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520 solar panels on this horse facility. Talk about competing in the solar arena!

Hurtling along South-Central Ontario’s Highway 2 on hot and sunny Canada Day weekend, I was thrilled — and surprised — to see many homes, barns and riding arenas clad with solar panels. Not just two or 10 but hundreds on some structures, enough generation capacity on a sunny day to fast-charge your electric car in the time it takes to have a cup of tea. A few people had even bought several photovoltaic solar arrays mounted on solar tracker posts. Their panels follow the sun like giant sunflowers.

Perhaps this is a bit of Deep Thought, but it struck me that those literal rural powerhouses had made a big investment in their future. They had decided to do something akin to buying a house rather than renting it. Instead of simply buying power from the grid at the current price of the day and being completely exposed to any future price, they have the flexibility to use their own power at essentially the amortized cost of buying the panels, helping them control their costs well into the future. Oh, and vastly reducing their contributions to climate change as well, of course. (I’m learning that farmers get climate change like few others in this country, but I’ll leave that for another post!)

And solar farming is a new way to make money on the rural landscape. These farmers and homeowners are taking advantage of Ontario’s feed-in tariff programs, available to even owners of small homes sporting small sources of renewable energy. The FIT and MicroFIT programs involve selling renewable energy into the grid for a premium price, and allow you to continue to buy energy from the grid at regular price as you need it. Few investments are as secure as this one (a major bank even has a special loans department for this purpose). But if  power prices become too expensive, there’s a long-standing power outage or other what-ifs pop up, these savvy solar array or wind turbine owners will  have a major source of power right there at home at no additional cost.

This opportunity for distributed, renewable power generation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help bolster and diversity our power supply is at risk if a future government is crazy enough to cancel that program (read about the threat here).  People across the province are investing in our collective future through renewable energy, so hopefully our future governments will invest in it too.

Tell me what you think. Can small-scale renewable projects make up a valuable part of our energy supply? Every comment is an entry to WIN a collection of five environmentally friendly cleaning products from Method, Nature Clean and Attitude!

Update: Congratulations to commenter Louise, who wins the collection of green cleaning products! Louise, I’ll be in touch!

 

Energy-saving lightbulbs contest CLOSED. Congrats to Vicki, who won a set of bulbs from IKEA! The contest closed at noon on Tuesday, February 8. Employees of Homemakers magazine and Transcontinental Media and their family members were not eligible to win.

Dad's cookies, now with renewable energy!

Can big manufacturing facilities really go green? While I’m a fan of small-scale production, I think that when a large-scale company decides to get its energy from renewable sources, it can make an enormous difference in the fight against climate change. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Kraft bakeries in Scarborough, Ont., and, after donning a lab coat, hair net, earplugs and other safety gear, I got to see the Dad’s Cookies operation in full swing, powered by renewable energy.

Tom Heintzman, President, Bullfrog Power (left) and Chris Bell, Kraft Canada Vice President of Snacks

Dad’s Cookies are a Canadian favourite, with 4 per cent of the Canadian cookie market and over 16 million packages of cookies sold in Canada each year. From now on, those cookies, made in Kraft’s Scarborough and Lakeshore bakeries, will be made with renewable energy. Kraft has partnered with Bullfrog Power to not only buy its electricity from by renewable sources (hydro, wind and solar), they will be the first customer to use Bullfrog’ Power’s new offering: green natural gas.

This effort is just the latest initiative in Kraft’s sustainability plan; in the past three years they’ve created zero waste facilities, reduced their energy use by 25 per cent and cut their water use by 15 per cent as well.

So what is green natural gas?
While conventional natural gas is a fossil fuel from non-renewable sources, Bullfrog Power is collecting, processing and distributing gases from the decaying matter in landfill, starting with an operation in Quebec.

