil fields into extended opportunities of production. In short, put the gas down, and oil comes out. We then burn that oil without using CCS, further limiting the net benefits of CCS.

There are presently 0 “clean coal” plants in production in the world.

The U of R, despite saying they are a “clean energy” research facility, presently has 0 solar panels in production, and 1 VAT windmill in research & production.

More Power Blows

There are recent solar electricity records set in Germany, and Spain has recently seen a huge increase in wind power production. Meanwhile, SaskPower has solar power research from 13 years ago on its website, claims solar isn’t viable in the northern hemisphere, and is eyeing up more coal fired generation. The U of R has 0 solar panels in productive research (or otherwise), while my parents have 15 solar panels in productive research for the Sask. Research Council. Canada, and Saskatchewan are lagging behind, we’re becoming the technological 3rd World of G8 nations.

Here’s what a Brit thinks about their country, which apparently is ahead of Canada:

The Spanish average output is 60% higher than our highest ever peak output. That’s embarrassing.

“German wind energy industry association BWE said it expects developers to add between 3GW and 3.5GW of capacity this year”

Again, comparing to your figures of UK installed capacity of 7.77GW – Germany might install 45% of our entire wind capacity in 2013 alone.

It’s about time we became serious as a country and stopped dithering.

The UK is dithering? Oh, my. What are Saskatchewan “leaders” thinking? Are they even living on this planet? When those of us who are, attempt to talk to them about it, they’re more likely to arrest people than listen, apparently.

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Here’s what the UK grid looks like right now.

SaskPower: At Least 13 Years Out of Touch

I’m sorry Canada, and the world. I’ve tried to convince my province’s public utility that there are huge benefits from dialing down the reliance on coal burned electricity, but they won’t listen. They haven’t even removed or updated a shockingly out-dated “Solar” page on their website that lists information that became obsolete a decade ago. There are such great advances in research, and cost expectations of renewable power, I can’t easily accept that the business people at the utility company are so daft. (They don’t even recognize that Spain’s in the northern hemisphere, so I shouldn’t be so surprised.)

I hope others join me in asking for the tangible results the “clean energy research chair” has brought the UofR thus far, as the province’s leading clean energy research facility. Ask the UofR how many windmills, and how many solar panels it has in research or in production. The answer presently is 1 windmill and 0 solar panels. There are farmers in Saskatchewan with more of each. Is the SaskParty government funding our universities so they can get into this very important area of research? Not really.

I’m hoping another recent letter to my MLA will help prod them along, but unless more people start to put some pressure on the utility company to modernize, I don’t think we’re going to be able to collectively do our part to limit Saskatchewan’s gross impact on air pollution and climate change. I’m really very sorry for not being more effective at such a crucial point in human history.

Folk Festival Saturday

Some more photos from the Wood Mountain Folk Festival, with videos to come when I send some to YouTube.

Little Miss Higgins

The backdrop over the audience

Scene from that hill

Scene on that hill

Sunset from that hill

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On Sunday, my Mum and I helped out at the pancake breakfast, moving tables, serving, etc. Dad contributed some solar powered lighting for the info booth the night before, so we picked that equipment up too. The “green” stage was powered by 4 solar panels, and had a backup cooking oil generator which they never needed to fire up while I was there.

As Close As We’ll Get

SaskAdapt.ca feels like waving the white flag, but it is an important website, and a project at the UofR. It’s also the closest we’ll get to an admission from the Sask Party government that climate change is real, and is a grave threat to our people (and every living thing today).

Speaking of this, has anyone heard a peep from the Office of Climate Change, touted by the Ministry of Environment about two years ago? I haven’t, but I did give a call to the Climate Change branch of Environment, and they said they are it, the office set up in the wake of the legislation for the Office of Climate Change.

Solar Tour

On the weekend I had a fantastic tour of the Regina area, along with my parents, seeing the sights highlighted by conversions to solar energy. Solar PV, and active and passive solar heating were demonstrated in locations adjacent to the General Hospital, Shannon Road in south Regina (part of where I’m running to be a city Councillor), and as far away as Craven and Katepwa were explored too.

-Solar oven and solar cooker
A garter snake enjoying a pond aerated by a direct solar pump.

-A sponsor who has installed some of the systems seen on the tour.

Wind systems were on display sometimes too. This one was at Jim Harding’s place.

I missed them all posing, but this is an interesting shot, with so many angles in it.

James is facing the camera, Greg is profile, and I’m not sure who is facing away.

-A ‘simple’ battery charge controller, used with one panel on Shannon Rd.

Take a look at inverter statistics from a Net Metered, ground mounted, 15 PV panel array installed in southern Saskatchewan for over a year. It’s using Enlighten micro-inverters.

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Tonight, on the Rick Mercer Report, he installs solar panels with Mike Holmes.

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Here’s a featured Enphase array.

No Reply from SaskPower

SaskPower’s VP May failed to respond to my followup points, so I’ve included her entire initial reply at my earlier post. I wrote a letter months ago to ask why solar power information on the SaskPower website is out of date and now wrong. The response was underwhelming.

The webpages remain out of date, one has information/analysis 12 years old on it. One talks about CCS, which I wrote about yesterday. Could SaskPower be focusing on the wrong “clean” technologies? Their website and lack of response to me would suggest so.

Good Thing It’s ^Not Pollution, Eh?

- Research and Innovation Centre at UofRegina; site of “clean energy” investment by Shell and other fine fossil fuel financiers.

One of the more ridiculous logical fallacies that climate change denialists use is that carbon dioxide can’t be pollution because it can also be breathed by plant life. It’s really sweet they care so much about plants’ respiration, but I’m a little more concerned with the survivability of humanity instead of worrying that plants won’t have more than sufficient CO(2). (Never mind that most of these same people would probably soak dandelions with chemicals that would make your newborn’s toes curl.)

Why do I bring this up? Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is hitting some tough times. Sadly, this is the “clean energy” technology that the one basket UofR has most of its “clean energy” research eggs in.

Here’s why the oil industry isn’t bothering with CCS:

“Our decision was essentially based on the fact that we could not see a way to make the economics of our CCS project work as we originally intended,” said Don Wharton, vice-president of policy and sustainability at TransAlta.

He said markets for pure carbon didn’t develop as expected, and federal and provincial governments took no steps to recognize the value of reduced emissions by implementing a price on carbon, for example, or a cap-and-trade system.

In short, despite nearly $800 million in government subsidies, the company had no incentive to invest in CCS.

Let’s keep in mind that the Harper Cons haven’t merely poured hundreds of millions of dollars into CCS: they’ve in fact done so to the exclusion of any other climate-change funding (since their initial period of poorly-feigned interest in the environment when Stephane Dion was Lib leader).

6 years later, and there’s no Made in Canada solution to climate change, as I predicted very easily. There are plenty of Made in America excuses, however. And as our society focuses on technologies that are designed to benefit the oil and coal industries, we shortchange innovation in renewable energy technology. The UofR has more than 12,000 students, yet it has one VAT windmill in testing mode on its ~18 buildings, and zero production solar panels that I’m aware of. Yet it’s a world leader in CCS research. Could it be the Conservatives and Sask Party are content pretending that they are investing millions into Big Oil and Coal’s “clean energy”, while their investment will be totally useless to private [and crown] industry producing electricity?

Opportunity Cost; Opportunity, Lost. At least too much CO(2) means some healthy plants… somewhere. I guess human vegetables like to look out for their own kind.