Quotes about Homelessness in Toronto

I found these quotes about homelessness in Toronto. They really hammer home the concept that affordable housing is the big issue when it comes to homelessness. (Real estate prices and rental rates in Toronto are way too high.)

And combined with that, the cost of heating and electricity.

Learn more about this topic by visiting Solving Toronto's Homeless Problem.

"Canada is the second coldest country on earth and with a climate like Canada’s, energy, like food and housing is a necessity of life." - Edward de Gale.

"It is a little known fact that the inability to pay basic utilities/energy is the second leading economic cause of homelessness in this country." - Edward de Gale.

"Over 50,000 households a year have their power disconnected in Ontario while thousands of others struggle to provide the necessary energy to stay warm and cook meals. That’s one household with their power cut every 10 minutes, every hour, of every day, for a year." - Edward de Gale.

"Many Ontario households must choose between eating and heating, and seniors and those with special needs must choose between medication and heating." - Edward de Gale.

"Families, with minor children, unable to provide basic utilities/energy for their children are vulnerable to child protection orders because they are unable to provide the necessities of life." - Edward de Gale.

Japan imposes fines on evacuation zone

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Japanese residents rushed back into the 20-kilometre evacuation zone around Japan's radiation-spewing Fukushima nuclear power plant today, grabbing whatever belongings and valuables they could before an order went into effect legally banning entry to the area.

After today any people entering the zone will be arrested and fined 100,000 Yen ($1200 USD). They can also be detained for up to 30 days.

The area effected was home to over 80,000 Japanese.

After today residents will have to apply to get brief visits, up to a max of 2 hours to collect necessities. Participants would have to go through radiation screening, and there will be a cap of 1 person per household allowed to take the risk.

No visits will be allowed in a three kilometre area closest to the plant, says Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, that zone would be completely off-limits.

The Japanese government is sending mixed messages about the severity of the radiation leakages.

See Also
Japan ignored Tsunami threat
Japan hit by 7.0 earthquake
Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Radiation levels coming from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan spiked today, reaching level 7 (complete meltdown!!!), making it on par with the level of disaster that Chernobyl was in 1986.

As a result Japanese authorities has widened the evacuation radius around the nuclear plant, and the workers trying to bring the radiation leak under control are now in greater jeopardy as the increased radiation exposure will be killing them that much faster. (It only takes 5,000-10,000 milliSieverts to kill a person.)

When the tsunami crippled the plant a month ago, causing the diesel shutdown and cooling system to break, the radiation levels in the days that followed was 400 milliSievert / hour. Today that number went up dramatically, but Japanese authorities won't comment on how high radiation levels now are.

Japan's Prime Minister meanwhile outright lied on camera today, claiming radiation levels are actually coming down.

NOTES:

A couple weeks ago just being within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima plant a person would be getting approx. 1.5 milliSieverts / hour. It would be enough to give a lethal dose within 4-5 months of living near the plant.

When Chernobyl happened the 47 closest workers all died from receiving a dose of 6,000 milliSieverts over a short time period. Its unclear what the milliSieverts / hour was.

The workers trying to fix Fukushima should be dying right now, but the Japanese government is keeping the number of radiation exposure deaths quiet. Japan claims they have workers going in shifts, but there is a limit to the number of workers who are trained in what to do.

See Also
The Fukushima Meltdown and Fallout
Japan hit by 2nd earthquake

Gas Prices to Soar in Summer 2011

CANADA - Economists are scrambling to try and get an accurate picture of how high gas prices in Canada will go.

Some economists think gas prices might go as high as $2 per litre.

Others say that it is unlikely gas prices will go that high.

But lets have a current look at the gas prices across Canada...

The average price of gasoline in Toronto on Wednesday was $1.28 per litre, up 24% compared to the same day one year ago.

Its worse in Montreal, $1.39 per litre, also up 24% compared to last year.

In Vancouver the price of gas is $1.35, up 25% compared to one year ago.

And what is causing this?

#1. Growing Demand due to the growing economy. More jobs = more people out there buying cars, going on vacations, traveling farther to get to work, etc.

#2. Revolutions in the Middle East... Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Revolutions are spreading like wildfire and its led to a shortage in oil exports from the region.

#3. The closing of several strategic refineries in eastern Canada. Blame Stephen Harper for that one. They're building new oil refineries in Alberta, basically stealing jobs from the eastern provinces and sending them to Alberta, but the rest of Canada will have to suffer higher gasoline prices while we wait for the new refineries to be built.

#4. Soaring demand for gasoline in China and India, causing oil prices to keep rising as more Chinese and Indian people buy cars.

#5. The Summer Driving Season is coming... with warm weather comes more and more people just going "out for a drive", along with vacations, road trips, etc.

#6. Speculation from the Stock Market. Basically investors jumping in there and jacking the prices up farther than they need to be.

But is this enough to push gasoline prices up to $2?

According to Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, oil prices would have to reach $215 / barrel for gasoline prices to go over the $2 per litre mark.

We disagree. We think Doug has his math backwards.

Based on the current ratio of $108 / barrel of oil = $1.30 for a litre of gasoline, we can expect that we would only need to see approx. $178 oil to get a result of $2 / litre gasoline.

According to Standard Bank they expect the average price of oil to rise 9% to $120 / barrel by the end of 2011, but they also say that we can expect higher oil prices during the Summer of 2011.

In 2008 we saw $147 / barrel oil, an all time record. Its possible if more problems happen that we could see oil prices go that high again, or even higher.

For example if Saudi Arabia got a full blown revolution on their hands it would really hurt oil exports to the USA, China and India, which in turn would cause a global shortage in oil.

On top of all this is the economic impact of higher transportation costs. The cost of food, retail goods, etc. all go up.

Jeff Rubin, former chief economist and managing director of CIBC World Markets, thinks $2 per litre gas prices could become a reality as soon as 2012 due to soaring world demand, fueled mostly by China and India.

“China alone added over a million barrels a day last year,” says Rubin, author of Why Your World Is About To Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization.