When your food waste and other landfill garbage decomposes, it releases gases, particularly methane. Those go into the atmosphere from most Canadian landfills, a harmful source of greenhouse gas emissions. A few landfills capture their energy-rich gases now, converting them into useable energy, but much of it is wasted in the process. But if those gases are instead captured, processed and delivered to your home or business, you can burn them in your typically 94 per cent efficient furnace to heat your home, your hot water and power some of your appliances, wasting very little of the energy. True, you’ll still emit carbon dioxide, but it’s 20 times less as potent a greenhouse gas as methane, according to the US Climate Change Science Program.

How does Bullfrog Power deliver the green natural gas?
Just as Bullfrog Power does now with electricity, they’ll replace the amount of natural gas its customers use from the main gas line with green natural gas. As their customer base grows, Bullfrog will expand its operations to ensure they have sufficient capacity. Green natural gas will be available in a few of months to customers beyond initial pilot projects such as Kraft’s.

As Tom Heintzman, President of Bullfrog Power told me yesterday, “You have an environmental choice in everything you use. Energy arguably has the biggest environmental impact of everything you use.” And since have lots of opportunities to create energy from our waste, it’s great to know that we have ways of reducing climate change impacts while doing great things such as making cookies in the process.

Are you more keen to buy a product if you know it’s made with renewable energy?

Solar panels are a big investment. But they could do a lot to reduce your energy costs now — and contain them as energy prices rise in the future. But will it pay off if you put an array on your home?

For those of us working to shrink our carbon footprint and pay less for energy through home renovations, new online tools make it easy to assess the potential payoff of installing a photovoltaic (energy producing) solar array (a grouping of panels). The best sites have southern exposure, uninterrupted by trees and other sources of shade. If you have an area of your roof or a shade structure over your deck that would suit, these tools will help you find out more about the available sunlight (and thus available energy) in your area.

RoofRay.com lets you find your home using a Google Maps module, then lets you literally draw your solar panel on your roof. It provides an estimate of the peak power per square foot your panels could generate, and shows the total power an array of the size you specified would generate under optimum conditions.

Solar Rating Online (solarrating.ca) takes similar information about where you live, and asks for input about shade structures (like trees and other houses) as well. It provides a customized analysis of the available solar energy in your area, and specifically what output you can expect from a solar array mounted in a specific spot.

Some developers are building new homes with solar energy in mind, essentially leasing roof space from the new home owners to capitalize on the premium rates offered for solar energy in Ontario. Click here to read an article about how it works.

Would you like to add a renewable energy option to your home, such as solar thermal hot water, a photovoltaic solar array, or wind power?

Quick, how could you save about 30 per cent on your home heating costs? If you have an uninsulated basement, head down the stairs and have a look at your energy-saving potential.

The thinking used to be that basements don’t need insulating because, well, they’re underground, nestled inside the insulating walls of earth around the foundation walls. But those walls rise above grade, and heat rises. The rim joist, or header area at the top of the foundation walls, up to the main-level flooring, is a major heat-loss zone, so your furnace (and your wallet) has to work harder when you have gaps in your insulation – or no insulation at all – on your basement walls and up into the wall perimeter.

Since 2008, the Ontario Building Code has required that new houses be built with insulated basements. Those of us with older homes can cut our energy (and thus carbon) use by retrofitting insulation on our basement walls and on the rim joists where the foundation walls meet the base of main floor walls.

And that’s what I’m up to right now, in my free time. My home was built in the 1940s. Although the basement was finished decades ago, I peeled back (OK, a team of friends and I sawed, pried and otherwise arduously removed) the trim and wood panelling and voila, bare concrete walls. Nice walls, mind you — dry, mould-free walls — but totally uninsulated walls.

If I were building new, I would insulate my basement as part of the construction using a system such as insulated concrete forms (ICFs, explained here). ICFs have an R-value (a measure of how insulating they are) of R-18 to R-30 and make up the structure of your foundation, in place of traditional concrete block.

