Trusted Space - Energy

Sara Fraser - Setting an example

2007-01-24T13:54:02-04:00

All Islanders know who Sara is. (For those of you who live Away - Sara is a much loved host and reporter at our local CBC TV station on PEI) Many of us followed her excellent series last year called Power Points where she discovered, on our behalf, many ways to save money by using energy better. I called her this week to find out what she has been doing personally to save money by using energy more thoughtfully .

Sara is just at the final stages of having the same kind of Solar water heating installed as I have. She too has been helped by Stephen Howard and the guys at Aqua Tech.

I asked her why she was doing this.

"We had just finished building a new house and assumed that it would be much more energy efficient. But as I did the work on Power Points, I began to see that we had hardly scratched the surface. My contractor and we (George) did not know much at all about what we could have done.

We at least did the obvious things such as install energy efficient light bulbs. We have two high efficiency wood stoves and one of these is my lovely wood range. They make a big difference in reducing our oil consumption from about 4 tanks to maybe 2 a year."

Wood is a lot of work - how do you cope with that?

"George is my wood master chopper - he loves to stack it, chop it and carry it around. (I do too - the inner caveman in men) but I now wish we had known enough to install a Geothermal Heat Pump.

We wanted to do more. So we first looked at a small windmill but right now, they are not cost effective for a single household like ours. It takes too long to get your money back.

I interviewed Stephen Howard after the show and saw that with Solar heating for our water - we could get a good return for our investment. So we decided to take the plunge.

We are just completing putting in a bigger system than you Rob. (Sara and George have two panels) Teenagers live in the shower! We now need a sunny day and the plumber to charge the system and we are off. "

(Glycol flows though the panel back down to your basement where it heats your water. The system has to be filled when it is sunny and then it looks after itself. Even the pump is run off a solar panel of its own)

It's quite a lot of money Sara - As far as I know the CBC is not Hollywood, how did you make the financial commitment?

"The government loan program and the PST rebate helped a lot in making this decision. It was easy to access and fast. I was really pleasantly surprised.

So what is your take away Sara?

That it's not so much about SAVING money- even if it cost the same amount of money- it's worth it not to be dependent on oil, for a myriad of political and environmental reasons.

At least relying on the sun or wind, doesn't feel like you're undersomeone's thumb.

I wish that it was easier for regular people to find out what they can do. We could have done a lot more if we had started building our new house knowing what we do now. I also have found that this is very satisfying. I am saving money, investing in our future and it makes us feel good that we are doing our bit.

Renewable Energy Resources

2007-01-24T12:21:27-04:00

So if you live on PEI and you want to get off oil - Who are you going to call?

For an overview and strategy

Kevin Jeffrey at Avalon House - 902 659 2790
Stephen Howard at Renewables Lifestyles - 902 436 7111

For Chimney work and Stove installation

Redclay Construction - John Rousseau - 902 962 3363

For Solar Panel and Water Systems installation

Aqua Tech - Rick Long and James Howlett - Chtown 902 367 7511 or Montague 902 838 3625

For Wood Furnace Installation

Ross Petrie - 902 659 2313

Here is John Rousseau and the Redclay boys

Here is Rick Long of Aqua Tech

Here is James Howlett of Aqua Tech

Here is Kevin Jeffrey

Rob's Home

2007-01-24T12:18:01-04:00

Two Years ago I installed a Kerr 2000 Wood Boiler in parallel with my regular oil furnace. Our house is 2,500 square feet and we have a 1,000 square foot Granny Flat attached. Next year I will break even on the costs.

What have I learned since November 2004 and what am I doing about it?

First of all I learned that the Kerr 2000 really struggles to heat 3,500 square feet. Most nights in the hard heating season I would have to do the 3am feed. Now I know what being a mummy is like! With all that demand it was also hard to keep the temperature high enough to prevent creosote build up - we had a chimney fire last spring.