“We’re seeing absolutely no cessation in world oil demand. I think we’re looking at prices by the end of the year testing, and quite possibly exceeding, the $147 a barrel mark we saw in 2008.”

But those higher prices could lead to another recession as more people choose to put gasoline in the cars so they can get to work, as opposed to making their mortgage payments (the same problem which kicked off the liquidity crisis in 2008).

In the meantime check out tomorrowsgaspricetoday.com

Blast from the Past: Hundred Dollar Oil recorded the 2008 oil crisis as it happened. If you look at the oil prices timeline you will note that it only took 4 months to go from

March 11th 2008 - $109.72 USD / barrel of oil.

to...

July 11th 2008 - $147.27 USD / barrel of oil.

So a lot can change in a short time period.

Japanese ignored Tsunami threat

By Ai Lung Nguyen - March 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - The Japanese government admitted Tuesday that its safety precautions were insufficient to protect a nuclear plant against the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility and caused it to spew radiation. An overhaul of safety standards is in the works.

The Fukushima Daiichi struggle has unfolded with constant missteps and accidents, including an incident where two workers were drenched Tuesday with radioactive water.

A level of imcompetency has plagued the disaster relief efforts as a plethora of other incidents have led to serious doubts about the quality of the workers at the nuclear plant, hired perhaps because of their willingness to risk their lives in exchange for money, and not because of any engineering background.

The March 11th tsunami which killed over 25,000 Japanese (some people are still missing and not confirmed dead) has unveiled a lack of education and safety standards amongst the workers.

Damage from the tsunami exceeds $310 billion, the most expensive natural disaster on record, and has crippled Japan's economy. Coupled with the incompetency of the workers its a shameful exhibition that will hurt Japan's reputation for years to come.

More Accidents and Gaffs:

The Japanese government has been telling residents near the disaster zone to stay indoors and that this will protect them from the radiation. (Radiation goes right through walls, stone, etc. Only lead walls slows down radiation, although not completely.)

Specks of Plutonium has been found in earth samples found near the plant, the result of debris from explosions inside the plant. If someone collected enough Plutonium (10 kg worth) they could make a small nuclear bomb. The region should be sealed off by the Japanese military and they should be checking all people leaving the zone for radiation levels to prevent plutonium smuggling.

The Japanese have been dumping radioactive water into the ocean because they don't know where else to put it. Trucking the water and storing it somewhere safer has not occurred to them. The radioactive water is now causing many countries to be skeptical about fish imported from Japan.

The dirty radioactive water in question includes plutonium debris as well.

There has been proposals that the water could be stored in oil tankers instead, but the Japanese government seems to be too busy bickering. For now the water is being poured into poorly dug trenches, causing the water to seep into the ground and into the local drinking water, rivers and the ocean.

Another mishap happened Tuesday, when three workers trying to connect a pump outside the Unit 3 reactor were splashed by radioactive water that gushed from a pipe. They were supposed to be wearing radiation protective suits meant to be waterproof but ended up soaked with the contaminated water.

Last week, two workers were hospitalized with severe burns after issued ankle-high protective boots and told to walk through highly radioactive knee-high water.

There has also been a lot of miscommunication and lies company from TEPCO, the utility company in charge of the nuclear plant and cleanup has been lying constantly about the radiation levels being released (the same way BP Oil lied about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico).

“This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan,” says Prime Minister Naoto Kan, saying that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II.

But Naoto Kan is hardly able to do anything. He is being hampered by opposition lawmakers like Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you handle the crisis,” says Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you be in charge of Japan’s crisis management.”

You would think Japan would learn to work together in such a crisis, but apparently there is always a few bad eggs who would rather resort to partisan politics.

The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown and Fallout

ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH - On Wednesday March 11th 2011 a 9.0 earthquake took place off the coast of Japan and unleashed a massive tsunami. The recorded death poll at this point is over 7,300 and another 11,000 people missing. But the disaster doesn't stop at the damage from the earthquake and tsunami... Four of Japan's nuclear power plants, including 2 reactors at Fukushima suffered damage and have since released huge amounts of radiation. The Onagawa and Tōkai nuclear power plants suffered comparatively minor damage. A total of 11 nuclear reactors were automatically shut down.

Seismic recordings at the nuclear plants indicate the ground velocity was 6.18–52.62 cm/sec.

However the diesel generator and water pumps at Fukushima I and Fukushima II were damaged by the tsunami, making it impossible to pump cold water into the reactor to cool it down. The reactors began overheating, resulting in a meltdown similar to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. *Cooling is needed to remove nuclear decay heat for several days even when a reactor is shut down. The cooling process is only possible through large emergency disel generators, all of which were destroyed by the tsunami/earthquake.

The meltdown caused two large explosions at Fukushima I and leakage of radiation, resulting in the immediate evacuation of over 200,000 people from the region.

Since then the scope of the disaster has become more clear.

Japanese emergency crews have been pumping seawater into the reactors in an attempt to cool down and stablize the reactors, but to little avail. The machinery they are using aren't up to the task and there is delays getting new diesel generators and pumps into the region because of the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Under normal circumstances getting the required machinery into the region would be comparatively easy.

Fires at the reactors have since been put out, but the radiation from the meltdown and the nuclear fallout has since got into the local food supply and even into Tokyo's drinking water. Rumours and speculation about the future of Japan and even ideas of evacuating most of Japan until the crisis is over.

There are also confusing and conflicting reports about the amout of radiation being released. If we use the BP Gulf Oil Spill as a rule of thumb (BP lied about the amount of oil being spilled daily, it later turned out to be over 10 times the daily amount they had claimed.) then we can assume that the worst reports are probably the most accurate.

The INES – International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale – ranks incidents from one to seven, with one described as "anomaly" and seven as "major accident". The disaster in Fukushima has been ranked a 6. (Chernobyl in 1986 was a 7.)

Normally a human is exposed to 2 milliSieverts/year of radiation from the sun and other sources. Airplane staff are exposed to approx. 9 milliSieverts/year. 100 can cause cancer, 1000 can cause fatal cancer in 5% of the people exposed, 5000 kills a person within 4 weeks 50% of the time, 10,000 is fatal within a week or two.

