Samsung and Ontario to Announce Solar and Wind Deal

Posted on January 20th, 2010 by Bruce

Samsung and Ontario to Announce Solar and Wind Deal

The Premier of Ontario is set to announce a multibillion dollar deal to a consortium led by Samsung Group to build renewable energy equipment including wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels.

The deal, which could be worth up to C$7 billion, will be unveiled on Thursday January 27th at 10:45 am, according to the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and several additional news services.

We believe the deal includes four new factories and also allows Samsung to develop 600 megawatts of wind and solar farms in Ontario. The Ontario government hopes this deal will generate 15,000 new jobs and help meet its target of 50,000 new jobs created over three years through its Green Energy Act.

Solar Feed-in Tariff rates per Ontario Solar Farms, are:

Feed-In Tariff Prices for Renewable Energy Projects in Ontario
Technology	Size	Proposed ¢/kWh
Solar PV
Rooftop or Ground Mounted	≤ 10 kW	80.2
Rooftop	10 – 250 kW	71.3
Rooftop	250 – 500 kW	63.5
Rooftop	> 500 kW	53.9
Ground Mounted	≤ 10 MW	44.3

DIY Solar Water Heater

Posted on January 19th, 2010 by Bruce

DIY Solar Water Heater

DIY solar projects including solar ovens, solar pool heaters, solar PV panels, solar air heaters and batch solar water heaters are fairly simple projects to complete on your own. We recently came across another solar water heater, non-batch, that we like. This project is a bit more involved and will require caution when working with the old fluorescent tubes, as they contain a hazardous material (mercury). Still, Jake Teaters, the person who has built this system, has achieved some impressive results.

Solar Water Heaters

Grow Fresh Air with Houseplants

Posted on January 12th, 2010 by Bruce

Grow Your Fresh Air With Houseplants

As we made are homes and workplaces more energy efficient and air tight, the quality of indoor air greatly decreased. Use these houseplants to remove indoor air toxins. Plants are ordered by their ability to remove chemical toxins, how easy they are to grow and their resistance to pests.

Areca Palm …. semi-sun …. loam soil

Lady Palm …. semi-sun …. hydroculture or subirrigation

Bamboo Palm …. semi-sun …. all purpose soil

Rubber Plant …. semi-sun to semi-shade …. all purpose soil

Janel Craig …. semi-shade …. all purpose soil Janet Craig

English Ivy …. semi-sun to semi-shade …. all purpose soil

Dwarf Date Palm …. semi-sun …. all purpose soil

Ficus Alii …. full-sun to semi-sun …. standard soil – don’t over water

Boston Fern …. semi-sun …. humus rich potting material

Copenhagen is Over, Now What

Posted on December 21st, 2009 by Bruce

Copenhagen is Over, Now What

“If (former Vice President) Dick Cheney can argue that even a 1 percent chance of a terrorist attack is 100 percent justification for preemptive action, then surely, when scientists tell us that climate change is nearly a 100 percent certainty, we ought to be able to stand together…and join in an all out effort to combat a mortal threat to the life of this planet.”

John Kerry, US Senator

“I have the feeling of dread that we are on the Titanic and sinking fast, but we can’t launch any life boats because a member of the crew has decided that we are not sinking and that we have to have informal consultations to decide whether we are sinking or not.”

Ian Fry, chief negotiator for Tuvalu

So the talks at Copenhagen have come to a close, and no binding agreement was reached… maybe next year?!! Problem is, we can’t keep saying “we’ll get to it”. We continue to pump greenhouse gases into the planet’s atmosphere at an alarming and ever increasing rate. We know for sure, that the greenhouse gases we are producing, will bring massive harm to our planet. We are also aware of “unknown” elements such as the thawing of permafrost – unknown, as in not knowing how much more greenhouse gas this will add to the atmosphere.

Maybe next year we’ll come to an agreement? Or maybe the year after? Or the one after that…. How can we allow our leaders and the “lobbyist” to get away with this….

OPA Issues 700 MicroFit Contracts for Solar Rooftops

Posted on December 16th, 2009 by Bruce

OPA Issues 700 MicroFit Contracts for Solar Rooftops

The Ontario Power Authority issued 700 contracts today (Dec 16) for MicroFit Solar PV systems. These solar installations will be paid 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWH) for the next 20 years, for every kWh of power produced.

The OPA started to accept contract applications on October 1st 2009. Over 2200 applications have been received to date.

Wind, hydro, biomass and biogas are included in the OPA’s renewable energy feed-in tariffs. Ontario plans to close all coal-fired generating stations by 2014 or sooner. This renewable energy FiT will be a major contributor to that goal.