Part of the issue is wood as well - next year we will built a real outside crib - we can store about 5 cord inside now and keep another 3 outside but our site does not have enough ventilation.

Our plan this year is to take the pressure of the one furnace and to move toward a more diverse system. By the way we did the obvious also and insulated the roof and put in new windows everywhere - no point just heating Stratford.

In the Granny Flat we have installed a pellet stove - an Enviro Empress.

This type of stove is great for retro fitting - as they are so efficient nearly all the heat is retained and venting is much safer and simpler than for a conventional wood stove.

Here you can see how the Redclay guys ran the pipe up through 2 roofs. The job took less than a day. We got the stove from Corrigans.

Here you can see the pellets in the hopper at the back of the stove. Pellets come in 40 pound bags that cost about $5.0 each.(Can) At the moment we use a bag every 3 days and we are told we will use a bag a day in Jan - March season. We have already discovered that there are pellets and there are pellets. We now use Eastern Embers - a very high quality pellet that we get from Home Hardware.

There is a major difference between a good pellet and a poor one - so find out in your area what is best.

In the main house, we replaced our old wood stove with a high efficiency EPA stove - a Pacific Super 27.

It can burn all night and also is fan assisted so that in the shoulder seasons - November - December and March - May we will heat the entire house with this. We will use about 3 cords of wood versus 3 tanks of oil. ($450 versus $2,100)

We have also learned that using the big furnace in the shoulder seasons is not a good idea. It does best in the hard cold of Jan - March when we would normally get through 4-5 tanks of oil at $700 a pop! (Between $2,800 and $3,500). Instead we will use 4-5 cords of wood ($600 - $750)

We are in the process of also installing a Solar Water heater. Currently we heat our water by demand off the boiler either oil or wood. In the summer we get through a tank of oil simply heating water. So mover the year our water heating must be about 2 tanks of oil or about $1,400.

In the summer this will heat all our hot water. The pump is run by the small voltaic cell that you can see on the left of the larger panel. In the winter it will take the well water of about 4C up to a middling temperature where the furnace will heat it to standard.

We await a sunny day to fill the system with Glycol and I will keep you posted on how this works. In my next post I will talk about where you can get good help and advice on PEI

Power Points - Tips for Saving Money at Home

2007-01-24T12:13:42-04:00

Here is Sara Fraser at her new/old range at home.

In the summer of 2006, she put together a series of short and very informative TV spots that you can download and watch that show you how to save a lot of money using energy differently at home. Great advice that anyone can use presented in a human way - she is even filmed in the shower for the water heating show.

It's a treasure trove.

You can find them here.

She investigates -

Washing Machines
Lighting
Gas for your car
Air conditioning
Phantom Power
Water heating
New Homes
Wood stoves
Home insulation

Investing Solar Water Heating for you at Home

2007-01-24T12:05:07-04:00

PEI offers loans of up to $5,000 at 6% to fund renewable. There is also a PST refund as well. Sara Fraser found the application process both fast and easy.

Here is the website with all the information.

Here is a summary:-

Alternative Heating Loan Program

The Alternative Heating Loan Program provides low-interest loans to help Islanders buy alternative heating systems. That includes:

wood-burning appliances
wood-pellet burning appliances
solar air heating systems
solar water heating systems

(the above items must comply with CSA codes or have EPA certification)

ground- or water-source heat pump systems with Energy Star certification
drain water heat recovery systems

Loans of a minimum $1,000 and maximum $5,000 per household are available at an interest rate of 6% annually. The loan can be used to purchase any of the above alternative heating systems; to install the system; and to purchase any accessories that are required for the safe and efficient operation of the system. For example, if you are installing a wood stove and need a new chimney to operate it, you may apply for the loan to purchase the stove and build the chimney.

To be eligible for this program, the applicant(s) must be a full-time resident of Prince Edward Island and own the home the equipment is being purchased for and installed in. There are no income restrictions on eligibility.

Please Note: If you received a loan in 2005/06 under the Alternative Heating Loan Program, you cannot apply for another loan in 2006/07.