According to several reports the radiation leakage is 400 milliSieverts per hour, enough to cause a fatal dose within 25 hours. People closest to the centre of the disaster will be receiving higher doses. There is also conflicting reports the amount of radiation is going both up and down.

As of last week the radiation levels in Tokyo were 20 times normal levels. The local government was warning people not to panic. (Tokyo is approx. 300 km away from Fukushima.)

The radiation was so bad that Japan ordered a no fly zone in the region around Fukushima.

Indeed the radiation levels are reaching far more distances than mere Japan. Heightened radiation levels are now being recorded as far away as the United States.

A Canadian team sent to help tsunami victims was later recalled because they were not equipped to handle radiation and were asked to leave by Japanese authorities.

On the economic side Japan's economy is in a freefall, and will likely suffer serious blows if Japan's government cannot get the radiation leaks under control (possibly resulting in a large scale evacuation of the region around Fukushima). Even if the reactors are stabilized Japan's future will still be dire, both in terms of health concerns from lingering radiation but also from growing demands to dismantle Japan's other nuclear plants.

For other countries it could also mean a dramatic increase in nuclear refugees from Japan, seeking a safe place to raise their children free of radiation.

Food exports from Japan have been banned in many countries and this spells even more trouble for Japan's future.

Power lines have since been reattached to a number of Japan's nuclear plants and there is high hopes of restarting the turbines and the regular coolant system in an effort to cool down the reactors.

Home Improvement Vs the Divorce Rate

By Charles Moffat - February 2011.

CANADA - When I was younger every time my parents decided to do home renovations I thought for sure they might get divorced several times during various incidents/arguments.

These days I've concluded that they're just plain stuck together for a variety of reasons and they seem to happier now that all of birds have flown the nest and eventually the chirping of grandchildren will be heard.

Nevertheless it does make me wonder what percentage of divorces are brought on by home repair, improvement, renovations, etc.

ie. Lets say you like swimming pools... My parents put in their swimming pool in 1974 roughly (I am guessing the year, I admit) and from what my mother says that was the first true test of their marriage. It was argument after argument and probably a few migraine-ish headaches too. (Probably a lot less stressful to have someone else dig and install the swimming pool, but my parents like being Do-It-Yourselfers.)

And then there was the deck beside the swimming pool. That was actually two projects, one when they first built the pool and the deck, and again in the 1990s when they installed a new deck because the old one was rotting.

Trust me, patio furniture was the least of their worries.

Then there was the matter of how to heat the pool. My parents decided to use a low-tech option of solar heating, using black tubing that was coiled up on top of the roof. The tubing absorbed the heat from the sun and during hot summer days would reach 110 degrees F or hotter. The water flowed through the tubing, into the pool and that kept the pool water in the 60 to 75 degree range depending on the time of year.

However for this system to work the water had to be pumped through all those tubes. The pump was notorious for breaking down and only a few years ago did my parents finally agree to buy a better pump which wouldn't break so easily. It was a nuisance to fix and the new one apparently is much better.

Its the same problem with cars too. During the 70s, 80s and early 90s my parents had a tendency to drive beaten down cars that always needed repairs. They were a constant source of arguments. I eventually argued (and I am proud to say I won this argument and convinced them despite being a teenager at the time) that they would be better off buying a new car that was in good condition and wouldn't require repairs constantly. I argued that the cost of repairs on a car not worth that much would be better spent on a newer car that was more reliable and would actually save them money over the long term because they wouldn't need to spend so much on maintenance/repairs.

I have also been trying (unsuccessfully so far) to convince my parents to buy a windmill (or 3) and a couple solar panels for their home. Instead they decided to buy an electric gas-powered generator, because they were more worried about black outs/etc than they were worried about saving money.

When it comes to home improvement my parents (and many other people like them) do like to save money. The real question is how much will they save and how quickly.

Well one of the quickest and easy ways is home insulation. And there's many ways to do it, ie. rigid foam insulation and similar wall systems. That is a much easier sell for getting them to save money because they see it very quickly on their gas heating bills (especially with gas prices going up).

And once the insulation is in place there is also Geothermal Heating Systems.

And thanks to various government programs, like the Ontario MicroFIT program, home owners can also get income tax rebates on home improvements they make. The incentives are out there if Canadians bother to do the research and the math and calculate how much they need to install in order to either break even, save money, or even make money by selling electricity back into the grid.

As our society becomes more technological savvy (complete with wireless broadband internet, mobile laptops, smartphones, complex sorting and manufacturing software, computers, servers and any number of gadgets working/charging off the grid) we are going to need a lot more electricity. In fact our electricity use in Ontario has gone up 45% in the last 8 years. By 2020 it is expected to double 2010 numbers.

And small surprise. Even as I write this I have a fridge, a freezer, a heater, a cellphone charger and not one but TWO computers running at the same time. 10 years ago would have seen less stuff all sucking energy simultaneously.

So we NEED more electricity. And thus electricity prices are going to skyrocket as we run into a shortage of sources to draw energy from. (See my recent post about the Niagara Tunnel for one innovative way we are finding more electricity.)

But not everyone agrees on how to save money and get more electricity at the same time. Thus it can also be a source of arguments for many families, as money issues frequently are.

My parents once took the kids to see psychologists because they were apparently contemplating divorce. They even saw a marriage counsellor. I never got all the facts about what was really stressing my parents out, but statistics suggest it may have been a combination of stress and sex-related causes.

And because I am uncomfortable talking about my parents' sex life, lets just change the topic real quick and go back to the topic of divorce.

I mean they could have gone down that road. Divorced, sold the farm, they are not the type of people to hire a home stager (which is a much more modern idea).

Instead my parents stayed together and seem to be focusing on their love of travel now, getting away from home and driving all over North America in their relatively new car which doesn't break down so much. And they've focused on their interests of gardening and various hobbies. ie. In recent years my mother has taken up the bagpipes and drumming, both of which my father has been rather supportive of despite the noise.

I suppose they could have been like our family friends Jim and Sharon who took dance classes and go square dancing every Friday night, but to each their own.