For more information on the announcement: 700 Solar MicroFiT Contracts Issued

Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff Rates

Weather vs Climate

Posted on December 14th, 2009 by Bruce

Weather vs Climate

Weather – what’s happening outside your door today, tomorrow and next week. Boy it’s hot (or cold) today. Looks like a storm is coming…

Climate – What’s happening all around, not just outside YOUR door, on a Long Term basis – Yearly or Decades. Boy, we sure had a lot of hurricanes this decade. What happened to the rain over the past few years – almost none – far to much.

Another columnist from the oil province of Canada, went on yet another rant today (Dec. 12th), stating how he was so positive climate change is all a hoax, as it was so frosty cold where he was standing. Too bad he doesn’t understand the difference between the weather and the climate. Yes, the weather will change from day to day and we will continue to have record highs, lows, rainfalls and droughts. However, the climate is heading in one direction – hotter. This still could mean that on your part of the planet, the temperatures are headed down… increasing worldwide temperatures will mean droughts to some parts of the planet and floods to other parts. Overall, higher worldwide temperatures mean more storms and more damage by bigger storms. And yes, there will be a few small parts of the planet that benefit from a longer growing season, though the vast majority of the planet will suffer.

You can’t change the weather. You can have an impact on the climate.

Germany Posts Record Solar Installations

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Bruce

Germany Posts Record Solar Installations

(Reuters) – Germany will add a record of up to 3 gigawatt (GW) of photovoltaic capacity this year due to unexpectedly strong demand in the final months of 2009, the head of Germany’s BSW solar industry association said on Monday.

Carsten Koernig told Reuters the late surge would take the forecast past last month’s increase to 2.5 GW from 2 GW.

“It looks like we’ll end up with 2.5 to 3 GW for 2009,” he added. “It’s still too early to say if it will be closer to 3 or 2.5. It’ll be well over 2.5. But it won’t be over 3 GW simply because there isn’t enough capacity. We’re already at the limit.

Germany, the world’s leader in photovoltaic which turns sunlight into electricity, had 5.3 GW installed at the end of 2008, including a previous record 1.6 GW added in 2008.

That was about a third of the world’s total of 15 GW. Three GW’s of solar power would produce as much power as three large coal-burning plants or three nuclear power plants.

Ontario, Canada, introduced a similar Feed-in Tariff effective October 1st, 2009. Their FiT pays small solar PV installations, up to 10kW in size, at a rate of 80.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. Demand is expected to pick up over the next few months as the general public becomes aware of the program.

California also has a Feed-in Tariff which was amended On Oct 11, 2009. The changes, which don’t take effect till 2010, allow for an increase in the rate paid for solar PV production during peak hours. We don’t believe the FiT rate is high enough to produce massive installation numbers.

UK Climate Science Statement

Posted on November 25th, 2009 by Bruce

UK Climate Science Statement

From: The Guardian

Partial text of the joint statement from the Met Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society on the state of the science of climate change ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference. Please use the Guardian link above for the full text.

The UK is at the forefront of tackling dangerous climate change, underpinned by world class scientific expertise and advice. Crucial decisions will be taken soon in Copenhagen about limiting and reducing the impacts of climate change now and in the future. Climate scientists from the UK and across the world are in overwhelming agreement about the evidence of climate change, driven by the human input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

As three of the UK’s leading scientific organizations involving most of the UK scientists working on climate change, we cannot emphasis enough the body of scientific evidence that underpins the call for action now, and we reinforce our commitment to ensuring that world leaders continue to have access to the best possible science. We believe this will be essential to inform sound decision-making on policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change up to Copenhagen and beyond.

The 2007 assessment report of the UN’s climate change panel (the IPCC) – made up of the world’s foremost climate scientists – provided unequivocal evidence for a warming climate, and a high degree of certainty that human activities are largely responsible for global warming since the middle of the 20th century. However, the IPCC process is based only on information already published and even since the last assessment report the scientific evidence for dangerous, long-term and potentially irreversible climate change has strengthened significantly:

• Global carbon dioxide concentrations continue to rise, and methane concentrations have started to increase again after a decade of near stability;
• The decade 2000-09 has been warmer, on average, than any other decade in the previous 150 years;
• Observed changes in precipitation (decreases in the subtropics and increases in high latitudes) have been at the upper limit of model projections;
• Arctic summer sea ice cover declined suddenly in 2007 and 2008, prompting the realisation that this environment may be far more vulnerable to change than previously thought;
• There is increasing evidence of continued and accelerating sea-level rises around the world.

At GreenTerraFirma, we hope for the best results for the Copenhagen meeting. We’ll soon know the results.

GreenTerraFirma

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