Provincial Sales Tax (PST) Exemption

There is a PST exemption on small-scale renewable energy equipment with a rating of 100 kilowatts or less (100 kilowatts = 340,000 BTUs). Items which are exempt from provincial sales tax include:

wind energy generating systems
biogas energy generating systems
ground-source or geothermal heat pump energy generating systems
solar thermal energy collection systems
solar photovoltaic energy collection systems
drain water heat recovery energy collection devices

The PST exemption on small-scale renewable energy equipment is retroactive to April 8, 2005. If you have purchased an item since April 8, 2005 and paid PST, you can request a tax rebate by completing the Request for Refund of Revenue Tax form. You must attach the original invoice or receipt. It will take about six weeks to receive the rebate.

For more information on the PST exemption on renewable energy equipment, contact Provincial Treasury, Taxation and Property Records, at (902) 569-7542.

Forms

Alternative Heating Loan Program Application for Financial Assistance

Printable version of this form [554 KB PDF File]

Residential Energy Assistance Program Client Information Form

Submit this form online

Printable version of this form [93 KB PDF File]

Programme d'aide liée aux coûts d'énergie domestique Formulaire de renseignements sur le client

Printable version of this form [77 KB PDF File]

Request for Refund of Revenue Tax (PST)

Printable version of this form [162 KB PDF File]

Investing in Wind on PEI

2007-01-24T11:35:45-04:00

PEI Wind Bonds are now eligible for RRSP's.

Check out this site for how to invest.

Wind & Hydrogen - Growing Independence

2007-01-23T07:47:43-04:00

This is a map of PEI's Confederation Trail - nearly 400 km of old railway bed that is a wonderful biking/hiking experience. Many visitors who ride the trail ask me "Rob - wouldn't it be great if PEI could get its railway back? Think of the environmental savings! Think of the Convenience!"

Well it would cost too much to restore the railway but we are thinking of doing something that will have the same effect - allow a person in say Alberton to do what her granny used to be able to do from this station, walk to a spot in town and be connected to any place on the Island, or off for that matter, while reducing the footprint and environmental cost of the journey. So what are we are going to do? Just wait a moment while I ask and answer another question that is related to this one.

Imagine you live in a northern community in Canada. There are about 170 of them. They rely on shipping in diesel in the summer and running generators all winter. Their cost per KWH? Over a$1.0. They use about 330 million litres a year and generate about 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. As fuel prices rise what will happen to you? What if your remote community could break free from oil. Not just for power but for your vehicles as well? What if after the capital costs, there was only maintenance? What if the technology used was very robust and could be serviced by you?

So what are we doing on PEI that can address both these questions?

Meet Mark Victor. It's his job as project manager of PEI's Hydrogen Village Project to find the answers. Mark has a busy 2007 ahead of him.

By the end of 2007, he will be testing how to link Wind with Hydrogen production. Our intent is to see if we can deliver a small scale package that can offer both electricity and hydrogen for small communities with wind as the pivot.

The first test will be to power up the buildings at the Wind Energy Institute on the north west tip of PEI and then to add houses running south from the cape. At night, when the demand for electricity drops, we will produce hydrogen that will fuel vehicles that have internal combustion engines adapted for hydrogen. At first we will test a truck or two but we have plans to test buses. Even snowmobiles can be adapted.

We have the best wind resource in populated Canada. If PEI is to become more independent, we have to find a way of storing our wind power. Hydrogen for vehicles is one of the ideas that we are looking at.

It is our hope that if all goes well, we can consider establishing a public transportation system that will replicate the value that the old railway offered Islanders but with an environmental twist of no emissions and all the energy coming from locally owned renewable sources.

Our focus at first is to see if we can deliver a small and robust package that can work in any small community such as those that we find up North. If we can do this - then a world market of remote sites opens up for us - and they too can hope for independence.

So why us on PEI? Well of course the story is more interesting than the wind which is only nature's gift. This story begins with the courage and the perseverance of one man - Carl Brothers.