In other news, Happy Valentines Day!

Niagara Tunnel an innovation worth paying for

CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - Deep underneath Niagara Falls a 4,000 tonne drill named "Big Becky" is drilling a 10.2 kilometre long tunnel, 14 meters wide, that is soon due to near its goal above the Niagara Falls. Once the pipe is completed it will channel 500 cubic meters of water / second through turbines and produce 1.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually.

And better yet, it preserves the natural beauty of the Niagara Falls.

The $1 billion project has gone over budget and eventually came in at $1.6 billion, but that is normal for all large scale projects.

For example the refit of Bruce Nuclear is $2 billion over the original estimate and has cost $3.8 billion as of November 2010. Its also overdue for completion. New estimates say it will be $5 billion by the time its completely done.

And there is other examples too, too many to mention. But basically its the problem of labour management. When you hire people to build a bridge or construct a road, they give you an estimate. Its usually a "base estimate", but what they don't include is all the time workers stand around drinking coffee waiting for the cement trucks to arrive. And its not just waiting for trucks to arrive. There are often unforeseen delays. Its the delays that adds the extra costs.

See the following videos to see how a British team tried to fix a road in 1 day, a project that normally takes at least a week.





But back to the Niagara Tunnel...

The 10.2 kilometre tunnel will carry water from above Niagara Falls to the Sir Adam Beck generating station in Queenston at a rate of 500 cubic metres a second.

Right now there is 9.5 km done, there is less than 0.7 km left. Work started in 2005 when the 4,000-tonne drilling behemoth Big Becky was first built and 'she' started eating through the rock in 2006.

If everything stays on schedule she will be done in April.

The 14 meter wide tunnel will then be smoothed down to make the water flow through it faster. The more perfectly round and smooth the pipe is the more energy that the turbines can generate because the water will go through much faster.

The final completion date is in 2013.

The entire enterprise has meant moving 1.7 million cubic metres of solid rock, and there was an unforeseen obstacle. Underneath the Niagara Falls there is a subterranean gorge at the base of waterfalls which had be drilled around because the nearby rock was unsuitable for tunneling.

Engineering projects like this are WORTH DOING. They foresee our needs in the future and get them done today so we can avert higher electricity rates in the future.

Conservative leader Tim Hudak meanwhile thinks projects like the Niagara Tunnel should be scrapped because they are too expensive and always go over budget. He is correct about the over budget part, but he hasn't realized that they're still worth it because otherwise we will end up paying for our lack of foresight in the future. Apparently he thinks it would be cheaper to buy our electricity from the USA, a country where electricity rates are also skyrocketing and will certainly be more expensive.

Electricity rates in Ontario slashed 10%

CANADA - Ontario's Liberal government has decided Ontarians are paying too much for electricity (or as we call it locally "hydro"). Thus they've decided to slash hydro bills by a whopping 10% starting January 1st 2011.

It will cost the province $1 billion per year and it will only effect homes and small businesses (corporations, factories, etc. will still pay the full rate).

The problem you see is that electricity in Ontario costs about 13.5 cents per kWH to produce, but its sold for approx. 6.5 cents each. The province ends up paying almost 50% of the cost.

So in reality this reduction is nothing new. Ontario has been subsidizing electricity rates since the beginning.

The average hydro bill in Ontario about $125 a month, so this $12.50 / month reduction will save ratepayers about $150 each / year... you will know this because the price discount will be mentioned on your bill as the new “Ontario Clean Energy Benefit” reduction, just above taxes.

This in essence decreases the amount people in Ontario pay, despite the 8% increase due to HST's introduction back in Summer 2010. By roughly 2% overall.

Expect more tax breaks and other things coming in the near future too. Its an election year and the next provincial election is set for October 6th 2011.

The Liberals have also trimmed Ontario's budget.

And there is also plans to scrap the “debt-retirement fees” of around $10 a month from the old Ontario Hydro corp. It is due to come off bills in 2016 anyway, but they might scrap it early to make voters happy if they can cobble together $5 billion towards the project.

In September, an Angus Reid poll found 86% of Ontarians feel “it is harder now than it was two years ago to make ends meet.” Thus helping voters pay for their bills (of which electricity is a chief complaint) is the right direction if they want to get more votes.

While they are a it they need to start pressuring Ottawa on a list of things that should be exempt from HST:

#1. Healthy Food. (This might require grocery stores to include the tax with the price of unhealthy "junk food", but would result in most vegetables, meats, milk, cheese, etc. coming in at a lower price. Ontario has been debating for years of putting a tax on junk food. This would be the opposite, a tax exemption on healthy food.

#2. Children's Educational Materials.

#3. Fitness Equipment, Gym Memberships and Bicycle Equipment.

#4. Green Cars: Hybrids, Electrics, Hydrogen-powered.

#5. University Books.

Some of these used to be exempt from PST or GST, but when the HST came into effect they lost all the exemptions. You can probably come up with a list of things you'd like to see exempt from HST.

The only snag is that Ontario needs Ottawa's permission to get exemptions in...

So what if Ontario created something which is the OPPOSITE of a tax? For example an "Healthy Food Reduction" which appears on bills right before the taxes are applied. Say 10%.

In one pocket and out the other.

Bruce nuclear overbudget and behind schedule

CANADA/TECHNOLOGY - BNPD (Bruce Nuclear Power Development)'s refit of two reactors north of Kincardine at Bruce Power’s two nuclear plants is $1 billion over budget and the price tag is continuing to skyrocket.

This is nothing new. Nuclear power in Canada is ALWAYS overbudget, always costs more than the estimates claim it will cost, is always delayed / behind schedule, and ultimately is always more expensive to build than any other method of gaining electricity.

Hint, here is the order of the cheapest to the most expensive ways to make electricity: Hydro, geothermal, coal, oil, gas, tidal, wind, solar, nuclear. On a per kilowatt basis nuclear power requires the most money to build and costs the most to maintain.

The only advantage that nuclear power has is that it is seen as a clean alternative to coal.

