sunwindandwater.org

Welcome! The aim of this website is to educate people and to promote sustainable living practices, principally through the use of renewable energy and building techniques which yield improved energy conservation.

My goal is to make a meaningful contribution towards having 100% of Ontario's electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2030. I think this is possible, but to say that it will be a lot of work is an understatement.

If you put into practice anything that you learn here, or if you in some way assist or encourage others to do so, thank you, because you are helping me to reach my goal. Corrections or suggestions for improvements to this website are always welcomed.

-Mike Brigham, Toronto   email me

News
July 2nd -

June 5th - OPA FIT Update. More than 14,000 FIT & MicroFIT applications have been received! The OPA is ramping up efforts to deal with the volume of applications. Details here.

May 20th - A definitive ruling has come from the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health on the impacts of wind turbines on human health. In a report released earlier today, Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer announced that “The scientific evidence does not demonstrate any direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects.” Access the report here.

May 12th - Well it finally looks like the Canadian government is going to have to start taking meaningful steps towards dealing with climate change with the passing on May 5th of the third reading vote on the Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311). This act requires that the Canadian federal government implement regulations and policies to attain a long-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below the 1990 level by 2050. Even the opposition voted in favour of it! Here is the press release.

April 29th- The OPA now has over 8,200 MicroFIT applications pending! Ontario is indeed embracing solar. Also this week, the motion in the House Of Commons to invoke a moritorium on the building of more wind projects was defeated. Peter Tabuns, the NDP Energy Critic gave a great speech about it. Read it here.

April 23rd - Great PR fr the FIT program, when TD Bank announces that they are now actively offering financing for MicroFIT (residential sized solar electric) systems. Watch the TV segment here.

April 8th - The OPA announced today almost 2,500 megawatts of FIT contracts were offered in 184 new projects, or enough to power 600,000 homes. Sadly, many projects couldn't yet proceed because Ontario's grid in many places can't handle the power, but work has begun on planning grid upgrades to handle the new, distributed energy sources.

March 31st - Germany's Renewable Energy Industry boomed in 2009, with RE making up a record 16.1% of Germany's entire electrical generation. This was just one of the interesting facts in the full German government report on their development of renewable energy sources 2009, just released.

Feb 23rd - Is the Samsung deal good for Ontario? An expert panel including Kris Stevens debates the issue on The Agenda with Steve Paiken.

Feb 11th - Six Nations signs a deal with Samsung to build a $40 million solar farm near Brantford.

Feb 5th - Canadian companies will be exempt from a protectionist "Buy American" clause in the U.S. government's $787-billion US economic stimulus package, the federal government announced today. Unfortunately, this won't cover renewable energy products! The reason is unclear, but this is unfortunate.

Jan 1st - I now have my first year's worth of solid data on my solar system's performance (PV & thermal) and comparisons to projected energy production and my home's energy use. Overall, I generated 11% more power than I used, despite a crappy year for sunshine. My work progresses on the SolarShare project and my new year's resolution was to see the first one generating in 2010.

Dec 14th - Al Gore praises Ontarios Green Energy Act as groundbreaking in North America.
Mayor David Miller's Copenhagen video features our Windshare turbine at Ex Place.

Dec 2 - A report just released from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes that there is no discernable impact on the values of homes due to nearby wind farms. The anti-wind groups won't like this news. Here's the report: <http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/re-pubs.html>

Oct 29/09 An article by Richard Blackwell in today's Globe & Mail says that Ontario's new Green Energy Act could pump as much as $4.5-billion into the hands of the province's companies, utilities and power distribution firms. Here's hoping.

Oct 21/09 Great News: The OPA has just announced that systems under 500kW that were in operation before Oct 1, 2009 will be permitted to get FIT contracts and that the new domestic content rules will be waived! This is great news for the solar pioneers who had been feeling that they were left out in the cold by the program they helped pave the way for.

Oct 16/09 Now that the FIT program is live, the real work begins in proceeding to install systems. The hot topic issues right now are the Ontario content rules (felt by many in the industry to be too high in the 2011 requirements) and the jury is still out on whether the 550 meter minimum setback for wind turbines will kill many projects.

The OPA and Minister Smitherman still stand firm that projects (even the residential MicroFIT solar projects) constructed between the RESOP and the FITs programs must meet the (then unknown) local content rules. This seems patently unfair and here is an Ottawa Citizen story about Graham Findlay's problems which illustrate. A small opening from the Minister?
<http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Provincial+rule+shatters+green+dream/2098218/story.html>

Sept 24/09 The FIT programs go live October 1st! Program rules, contracts, price schedules plus the Renewable Energy Approval (REA) and local content rules have all now been published. This should be interesting. Go to my FITs page here for more info.