If you have uninsulated basement walls, you can retrofit a basement by building stud walls along the foundation walls, then filling them with insulation and adding a finished wall surface. These days, spray-in closed-cell polyurethane foam is the best choice for this, since it provides a seamless, high-R-value wall that serves as its own vapour barrier. It’s important to deal with any moisture issues, particularly foundation leaks, from the outside before trying to insulate your interior walls. Otherwise you may create a mouldy situation.

I’ll be using closed-cell spray foam to insulate my rim joists. Here’s a great video showing the technique.

Because my home is fairly small, I’m keen to maintain as much room down in my basement as possible. So when looking for a wall insulation option, I was glad to find InSoFast, an R-10 wall cladding option that serves as vapour barrier (when you seal the tops and sides with spray foam) and allows you to attach drywall directly to it. InSoFast panels have a polyethylene strip for mounting drywall, and comes with wiring channels built right in.

Through all of this, I’m aware that, while my basement is leak free and feels dry, to keep it from getting moist and musty I not only need insulation, I need air circulation. With air flow, I’ll avoid condensation (when hot, moist air hits cold surfaces, water forms) and keep my basement nice and dry.

Basements are complicated places to retrofit, but given the energy savings and the lure of expanded living space, it’s worth it!

Well, it’s Friday, and we all need some good news to counteract this week’s bad news for the environment. And there are lots of great stories out there. Here’s are a good news story that proves that green economy projects are underway.

The Philadephia Eagles football team are taking their stadium, the Lincoln Financial Field, off grid. And not just figuratively – they’ve teamed up with Solar Blue, a renewable energy company, to install wind and solar infrastructure as well as a biofuel and natural gas co-generation engine that will supply at least 8.6 megawatts of electricity, enough power to supply the stadium’s game-day draw of 7 megawatts. Extra power will be sold into the power grid. The equipment should be operational by next September.

In a media release you can find here, team owner and chief executive officer, Jeffrey Lurie says, “The Philadelphia Eagles are proud to take this vital step towards energy independence from fossil fuels by powering Lincoln Financial Field with wind, solar and dual-fuel energy sources. This commitment builds upon our comprehensive environmental sustainability program, which includes energy and water conservation, waste reduction, recycling, composting, toxic chemical avoidance and reforestation. It underscores our strong belief that environmentally sensitive policies are consistent with sound business practices.”

The move makes excellent business sense: the team saves $60 million in electricity costs over 20 years, creates 50 permanent jobs and hundreds of other time-limited and supplier-related jobs. Oh, and helps the stadium reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Now that’s good news! Have you heard about any green good news stories lately?

Powered by recycling. Literally!

We’ve figured out how to turn trash into treasure. Not the wooden chest of gold coins-type treasure, but treasure for our modern world: clean energy. The evidence: my city, the city of Toronto, has a new garbage truck with an engine (a Cummins Westport ISL G) that’s capable of running on compressed natural gas, including biogas. And where are they planning to get that source of biogas? From composting operations that handle the green bin waste (kitchen waste) removed from Toronto curbsides by… Toronto garbage trucks.

“Our two green bin processing facilities have the potential to produce enough natural gas to take our entire fleet of 300 waste trucks off diesel,” says Geoff Rathbone, the City of Toronto’s General Manager of Solid Waste Management Services. “Creating natural gas from kitchen waste will be the first operation of its kind in North America.”

Replacing diesel trucks with lower-emission biogas trucks is all a pilot project at this point, but the city is motivated: its Green Fleet Plan calls for new medium and heavy-duty trucks in order to reduce fuel consumption, fuel costs, smog and greenhouse-gas pollutants. For more information on the plan, click here.

Next, let’s hope that Toronto and other municipalities tackle incineration to deal with all that garbage waste that cannot be composted or recycled. Burning this material generates energy as well, and the processes can be controlled in a way that doesn’t contaminate the environment (read about it here). That would save us a heck of a lot of money (and, of course, climate-impacting CO2) compared to trucking garbage to landfills. C’mon Canada, Japan is doing it, Denmark is doing it… we can do it!