Yesterday TransCanada Corp. reported that refurbishing the two nuclear reactors of the Bruce A nuclear plant has cost $3.8 billion so far. And they're three years behind schedule...

The original price estimate in 2005 was $2.75 billion, which means they are already $1.05 billion overbudget... and according to their estimates the nuclear plant won't be ready to be restarted for test trials until approx. December 2011, with commercial operation beginning some time in 2012.

The original plan was to have everything up and working in 2009. So much for that pipe dream.

Meanwhile Canada apparently has some of the best geothermal technology in the world (and we've been selling it overseas), but the powers-that-be in Canada are still refusing to invest in one of the cheapest, most efficient ways to make electricity. See Canada dead last in Geothermal.

See Also:
Geothermal Heating Systems
How to Host a Geothermal Party
Ground temperatures in Canada rising

IKEA and Wal-Mart going Green Energy

ENVIRONMENT - IKEA and Wal-Mart are both going green on the rooftops of their shopping centers across North America, but the difference is in how they are doing it.

In IKEA`s case they`re making a solid profit by generating electricity by installing 3,790 solar panels on the rooftops of IKEA stores in North York, Etobicoke and Vaughan. Altogether the 4,800 square meters of solar panels covers approx. 60% of a Canadian football field (Canadian football fields are bigger than American football fields) and will produce 960,000 kilowatt hours annually, enough for over 100 houses.

IKEA is being paid 71.3 cents per kilowatt hour, which means they pay off their investment faster and over time the price per kilowatt hour will drop until the province is paying a more reasonable rate.

For the province it means extra energy and for IKEA it means their store has an extra source of revenue and free electricity forever. Initially IKEA will get $684,000 in annual revenue from the investment of $4.6 million spent on the solar panels. As the price for the electricity will drop later as more and more companies get on the bandwagon eventually lots of buildings will have their own solar arrays and be putting electricity back into the grid.

Better yet, its cheaper to transmit electricity locally over short distances. Building power lines over long distances is expensive and the amount of electricity that is lost transmitting electricity over long distances is very wasteful.

IKEA is also planning to install geothermal units to make their stores cheaper to heat and cool.

IKEA says its solar installations are the biggest to be owned and operated by a commercial retailer in Canada.

But wait IKEA, you may not have that title for very long. Wal-Mart is also planning to get into the green energy business and as typical of the American goliath Wal-Mart wants to do in a big way.

Wal-Mart`s proposal right now is to build a wind turbine on top of its environmental demonstration store in Burlington. They still need approval from the Burlington Town Council, but if it goes ahead it could signal many more companies doing the same thing and Wal-Mart expanding that idea to put wind turbines on every store they own across North America... pending approval of course.

But the approval will likely get the go ahead because its on commercial land, not residential land or farms. Plus there is a 2nd turbine already being built nearby.

In this case the wind turbine is more for show than actual energy production. Burlington isn`t known for being particularly windy and the turbine will only be making about enough to power a couple houses.

Wal-Mart is also planning to get into the solar business and install geothermal in their stores to save money on heating and AC.

Just imagine is all the companies and corporations in North America realized the energy and money they could be saving by switching to green energy. People have no excuse not to explore their options.

New Ontario power planted axed

CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - The Ontario government has axed plans to build a dirty and controversial gas-fired power plant in Oakville. Community activists banded together to oppose the dirty power plant, threatening to overthrow MPP Kevin Flynn during the next election if the power plant went ahead. Flynn himself was against the plant and fought his own party over the divisive gas plant.

The new plant would have been next door to the Ford factory and close to homes and schools, but thankfully the plans to build the plant have been cancelled.

More so the power plant will not be built anywhere in Ontario. Period.

Instead the province will have to build more solar and wind projects to make up the difference... which means the windmill hating NIMBYs will just have to suck it up and remind themselves it could have easily been a gas-powered plant in their neighbourhood instead.

Some people just don't get it yet. Ontario has a power shortage. We need more electricity. We are either importing expensive electricty from the USA (which means your electricity rates will go up) or we have to build new sources of electricity... which means dirty coal, dirty gas, over-budget nuclear plants or lots of windmills and solar panels.

The proposed new gas plant would have provided 900 megawatts of power, but now that will be replaced with new supply and conservation efforts.

Residents opposed to the plant gained a lot of attention earlier this week when famed California activist Erin Brockovich, who successfully fought a polluting California power company, attended several fundraising events to help fight the plant.

Eco Renovations in Canada

CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - If you're looking to cut back on heating and electricity prices there are a number of ways you can do it.

#1. Insulation - Anything, and we do mean ANYTHING you can do to better insulate your home both in the summer and the winter will save you a bundle. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX and you can come up with other ways to insulate your home cheaply and efficiently.

For example wooden shutters. Sure, they're old fashioned and they sometimes get ripped off in a windstorm (which might happen once every 4-5 years), but they provide very good value for money. In the winter shutters shield your windows from the cold and in the summer they shield you from the bright sunlight and heat.

Or another alternative to wooden shutters is fabric blinds, which is more energy efficient than regular blinds.

#2. Roofing - The last thing you want is heat escaping out your roof during the winter or too much heat being absorbed in the summer. Roofing is similar to insulation, but you want it to be durable in all kinds of weather. If you have a flat roof you could also build something across or above it (ie. lattice work or some kind of barrier) which can deflect the heat in the summer and helps insulate in the winter.

#3. Decks and Verandas - Another thing we like for keeping the heat off the house is decks and verandas (with a roof above it).

In all seasons verandas and decks can be quite useful for insulating the exterior of the house, creating a barrier between it and the snow/heat. Some people even have dettachable steel siding/wooden walls they can add to their verandas in the winter to insulate it even more. Deck building isn't for amateurs however. You want to hire a skilled carpenter or deck building, or even better someone who specializes in building verandas. You can also get eco friendly deck designs these days.

#4. Windmills and Solar Power - If you own a house there is very little stopping you in my opinion from setting up several windmills and solar panels on your roof, backyard, etc. One of the cheapest routes is to use portable solar power which is usually meant for cottages/etc, but can be quite useful for home use as well if you're frugal about how you use your electricity.

