Alberta, with excellent sun and wind resources, and the only deregulated electricity market in the country, is Canada’s renewable energy powerhouse. In 2023, 92 percent of the country’s growth in solar and wind energy and energy-storage capacity was built in this province. Because the deregulated market allows private developers to
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Nicolas Banholzer et al. study the dramatic impact of COVID-19 measures in schools – with a mandatory mask policy reducing transmission by nearly 70%, and air cleaners by 40%. And Maryam Zakir-Hussain discusses new research showing the unequal impacts of long COVID, with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On fossilized assumptions
The comparative cost of different power options in the real world: The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. … Across the U.S., renewable energy is beating coal on cost: The price to build
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: I Was Worried For a Moment
When I saw Google/Pocket recommending this article on batteries for the grid, I was a bit concerned. It was contrary to what I understood to be the truth, so I read a bit to get a sense if it was new information. It turned out to be 4-2 year old
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Stephen Buranyi laments the reality that the public’s increased awareness and concern about our ongoing climate breakdown isn’t being reflected in political decisions. And Noah Smith writes that while the rapid drop in prices for renewable energy may help us avoid the worst
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Texas Can Power SK with Wind
With the Saskatchewan Government touting nuclear ambitions again, only 10 years after it was soundly rejected by the population, I’ve been reviewing what I wrote at the time then. One person in the audience of the UDP forum in Regina noted that Texas could power Saskatchewan with its wind power
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wind Will Be Cheaper Than Natural Gas
Will be? Naw, it has been for years. Still, SaskPower is building another 350MW of natural gas to go online in 2019, while building far less than 300MW of wind power by then. They’ve a target of 50% renewable generation by 2030, and still wind is far less than 5%
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Canada 100% Renewable Electricity by 2030?
Read this, and think of Energy East pipeline Brad Wall is pushing hard for. Most of the globe’s coal, natural gas and oil investments will ultimately be affected by the transition, Seba suggest, at risk of becoming “stranded assets” — resources that lose their value before the expected end of their economic life. “They are going […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Is #COP21 #ParisAgreement a Great Advance, or a Huge Flop?
We’ll know, I think, by 2025 when it’s too late to do anything about the past 10 years. I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s an agreement that will provide a better push than Kyoto or Copenhagen ever had a chance to do. It’s probably aiming somewhere beneath a complete success (which we obviously need to preserve […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Can Postmedia Be Trusted?
@gussynichols @leaderpost I don't trust Postmedia because of Op-eds like that, and like this: https://t.co/laJsQZahEb #nuclear? No mention. — Saskboy K. (@saskboy) November 29, 2015 Ironic @leaderpost & @StarPhoenix choose Day 1 of #COP21 to launch poorly researched anti-#wind OpEd. Our response https://t.co/qYvmmiCcbb — SaskWind (@SaskWind) November 30, 2015 Newspapers have a duty to publish […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Suzuki’s No Slave To The Economy
I hope we see meaningful changes in our economy, in time. There’s not a great understanding in our society that the economy is a system of resource distribution. We’ve enshrined it, even creating a phony holiday today when our retail gods go into the black. .@SheilaColesCBC @MMandryk "Who would say today that the economy should […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower’s Plan Isn’t Ambitious
SaskPower’s new target, announced by the Premier last week, is out. .@PremierBradWall @SKGov This doesn't seem overly ambitious, given #ABclimate's goals. Can't Sask do more than Alberta? #skpoli #PowerToGrow — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) November 23, 2015 We’re procuring 100 MW of wind generation in 2016 and will develop up to 1600 MW between 2019-2030. #powertogrow pic.twitter.com/CwMjPsvEeF […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Solar All Over California
On our Amtrak trip through southern and central California, I watched the dry and irrigated fields fly by me at 133km/h. We stopped for the night in Bakersfield (the most conservative city in America, some figures show), and it was 41 degrees even with the sun down. The cement around
Continue reading350 or bust: The Time Is Now
In the United States, the transition to a clean energy economy is already underway. Climate-concerned citizens are calling on candidates in next year’s federal election to show their plan to power the country with 50% clean energy by 2030. The time for a job-creating, climate-stabilizing clean energy revolution is NOW.
Continue readingCalgary’s CTrain—embracing green
Fortunately, while our federal government remains a persistent laggard on global warming, the provinces and cities are stepping up. Calgary is no exception. In 2012, the city committed to meeting all its electrical needs from renewable sources. One result was the construction of two wind farms totaling 144 megawatts. The
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Baseload Mistake
One of the hangups some of my friends have about converting the electrical grid to renewable energy, has been the difficulty in storing electricity generated for use when energy input is reduced. Tesla Energy should help with that logistical problem. Energy storage no longer an excuse. Did Tesla just spur
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatoon Riding the Coattails of History
Acknowledging that an important feature in Saskatoon was constructed by the government, then bragging that construction of a future valued feature (a wind turbine) was avoided by the government instead of an opportunity seized upon, is a repugnant attitude. People like Sandra are not leaving a better world for our
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Ostrander Point Wind-Farm Case Goes Back To Tribunal
The decision is here. Put briefly, the case will now get bounced back down to the Ontario ERT, where Ostrander Point Wind Energy will have a chance to convince the tribunal that their proposed remedy, a series of fences and gates that will block public access to the roads around the wind-farm,
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskParty Avoids Clean Energy Boom
Saskatchewan leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Many people here are excited about how “strong” Saskatchewan is, thanks to SaskParty propaganda. We’ve also the strongest carbon air pollution per capita in the world, but few tend to talk about that here. Times are good, they’re good for me, and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatchewan Needs a Real Change of Destination
Greg is making a good point in his latest column, but I had to throw in a Green campaign slogan into the title in good fun. The bottom line really is that the Sask Party is propping up the dying fossil fuels industry, while calls to divest from it are
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