I first met Carl 12 years ago. He was then running the Atlantic Wind test Site - where the Wind Institute is now. He was Canada's lonely wind man. Scraping by with a tiny budget and no support, he kept the faith. I and most others would have given up. Not only did he hang in there but he went further.

This is Ramea, a small Island off Newfoundland. Carl believed so much in what he had developed, that he mortgaged his house, bought these turbines second hand and went to Ramea. That is the kind of person that he is.

Carl's personal research is in making effective switches between wind and other power. It sounds simple. The wind drops and the diesel cuts in. But it isn't. If you live in a remote place like Ramea, you want the assurance that when the wind drops your power supply will remain constant. Much of what will be done in the Wind Hydogen project has its roots in Carl's work on effective switching.

Mark will be providing me with updates throughout 2007 as the project moves from plans to reality. Check back now and then and see how he is doing

The Rules for Energy

2007-01-15T13:49:48-04:00

Welcome to Trusted Space for Energy.

Our current relationship with Energy is that we believe that it is best and normal that it is best extracted from the sun's capital that is located in carbon processed over millenia and buried in the crust of the earth. In the west, we have done well until recently by feeling that this is the right and only way to be connected to energy. But there has been a social and an environmental price and the price is now too high.

This process is so expensive and so global that only a few giant corporations can do the work of extraction, processing, transportation and distribution. The viable reserves of oil and coal are located in just a few places so its wealth is narrowly held by the few governments that "Own" the resource. The producers and the "owners" do with the rest of us what they want. We are in effect the slaves to big oil and to big coal.

The days of cheap and apparently boundless amounts of carbon base energy are in sight.

Our heroes will show us that the Sun's income, if captured cleverly, has infinitely more total energy available than our capital reserves. The Sun's income has almost none of the the pollution problems attached to using its buried capital. Whether it be wind, sun, biomass, hydro, or thermal, the Sun's income is widely dispersed all over the planet and need no longer be captured by the few. Locally owned and locally distributed systems need not be expensive.

We can have a relationship with energy that is local and where we are free from a dependency on others who do not care about us.

So what is at stake is whether the heroes in energy can create the community and the following that will enable us all to participate broadly in the gift of life that the sun offers us all every day.

I am encouraged that they can and that they will. Let's see what they are doing

PEI - On our way to Independence

2007-01-14T11:30:57-04:00

This is where I live. Yes this is a picture postcard view but this is what it really looks like here on PEI on a fall day.

As those that know the story of Ann of Green Gables, this is also a very conservative society. Islanders hate change. They banned the car. They held onto prohibition longer than any other society in Canada. They protested the Bridge. But they are racing ahead to become the most energy independent society in the world. We will have 15% of our electricity from wind this year and by 2016 we plan to have 30% of all our energy from locally owned renewable resources. The way things are going, I bet we will do better than that.

So how did this happen? How did a profoundly conservative society get so positively excited about becoming independent from the global energy companies?

I think the answers rest in our own story as a society and in the passion and insight of an individual. This is a story about how to harness a story. This is a story about how to get a whole society to come with you into the world of energy independence.

First a quick review of our own story. Prince Edward Island was settled in a very different way from most places in North America. After the British ethnically cleansed the French settlers after the 7 years war, the land was surveyed and handed out to some pals in England. PEI was then covered in a climax oak forest. Many of these oaks were feet wide. Then there was no farm land there were just forest and rivers. Now we look like the south of England. Someone had to cut all these trees down.

To have a farm meant generations of back backing work.

The new settlers, mainly from Scotland and Ireland, were not free men but were tenants. You and your spouse would get 100 acres of land that you would rent. The two of you, with an ax and a horse would, over 2 generations, clear your 100 acres by hand and establish a farm that was still owned by the English non-resident landlord. Every month you paid him rent. He owned all the value of what you had achieved.

Sound familiar?