#5. Recycle Old Things - When it comes to insulation and renovation don't be afraid to recycle old things. A colleague of ours, Robert Campbell, has a number of websites including one for social media marketing, and he reviews bloggers / blogging websites on his site Canada Blog Friends, but the one we really want to mention is Dumpdiggers which promotes the idea of digging through garbage dumps and looking for items that can be used again. Now you don't have to go to an actual dump to do this. You could just as easily walk down the street in a neighbourhood and look at all the stuff people have set by the curb for the garbage collector... old couches, chairs, scrap computers, books, whatever.

What we'd be looking for myself is glass, mirrors, wood and steel which is still usable. If you spot anything that looks like a propeller or windmill blades, or a 12 Volt electric motor then you could even build your own windmill.

Once you have the necessary tools and materials then you go about adding to your home, insulating it, adding shutters, a veranda, a greenhouse, whatever ideas you can come up to make your home more efficient.

#6. STONE MASONRY - This is the one we love the most and we've used CAPS for a reason. Stone masonry is hard work, but very rewarding once you have stone walls on your home. Stone is the absolute best insulator regardless of season. And best of all you can make your stone walls as thick as you feel like. They could be 3 or 6 feet thick if you want, the more you have the better insulated your home is.

Learning stone masonry is actually fairly easy, but the real trick is the heavy lifting. This is not something to do if you can't even lift a 50 or 100 lb rock. Finding rocks can also be tricky. We are firm believers in abandoned gravel pits, where the large rocks have been tossed to the side. You go there with a truck, load up half a tonne of rocks, take them back home and unload them. You mix the mortar start placing stones, mortar inbetween them and keep going at it until you run out of both mortar and stones.

Learning how to split rocks with a splitting sledge, building joints and corners on a building are more tricky so we recommend doing lots of research at the library and becoming an unofficial expert on the topic before embarking on this. We also recommend working with a partner because it will make the work much easier.

Hiring a stone mason is very expensive, because the work is so heavy and stonemasons are rare yet in demand. Doing it yourself is the best option, but only if you're physical fit and mentally capable of the challenge... both in terms of understanding the principles of masonry, but also in terms of determination. The last thing you want is to start the job, lose your confidence/determination and then do a half-ass job of it.

#7. What about your car...? - Now you might think what can you do to renovate your car... but the truth it is possible, depending on how ruthless you want to be. Every kilogram of weight you can shed from your vehicle will save you in mileage and gasoline later. The most basic thing is to throw out all the useless junk and garbage that is in your trunk, backseat, under the seats, in the glovebox, etc. You especially don't need that 40 kilogram roof rack that you never use (or only use once/year). If you are much more ruthless however you can toss out the backseats entirely and start removing unnecessary parts in an effort to cut as much weight off your car as possible... like dumping those old speakers you never use.

Another important thing you can do is maintenance. Tire pressure, a clean engine from the inside out and remove anything that is messing with the efficiency of the engine. A well-tuned engine will save you gasoline just because its more efficient and runs better.

"It has very little to do with saving the planet and so much more to do with saving money."

See Also:
Window Blinds and Your Health

Wind turbines create 300 jobs

ENVIRONMENT - Siemens Canada's new wind turbine factory is hiring 300 new employees to build blades for wind turbines. The plant's location will likely be between Hamilton and Windsor, in Ontario's "manufacturing superzone" and the company is currently narrowing down the list of possible locations. The factory will need 40 to 80 acres to build and store blades which are 55 metres long each.

Siemens will be building the blades for a massive wind and solar power development by the Samsung Corporation and partner Pattern Energy. Samsung has a $437 million 25-year deal that will see them open 4 new factories in Ontario to build wind/solar equipment, which will eventually create 50,000+ new jobs in the booming green energy sector.

The steel towers to support the blades will also be built in Ontario, as will the internal infrastructure. Each finished turbine will generate 2.3 megawatts of power, more than 3 times the wind turbine at Ontario's Exhibition Place. Current plans are to build 300 such turbines providing 690 megawatts.

The Siemens plant will not be exclusive to Samsung. They will also be building blades for other wind turbine companies, becoming a major manufacturer for multiple companies.

The plant will be up and running by 2012.

Ionized Gas a solution for Energy Woes

TECHNOLOGY - Electricity can be stored for long periods of time inside ionized gas. Using microwaves and a glass container the process is relatively simple and scientists have known about it for decades, but its never been implemented as a way of storing electricity.

As North America's energy crisis grows the issue of how to store electricity is one that is increasingly important as electricity grids struggle with the issue of managing solar power during the day, wind power when its windy, and a combination of hydro, nuclear and coal power to maintain a constant level. On a constant basis there is actually excess electricity which the grid doesn't know what to do with, a necessity which is designed to prevent brown outs.

Back in the 1980s the Bruce Nuclear Power Development in Ontario tried feeding the excess electricity into barns and warehouses filled with tomato plants, using the excess electricity for lights... the tomatos grew so well in these greenhouse-like conditions that tomato farmers in Ontario sued BNPD, forcing them to get rid of the program.

Finding a way to use or store electricity has been a problem plaguing electricity grids for decades. Using ionized gas solves the problem, the only trick is convincing Ontario Hydro to create a facility which would essentially create "artificial ball lightning" within ionized gas chambers surrounded by glass.

Once built these ion gas battery stations would also solve the future problem of what to do when the sun isn't shining very much and there's a shortage of wind. It creates a backup system wherein we can store excess electricity for later.

Scientists and would-be-problem-solvers have been thinking of other ways to store electricity for decades now, everything from using it to pump water (and then draw energy from the water when it is later dropped through a turbine), to using hydrolysis to store the electricity as hydrogen (which could then be used to fuel hydrogen cars). Such methods are less efficient however and result in a loss of power.

Storing electricity in ionized gas has several advantages... #1. there is very little loss of power and #2. we can store almost limitless amounts of electricity in this fashion.

