Longest Dry Spell Of The Year Over
It’s the longest day of the year, and the clouds were very interesting this weekend. Our first proper rain of the year was a hail storm with pea sized hail.…
solar power
2020 Solar Power for 100% of Saskatchewan Homes Possible
This letter appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on Saturday. In response to Kurt Soucy’s letter about the cost of powering the entire provincial grid with Photovoltaic (PV) solar power,…
Solar PV Nearing Grid Parity
Cambridge and #PWC say #solar PV will be at grid parity on most of Earth, in only 2 years! “It is clear that renewables will be an established and significant…
New Solar in Ontario
Ontario isn’t as GD senseless as Saskatchewan’s government. They actually have somewhat of a Feed In Tariff program underway. The Ontario Power Authority has just extended its solar feed-in tariff…
Parliament Should Go Solar
Following up on my 2010 blog post on solar for the White House, it takes almost 3 years to get solar added to a historic national building. That’s why we…
SaskPower Says Bigger Is Better, Even Losses? #PowerToGrow
As a followup to the Star Phoenix’s article on the hugely expensive, and (public) money losing CCS plant at Estevan, comes word of further cost overruns. The overruns, in the…
SaskPower, How’s That 14 Year Test Going?
Dear SaskPower, I’m interested in seeing the statistics regarding the electricity generated by the test panels installed on the Saskatchewan Science Centre, in the attached picture, and as mentioned in…
Are Gore, Suzuki, and Neil Young Hypocrites for Using Oil?
No. They are victims of circumstance, and despite their wealth and fame, they alone cannot change ‘the system’. A voice from the Facebook-sphere intones: “I appreciate your commitment and respect…
Order Your Opportunities
My job, trying to change the world, is at least twice as hard as a conservative’s. I have to overcome others’ instinctual fear of change and new technology. Monday evening…
A Wee Design Flaw
The BrightSource Energy plant, a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert, works on the principal of focusing sunlight on a bunch of towers full of water until the water…
World’s Largest Private Bank, UBS, Says Fossil Energy is Toast
The Swiss banking giant, UBS, says renewable energy is the hands down winner and conventional power generation is finished. In a briefing paper sent to clients and investors this week,…
UPDATED: From The Mound Of Sound: A Basis For Optimism
The Mound writes: Hi Lorne. I spotted this article in the ‘comments’ section of The Guardian. It’s been a while since I heard anything this encouraging on the climate change…
Solar Tour 2014
Cowessess wind turbine. 800kW at 32mi/h Has Li-ion batteries. Solar farm and home system of 10kW Inverter anti-islanding. Prevents electrifying the grid while grid is down. Isolation ring for the…
Some Real Hope For Renewables
I only have time for this quick post, but allow me to direct you to this story about what appears to be a breakthrough in solar power generation and this…
Solar Power for all Saskatchewan households
A recent poll has shown that nuclear power doesn’t have majority support in Saskatchewan, and I think that’s fine. My own family has mixed attitudes toward it. My parents, who…
How We Keep the Tarsands in the Ground
NOT actually science-fiction. In your science-fiction news today: Imagine a power system that could harness the energy of 2,000 suns and provide fresh water and air conditioning in remote locations.…
First Nations Get $0.3M for Solar Research #skpoli
The Conservative government generously gave First Nations in Saskatchewan enough grant money to build one impressively sized solar array that could power a half dozen homes. Ontario is going with…
Oil and Tobacco
It’s worth remembering that marketers should not drive scientific research. Cigarettes are dangerous? We’d better make them appear less dangerous so they will still sell. I know, let’s filter the…
We Have The Technology to Stop Air Pollution
Listen to a scientist say very clearly that we have the science and technology to create 100% renewable power in the United States within my lifetime (2050). We’re only held…