Clean energy is the solution for our planet's future.
Solar Power:
Alberta is one of the sunniest provinces in all of Canada,
averaging over 2,264 hours of sunlight per year. The solar energy
that falls on Alberta every day equals the energy available from
all other non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, oil, oil sands and
natural gas) extracted in Alberta each year.
Currently, the ability to harness this energy is tempered
because of the high cost of the technology, but this is changing!
If there was significant investment by the Alberta government in
building a solar energy infrastructure in Alberta the possibilities
for solar would be almost limitless.
Communities in Alberta are already taking the lead to build the
solar revolution. Alberta's famed sunny skies are giving the town
of Okotoks a chance to shine as the site of North America's first
large-scale seasonal storage solar heating community. For more
information, see
http://www.okotoks.ca/sustainable/solar/SolarEnergy.asp
Wind Power:
Wind is the fastest-growing source of energy in the world,
increasing at an average annual rate of 35 per cent. This upward
trend represents a huge investment opportunity and given the
dramatic improvements in wind technology and the exploding demand
for renewables this trend is only likely to continue. In addition
to the demand side, every unit of electricity generated by wind
power means nearly a 100 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions - a great thing if you happen to be the planet or a
person living on it.
Despite the benefits of wind Canada's wind infrastructure is
sorely lacking. Canada gets only 570 megawatts of power from wind -
much less than the over 30,000 megawatts of developable wind
resources found in Canada, much of which is in Alberta.
Why don't we see windmills dotting the skyline in Alberta as we
do in Germany? The main reason again is cost but again we should
put that cost in perspective. When the Alberta government wanted to
encourage development in the tar sands it gave the industry huge
subsidies and incentives to do it. If the Alberta government had
the same initiative that it does for developing the dirtiest source
of oil in the world, in developing one of the cleanest sources of
energy we would see that Alberta's energy mix change
dramatically.
Conservation:
More than anything else we should be looking for ways to avoid
consuming non-renewable energy sources. One way to stop burning
fossil fuels is to change our transportation systems. Most of the
energy generated by the tar sands isn't generated to satisfy
Alberta's or even Canada's energy needs. We are destroying over a
quarter of the province, extracting the dirtiest source of oil in
the world, and generating a growing number of social and
environmental problems so we can ship it across the border and put
it in the huge gas tanks of American drivers. Most of the oil from
the tar sands is for U.S. transportation fuel. So not only are we
destabilizing the climate by the extraction end but we are fueling
further disruption and emissions in the US.
The US transportation sector accounts for 1/3 of the United
States's greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of feeding this
addiction and encouraging further destruction of the planet through
the use of tar sands oil, we should be promoting solutions to the
transportation problem, which are just as bountiful as the energy
solutions.
BUILDING A GREEN CAR:
The technology exists today to dramatically improve the fuel
efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of our vehicles.
Essentially, a vehicle that is powered by an internal combustion
engine is not a very efficient machine. Improvements in engines,
transmissions, and vehicle design exist, but they are mostly
sitting on shelves instead of making our engines more efficient.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if we used today's
technology to clean up the internal combustion engine, our cars
would get an average of 40 miles per gallon (almost double the
current fleet-wide average of 21.1) and create over 140,000 jobs in
the process. If we used the most efficient hybrid-electric
technology in its vehicles we could average 55 mpg, and with
Plug-in Hybrids the results are even more dramatic. When we
consider that over 70% of the oil used in the US goes to
transportation, a doubling or tripling of fuel economy would be
truly astonishing.
Hybrids
Hybrid electric vehicles are a good step towards a more
fuel-efficient fleet of vehicles. Hybrids use an electric motor and
large battery to capture and store energy that is normally lost in
an inefficient gasoline engine. In the most efficient hybrids, like
the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic, the energy is used to help
run the vehicle and can dramatically improve fuel efficiency.
Plug-in Hybrids
Although hybrids are efficient, they still use oil. An even
better solution is Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), also
called Gasoline Optional Hybrid Electric Vehicles (GO-HEVs). The
idea is to enlarge the battery pack in a normal hybrid so that it
can hold more energy, and add a plug, so that the car can get the
energy from the grid or from rooftop solar power. With a plug-in
hybrid, which uses a battery-powered electric motor for the first
30 to 50 miles, most American commuters would rarely if ever need
to fill up or even top off with gasoline unless making a long
trip. Engineers estimate that with a plug-in hybrid electric car,
an American driver could save a whopping 85% of their gas
consumption!
http://www.calcars.org/
http://pluginamerica.com
Electric Vehicles
Ford, GM and Toyota once mass-produced full-sized vehicles that
were completely independent from oil. Ignoring demand, Ford, GM and
Toyota eliminated the program and destroyed all but a few hundred
of its only zero-emission vehicles. EVs are occasionally available
today through Ebay and other, mostly online sources, and custom EVs
are being made.
The greatest advantage to the EV is that it has no gas tank.
The only power for the car is its electric motor and a very large
battery pack, which is plugged in to recharge. Ford's EVs had a
range of 80-100 miles; advances in battery development give the
latest EVs up to a 300 mile range. The drawbacks of EVs today is
that they have become extremely rare; with no major auto
manufacturer currently producing EVs in the U.S., Americans no
longer have easy access to petroleum-free, pollution-free cars.
http://pluginamerica.com/
http://evworld.com/