Michael's musings

Mon, 17 Aug 2009

Arnprior Solar Project

On my twice-summer pilgramage to Arnprior to fetch parts to fix things at the (Charlebois) cottage, I passed the Arnprior Solar Project. It is on Galetta (Side) Road, just east of old-Hwy 17. (is it's new name 29?)

I never heard about this before... but they were all these metal easels sticking out of the ground with a cardboard box in front of each, waiting to be assembled.

Some links I found:

http://globalsolartechnology.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3233&Itemid=9 http://bcag.mybrockville.com/node/788

The company doing this is: http://www.edf-energies-nouvelles.com/ which seems to be a French company of about 1700 people!

What amazed me is that this location is prime agricultural land. Not something I'd want to repeat that often, but as it's the first of it's kind in Canada, I guess it's a good experiment. I wonder how it will stand up to snow load. I guess EDF will find out.

Wed, 18 Mar 2009

Monbiot -- too late to avoid climate change?

At http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/03/17/a-self-fulfilling-prophecy/ Monbiot writes

Yes, it is true that mitigation has so far failed. Sabotaged by Clinton(5), abandoned by Bush, attended half-heartedly by the other rich nations, the global climate talks have so far been a total failure. The targets they have set bear no relationship to the science and are negated anyway by loopholes and false accounting. Nations like the UK which are meeting their obligations under the Kyoto protocol have succeeded only by outsourcing their pollution to other countries(6,7). Nations like Canada, which are flouting their obligations, face no meaningful sanctions.

(emphasis mine)

I felt very sad and upset reading this article.

Wed, 28 Jan 2009

Pascal's wager on Climate Change

Tim O'Reilly says it clearly at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/oreilly/radar/atom/~3/517029803/pascals-wager-and-climate-change.html

In my talks I've argued that climate change provides us with a modern version of Pascal's wager: if catastrophic global warming turns out not to happen, the steps we'd take to address it are still worthwhile. Given that there's even a reasonable risk of disruptive climate change, any sensible person should decide to act. It's insurance. The risk of your house burning down is small, yet you carry homeowner's insurance; you don't expect to total your car, but you know that the risk is there, and again, most people carry insurance; you don't expect catastrophic illness to strike you down, but again, you invest in insurance.

Wed, 06 Dec 2006

Freezer-less fridges

A friend explained why she chose a freezer-less fridge recently:

In general terms, the close to 50% savings of freezerless fridges are there because:

1) the unit does not have to produce the low temperature of the freezing

section (in one of your warm rooms, remember)

2) the continous defrost cycling of new frdge/freezer combos (even those with

the more efficient bottom drawer-type freezing sections)are using power for that function.

It is much more efficient to have a chest-type freezer (the cold air doesn't flow out the minute you open the lid) in a cooler room or basement for frozen food. Good exercise doing the stairs to get the frozen stuff too!

I don't have a freezer at present. I do have the use of a friend's freezer, but it is a car-drive away. Sigh! For frozen food,I have improvised with a small insulated cooler that fits nicely in the fridge. Packages thaw very slowly over a couple of days.

I am weaning myself off frozen food partly for the energy savings and partly because I have read that freezing results in some nutrition loss. I am eating more food in season (local organic if possible) and exploring drying fruit for winter. (A hot summer car makes an effective oven for drying fuit , often in one day.)

Surprisingly, my Danby (DAR1102W - 11 cu.ft I think) does not have an EnergyStar appliance rating, in spite of having the low EnerGuide consumption rating of 338 kWh per year. (I was interested to find that a smaller size Danby uses nearly as much - about 330kWh.) Woods also makes freezerless fridges. Larger than mine are available. Black, white and stainless. I have put an energy use meter on the fridge but have not yet used the data to compare with the claim of 338 kWh per year.

I am surprised that they are not advertized as energy savers. To date, people probably buy them as a second beer fridge. The manual notes that frequent door opening will probably increase the energy consumption. But isn't that the same for all fridges?

Wed, 04 Oct 2006

Buzz Hargrove gets it wrong

Subject: interview with Buzz Hargrove on CBC today

I thank the CAW for trying to mix jobs and the environment. It's a good strategy. However, I don't think your short-term strategy is going to work.

If I were to listen to you, you think that we can continue for another 100 years to build automobiles, they just need to be more efficient. That's not enough. We have to move FAR FASTER.

If we don't retool NOW, there will be no TRANSPORTATION industry in Canada. That means a whole new approach to mobility --- it means less automobile ownership, and more short-term leasing, rental, co-ops, transit, and the like. People need to able to buy only as much mobility as they need.

That means that your industry will have to change from being something that builds products to a service industry. That means fewer robots, and more labour. Robots can't overhaul vehicles after their 5 year warantee is over.

Further, in the short-term if California reduces their emissions, and Ontario plants don't produce automobiles that can be sold in California, then... where will you sell them? Do you really think the Ontario market is big enough?

YES, that's unfortunately ones that are built in Ontario due to the Auto pact. Maybe... it's time to fix THAT.

If the CAW really cared about doing things right, they'd insist that their employers STOP investing in automobiles that nobody wants to buy. The SUV/Minivan craze is OVER. YOU knew this 5 years ago, but 0% financing kept the market alive for awhile, and then the major slump as everyone replaced their vehicles early.