Another thing scientists have been wanting to do is find a way to harness and store lightning. Ionized gas can do that, as seen with the natural phenomenon of ball lightning. However it should be noted that while natural lightning does contain millions of joules of energy, its over in a millisecond and would really only power a 100 watt household item for approx. 5 to 10 hours.

Thus while harnessing lightning isn't really a viable option, storing electricity from other sources certainly is.

Canada dead last in Geothermal

CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - Canada has some of the biggest geothermal companies in the Pacific Rim, but none of them have a geothermal facility inside of Canada. They're all built in other countries as far south as Chile.

According to a new study in the 'Journal of Geophysics and Geoengineering' Canada could meet all of its energy needs, completely replacing coal and nuclear power, by drilling into the earth's crust and using steam to move turbines... but provincial and federal governments have been lagging behind on the geothermal capabilities despite Canada being a world leader in geothermal technology.

The study says that Canada has many promising locations where it could drill 3.5 to 6.5 km into the earth's crust, to depths where the surrounding rock has temperatures reaching 150 to 200 degrees C, pipe in water and then reap the benefits from high pressure steam turbines.

“Given the widespread distribution of geothermal energy, and the high energy content, the potential geothermal resource in Canada is significant,” concludes the study.

FACT: Canada is the only Pacific Rim country that doesn't have a conventional geothermal power plant. It has the leading geothermal developers... but they all build in Nevada, California, Nicaragua, Iceland, Chile, etc. because the local governments in those regions have realized the potential for geothermal to provide worry-free cheap energy which is constant, and unlike solar and wind, operates at full capacity 24/7 regardless of weather conditions.

Three years ago a different study concluded that geothermal projects could easily supply 100,000 megawatts of constant power, enough to fulfill 80% of Canada's current electricity needs.

Except Canada doesn't even have a single geothermal development program. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice can be reached here:

Tel.: 819-997-1441
Fax: 819-953-0279
Email: minister@ec.gc.ca

Environment Minister Jim Prentice
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3

LumiSmart energy savings?

ENVIRONMENT - If you're looking to cutback on electricity costs at the office there's a new solution available today for controlling your fluorescent lighting. LumiSmart is a small box which connects to a breaker panel that feeds power to fluorescent lighting in large buildings. Basically what it does is cut the percentage of power sent to lights during non-peak hours (say 7 PM to 7 AM) and cuts power during regular usage times by basically blinking the lights super fast so that we don't notice it. (I admit that may be a gross simplification, but we don't need to go into great details with the concept.)

The device is being hailed as "revolutionary" by some, but I have to ask... why bother keeping the lights on in office towers to begin with? Why not turn them all off?

For some silly reason many office towers leave the lights on 24/7, wasting thousands of dollars every year when you realize they only use the light for approx. 50 hours out of the 168 hours they are on during the week. Its fundamentally wasteful.

Its the same thing with office computers. They leave all the computers on at night, using approx. 90 to 120 watts per second just to keep them running.

Now fortunately most new computers now come with an automatic sleep mode which reduces the power used to approx. 10 watts per second during those time periods when the computer isn't being used, but there's a lot of companies out there who are still using outdated technology which can't enter sleep mode unless told to do by the user.

In theory what they need is a free software program that automatically tells the computer to go into sleep mode at night. Its a similar concept to the LumiSmart box for fluorescent lighting.

Using such shut down / sleep mode technology would save office buildings approx. 50% on the electricity bills. The LumiSmart system costs roughly $8,000 to install, including labour, for every 50,000 square feet of building lighting covered, but the energy savings is such that the money is made back within 12 to 18 months. For large corporations that are refusing to turn their lights off completely at night it makes for some hefty energy savings.

There is a computer program called "Auto Power-on and Shut-down 2.40" which costs $24.95 which allows you to set sleep mode times on your computer and do other automated functions, but really what the world needs is a free program that simply uses the sleep mode function for the purpose of promoting energy savings. The "Auto Power-on and Shut-down 2.40" program is free to try for 30 days, but if you were a smart computer programmer you could make your own program and promote it as a way to help save energy (and in turn the environment from wasteful coal electricity).

Because you can be sure most companies will continue using their old clunky computers that don't have auto-sleep mode and continue to eat up electricity at the rate of 90 to 120 watts/second for the 118 hours during the week they aren't even being used. Utterly wasteful? Damn right.

Ontario approves 184 green energy projects

CANADA/ENVIRONMENT - 184 new solar, wind and water "clean energy" projects will be up and running by 2012. They received the green light today. The renewable energy projects will supply almost 2,500 megawatts of power, enough for 600,000 homes.

The Ontario governments is bombarded by new private energy proposals every year, but there isn't enough infrastructure spending to upgrade the grid for the 10,000 megawatts worth of proposals. In theory if Ontario had more money allocated for improving the electricity grid's infrastructure it could approve more private energy.

What is Private Energy?

Private Energy is whenever a person or a company decides they want to sell electricity back into the grid. In some cases this can be pretty small, a homeowner with 10+ solar panels on their roof, or it could be big like a major corporation building a hundred or so wind turbines. They're privately owned by the people, but the trick is actually attaching them to the electricity grid so the electricity can be tracked and distributed.

Ontario's electricity grid (and this is the problem faced the world over) has only in the last decade or so began the process of being able to take electricity from many multiple sources and then distributed it.

Ontario's Subsidized Electricity Prices

Right now Ontario Hydro isn't even profitable. Not even remotely. The cost of making electricity is over 13 cents per Kwh, but because that is pretty expensive its actually sold to consumers at a rate of approx. 6.5 cents per Kwh.

Thus Ontario Hydro is taking huge losses every year, mostly due to overpaid workers at nuclear facilities like BNPD. Paying exactly 13 cents per Kwh to private producers of electricity is a step forward because that price is locked in. Unlike workers who can strike, demand wage increases and have pensions to worry about... over the long term Ontario actually saves money by buying the electricity from private producers who can guarantee a specific price per Kwh.

The one-time upgrade to the power grid is a worthy investment for the future, especially since Ontario's thirsty for electricity keeps growing. What we need to be therefore is increasing the rate at which we upgrade the system. We could be building twice to four times the upgrades / year, dramatically speeding up the rate at which we switch to reliable pricing and renewable energy.