According to a poll released yesterday by Bullfrog Power, “Nearly 100 per cent of Ontarians say they have reduced their household electricity use over the past five years, but 40 per cent of respondents say they do not plan to do more than they are doing now in the future.” The poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted by Harris/Decima.

Here is what Ontarians are doing to reduce their electricity consumption, according to the poll results:
· 96 per cent of Ontarians turn off lights to save energy
· 78 per cent have purchased CFL light bulbs, and an additional 76 per cent have purchased energy efficient appliances
· 53 per cent of Ontarians unplug appliances when not in use; 33 per cent use appliance timers-both steps reduce electricity consumed by devices when not in use
· 57 per cent of Ontarians hang their laundry to dry
· Only one per cent of Ontarians report they are taking no actions to reduce electricity consumption

The poll results come on the eve of Bullfrog Power’s fifth anniversary. The company offers 100 per cent renewable energy, such as wind power and low-impact hydro – a logical next step in reducing the carbon footprint of one’s household (my personal nest has been Bullfrog Powered since 2005). Now more than 8,000 homes and 1,200 businesses in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and the Maritimes are using 100 per cent green electricity with Bullfrog Power.

In Ontario, conventional power companies offer electricity from a range of sources, including nuclear (which creates radioactive waste that must be handled… forever), coal, oil and gas (chief sources of air pollution, related watershed pollution and greenhouse gas emissions); and large hydro (which can involve problematic dams) – only a small amount of renewable energy is in the mix.

What do you think, have you hit a wall when it comes to conserving energy at home? What next step would you like to take?

Well we’re seven degrees above seasonal norms in Toronto today, and it’s much the same heat wave story across Ontario. My friends are scrambling to buy and install ceiling fans, air conditioners (although with heaps of guilt, but they can’t sleep in this heat).

How did they do it in the old days? Well, a lot of homes have second-storey outdoor spaces, known as sleeping balconies, perfect for these heat-wave temperatures. Yes, people slept outside! I’d suggest one of those mosquito nets if you’re thinking of trying it, or just full-out camp in your backyard with a well-ventilated tent.

How can we cope today? Well, to stay comfortable without a major environmental impact, it pays to insulate your home to the maximum values (e.g., R50 for the attic). Not just to hold in heat, insulation in the walls and attic helps keep heat out and keep cool air in. Same goes for sealing air leaks: if you’re air conditioning your home, the cool air is going to want to escape to warm areas, so the more gaps you’ve got, the more cool air you’ll lose. If you have a window air conditioner, you should insulate around it; here’s a guide from CMHC. Peelable caulking is your friend right now: you can use it on any little gaps, but easily remove it later!

Beyond insulating, it’s helpful to choose efficient appliances. If you’re buying an air conditioner, consider whether you’ll need it regularly and what parts of your home you want to cool – the whole house (central air), a large area, or one room. Wall-pack options are ductless alternatives to central air conditioners, and more energy efficient than window air conditioners. I use one of these to cool my small home on hot nights, and it covers the approx. 600 square feet with a fan helping to draw cool air into the bedroom. Check the Energy Star rating to see how the models you’re considering compare.

Here are a few more ways I’m trying to stay cool during this heat wave:
- Cooking outside on the (propane) grill
- Preparing salads for dinner
- Enjoying the city’s cold water when I need refreshment. City water still comes in quite cold!
- Having a quick, cool shower before bed to make sleeping easier
- Taking an ice pack to bed, wrapped in a cloth, to help me relax and cool down
- Using blinds and other window coverings to keep the sun out
- Using the air conditioner as needed on a thermostat, so it just controls the worst of the heat and humidity
- Running the ceiling fan on a low setting in the bedroom to keep air circulating
- Escaping to my parents’ house in the Thousand Islands, where the river is cool and never far away!
Escaping to the cottage: a Canadian way to beat the heat for over 100 years!

How are you staying cool?