By the 1830's, the injustice of all the value being created by the tenant on behalf of the non-resident landlord became too much and there was a revolt. The landlords were bought out and the great awakening of PEI life began with a society of 15,000 yeoman farmers who owed nothing to any outsider.

So our own birth story was one of throwing off the bondage of the non-resident owner who sucked the wealth out of our society. This birth story is embedded in Islanders. It may not be conscious but it is our own Exodus story.

So roll the hands of time into the current era. Jamie Ballem, our minister for Energy, the Environment & Forestry is in a plane on his way home from a meeting. Jamie is well over 6 feet 4 and finds it hard to sleep in the tiny planes that serve us. His mind was racing. We spend about $400 million a year for energy to people who live far away and who care nothing for us. Our total provincial budget is about $1.2 billion, so you can see that our energy bill is a huge additional tax for us. His mind was racing around what this meant.

What if we could work to get our money back? What if we owned the renewable energy that we could produce? What if we made a start with 30% by 2016? That would be over $100 million a year.

This way of seeing the world is I think the beginning of a truly grand way of acting.

Jamie went beyond the merely technical idea of would it be nice to have some renewable energy to the main point. So long as a society ,or even you and I, are dependent on the oil companies for all that energy means to us - and is surely our entire way of life today - then we are slaves. It is not therefore enough for PEI or for you and I to use renewable energy, we have to own it as a community and as Individuals.

This is the core idea. Renewable energy can be put into operation at a scale that a small province like PEI with 140,000 people can own its own energy. I as an individual can redesign how I use energy in my home and can afford to become independent of oil in the heating season.

This is a picture of the Wind Site on the west side of PEI. We are currently building a site on the East side. From September to May we have more wind that any other populated society in North America. At the heart of Jamie's strategy is therefore wind but we will also look at all other renewable options.

While we are blessed with a great resource, simply having wind does not mean that we get control back. If we had allowed any Wind Entrepreneur to simply build and operate the sites, we would have made no progress as a society. We would once again have given up our power to a non resident landlord.

So Jamie, his deputy, John MacQuarrie, the Premier, Pat Binns, and their team have created a Trusted Space in which to engage the people of PEI.

Before acting they traveled to see what community models worked best. They found many answers in the small German Island of Fehmarn. Fehrman is a mini PEI. Linked by a bridge to the mainland, Fehrman was dependent on farming and tourism. It was dying. In desperation they resolved to become energy independent and have achieved this. A large part of their economy now is based on teaching others how to do this. Their advice to Jamie, John and Pat was clear. You have to own the resource as a society and you have to ensure that individuals own their bit directly.

So in Phase II that is what we have done.

PEI owns the total resource and locals directly benefit from it. The total rental per annum per pylon is $20,000. If your land is the site, you get $14k. If you are a neighbor, you get $4k. If you are 2 plots away you get $2k. All the pylons are located on private land. Some of the neighboring plots are on government land. That rent goes to fund the local community infrastructure.

The team have been relentless in being honestly engaged with the community. This was not the typical government "feedback" process where the whole idea is worked out in advance. Nor was it a process where only the supporters were consulted. The birders have had a major say and impact on the location of pylons.

Jamie knew that he had to get the trust of the community in order to get the ability to act.

He and the team understand the feeling s and hopes and fears of their neighbors. They acknowledged them and worked with them. They asked Islanders to participate in helping to make all Islanders free and Islanders are rising to the challenge. They did not talk down to Islanders they had conversations with them.

On one day's notice over 400 locals turned up for a tour of the construction site. This is Theirs!

Jamie's team have gone further. They have asked Islanders to finance this project directly.

Islanders are proud. People stop Jamie and ask him about their wind. What a grand beginning! As this idea of becoming energy independent takes hold, what will it do for us beyond the money? My bet is that it will change everything - we will become free men and women again with all that that entails.

Here is what I am doing in my home.

Here are some people on PEI that can help you do the same

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2007-01-13T14:43:57-04:00

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