Furthermore once upgrades are in place it allows existing projects to expand their output, without the need for additional upgrades.

Subsidized electricity prices aren't going to disappear. We subsidize oil and gas prices too, in order to keep prices low and the economy humming. Its all eventually paid for in taxes.

Clinton pushing climate change initiatives in Canada

ENVIRONMENT - Bill Clinton was in Canada last Saturday promoting climate change initiatives and free health care.

Of course, Canada already has free health care, but the point is still made. The United States is just starting on the road to free health care, for every uninsured child, senior and adult in the United States.

Clinton tried to pass free health care during his 8 years in the White House and only managed a few meager initiatives, health care programs for uninsured children. His goal of free health care for Americans was shouted down by Republican bigots in Congress worried about the overall cost and "Communist-style health care" (which is nonsense, because the USA up until 2009 was the only western country that didn't have free health care).

When George W. Bush got into power America's public health care system took one step forward and two steps backward. Bush signed into law a Medicare drug benefit program (something even Canada doesn't have), but later vetoed State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation which would have expanded free health care to ten million American children (and would have been funded by a modest increase to cigarette taxes).

Since getting into power President Obama has quickly managed to do what Clinton couldn't do because he didn't have support from Congress, and what Bush refused to do because he doesn't give a damn about poor people. Less than a month in power and riding on overwhelming support and a Democratic majority in Congress, Obama signed the United States into a new era of free health care.

The issue is still being discussed in Congress, but its essentially a done deal. Better yet Obama already found a way to pay for it by decreasing the amount wealthy people get back from the IRS when they make charitable donations. Wealthy Americans used to get back 35% of their donation, but now they only get back 28%.

And poof! Free health care in America finally became a reality. Done and paid for.

Now if only we could do the same thing for the environment?

Clinton is effectively an unofficial ambassador for the Obama administration. So whenever he visits Canada or other nations overseas to give speeches, he's not just acting as a former president who cares about the USA, he's acting as a global ambassador for the USA to the rest of the world. That is how a former American president should act... help the USA and the world by being a spokesperson. (You will note Bush in comparison avoids the spotlight as much as possible.)

The problem is that selling the environment is a much tougher sell than health care (and we can see how long it took Americans to join the rest of the civilized world).

Think of it like a car... when you buy a new car from the Ford Motor Co. you expect it to work properly. But lo and behold they bought cheap brakes from China and the next thing you know you are upside down in a ditch, the car is on fire and in order to rescue you the firemen have to amputee your leg.

Afterwards you sue the Ford Motor Co. for damages (because they imported faulty brakes from China) and are awarded millions. Ford then promises to only buy quality brakes built in North America and has to recall thousands of cars to replace the brakes on each one.

But what about the tailpipe? Try and make the argument that cars pollute, produce greenhouse gases, which locks in heat, which causes global warming, which causes climate change, which causes a host of other environmental problems like polar ice caps melting and rising sea levels.

You can't sue Ford for damages. You'd have to sue the entire automotive industry, the coal industry and any other industry producing excess amounts of greenhouses gases... and it wouldn't just be the United States. It would be a global lawsuit. Its so ridiculously huge it would just plain never happen.

Thus trying to sell green initiatives to Americans can be very tricky. We can't even do it in Canada because we currently have a corrupt Conservative government under the "do nothing" bogus Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper has no intention of setting caps on greenhouse gases. He's been bought and paid off by the Alberta oil industry and the Atlantic coal industry.

Name one thing Harper has done to help the environment since getting into the PM's chair in February 2006? He announced some new national parks. That is it. The man epitomizes the "do nothing" approach to politics.

There has been no new "climate change initiatives" in Canada since Paul Martin left power in 2006.

And thus we come full circle. Now we understand why Bill Clinton is pushing such initiatives in Canada. Its because our own government is too lazy and corrupt to do it themselves.

83% of Canadians support initiatives to combat global warming and climate change. So why can't we elect a government that will actually make good on its promises?

Its because Canada has three separate left-wing parties: The Liberals, the NDP and the Greens. The NDP and the Greens will NEVER get elected and win a majority government, but the vote splitting between the three has resulted in the Liberal party being held back from winning majority governments. Its the reason we keep getting minority Conservative governments.

Remember Stephane Dion's idea to put a tax on carbon emissions? He bet an election on it and failed, despite the fact that it was originally a Conservative idea. What happened was the Reform Party (which has since changed its name to the Canadian Alliance Party, and changed it again to the Conservative Party) held a discussion back when Jean Chretien was still in power. Chretien wanted to put a cap on carbon emissions, but the Reform Party under Stockwell Day thought it was a better idea to just tax carbon emissions instead.

Stephen Harper later replaced Stockwell Day as leader, but because Harper is a puppet of the oil industry (whereas Stockwell Day is a puppet of right wing Christians) they had to abandon the carbon tax idea... which left it to be picked up by the Liberals and touted.

The problem is there really is no other ways to combat climate change. We have to cut carbon emissions somehow, and the only ways to do that is:

• Cap Carbon Emissions.
  
• Tax Carbon Emissions (and hope companies reduce the amount they release).
  
• Make cars more efficient (which we've already done).
  
• Increase sales of more fuel efficient cars like hybrids, electrics, hydrogen, etc. (which we are currently doing).
  
• Phase out coal powered plants by building lots of solar/wind alternatives (which we are doing already).

Which implies we will eventually start taxing/capping greenhouse gases anyway. Its just a matter of who will do it first, Canada or the United States?

Judging by the fact Obama has a majority of Democrats in Congress the USA might beat Canada to it.

Alternative Energy

Geothermal Heating Systems

Is Biofuel the Fuel of the Future?

The Eco-Car Battleground

The Hydrogen Equinox

Hydrogen Power

Building a Wind Turbine Factory in Ontario

Solar Power becoming Profitable

The Solar Powered Myth

Looking for Geothermal Installation price estimates? Try GeothermalInstallers.ca