August 14/09 The MicroFIT rules and contract have now been published and the rest of the FIT rules and agreements have now been gone over by all involved. The wait is not on for the local content rules and Renewable Energy Approval. Soon we all hope. Click here for MicroFIT Q&A that I have compiled.

July 3/09 Well we trudge on, but progress isn't coming as quickly as we'd like. The Ministry of Energy's Renewable Energy Approval (REA) needed a lot of changes and now that the consultations are over, we wait. I caouldn't see the merits of including rooftop solar in the REA process at all, and other people gave them the same feedback. At the moment, the whole FITs program will be held back until August or September due to Domestic Content Rules (actually provincial content, but that't not what they'e calling it), and hopefully next week, the revised FITs rules. Hopefully the simple Micro FIT program will be released sooner.

May 14/09   Hurrah, the Green Energy Act has passed! What alot of work that was. Now on to the resulting regulations and policies. A major step forward. I had the pleasure of getting into the presentation by Deb Doncaster and David Donnelly to George Smitherman, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. See the picture.

April 27/09    A vast majority of Ontarians support Ontario's proposed Green Energy Act, according to a public opinion poll released today by a coalition of environmental groups, farmers, labour unions, and industry associations. Eighty seven per cent (87%) of respondents said they support the proposed Green Energy Act. The poll shows support is widespread across the province, with the highest support in Northern Ontario (93%), Toronto (89%), and the GTA/905 (88%)

April 22/09 The Ontario Power Authority has recently conducted a renewable energy supply survey to better understand the near-term development potential of renewable projects. The survey results indicated a potential of 15,128MW of renewable energy supply, which could provide to 20% of Ontario's current consumption of electricity! Access the page here.

April 17/09 Michael Ignatieff wants Canadians to think big, including an east-west electricity corridor. Certainly, doing so at least between Ontario's golden horsehoe and Quebec could be the key to a nuclear-free Ontario, where 100% of our electricity comes from safe clean renewable sources, as has been proposed by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. Unfortunately, in his recent book, it is revealed that this proposed corridor would be intended for the transmission of power from nuclear stations! Mr. Ignatieff will need further education here.

April 17/09 Having received White House backing, the Environmental Protection Agency declared Friday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a significant threat to human health and thus will be listed as pollutants under the Clean Air Act — a policy the Bush administration rejected. The move could allow the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, but it's more likely that the Obama administration will use the action to prod Congress to pass regulations around a system to cap and then trade emissions so that they are gradually lowered.

April 5/09: The Green Energy Act is progressing along nicely towards a June proclamation. Soon, anyone will be able to make a small profit on renewable energy systems and at the same time be part of the solution. This act should clear the way for a better future in a number of ways: cleaner air, a safer environment, increased energy price-stability and lack of dependence on oil with all the problems it brings.

April 1/09: The Toronto Renewable Energy Co-Operative is steaming right along, and this year will educate close to 10,000 school aged children on renewable energy and conservation. The highlight of our year is the Kid's World Of Energy Festival in May which is a roaring success in just its second year. Besides education, TREC is continuing the development of Our Power, a project to assist homeowners in purchasing solar electric and solar hot water systems, through the use of community buying groups. Our Power's goal for 2009 is to add 200 additional residential solar systems in Ontario.

March 24/09: Opposing wind farms should be socially taboo, says Ed Miliband. Opposition to wind farms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a seatbelt, Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, has said: "The government needs to be saying, 'It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area - like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing'." Plans to build some 4,000 onshore wind turbines are being opposed by more than 200 anti-wind farm groups. Read the whole article.

Jan 26/09: The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was founded today in Bonn. IRENA is a milestone on the road towards a future-oriented energy supply. The German government's initiative for the founding of IRENA was actively supported from the outset by Spain and Denmark. The aim of the new Agency is to close throughout the world the gap between the enormous potential of renewables and their current relatively low market share in energy consumption. IRENA is the first international organisation to focus exclusively on the issue of renewable energies. The main work of IRENA will be to advise its members on creating the right frameworks, building capacity and improving financing and the transfer of technology and know-how for renewable energies. More than 100 government delegations from all over the world took part in the Conference. Full article here.   About IRENA.