Early in the last century, in spite of their hefty price of US$4,000 (US$102,000 today), electric vehicles (EVs) became the vehicle of choice amongst women. As a town car it was very liberating as society ladies could arrive ...... [More]

With the steady implementation of the smart grid across the United States, distributed generation has continued as a growing trend year over year. Today these renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar provide a ...... [More]

Ontario’s electricity sector has made the front page perhaps more times than desired in past years, certainly for its political leaders. Electricity policy, while volatile on some accounts, has remained somewhat steadfast ...... [More]

After attending the latest Canadian International Auto Show, my head was swimming with the amazing selection of hybrid cars available in the marketplace. The buzz was electric; everything from sleek and exotic coupes to family ...... [More]

I read recently that the average American generates just over 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year and the average Canadian some 16.6 tonnes. I was also interested to note that a round-trip flight from New York to Europe ...... [More]

Over the last century, epic advances have been made in transportation technologies, however, not only are we still using primitive and environmentally harmful fuels and chemistries to propel our mass transit services we are ...... [More]

On March 15, 2012, the United States Army (“Army”) released a draft request for proposal for ’up to $7 billion in renewable energy sources,’ a massive procurement to be overseen by the Energy Initiatives ...... [More]

In a recent issue of SCIENCE INSIGHTS for Biofuel Policy, a lead article³ stated that theoretically, the potential for biomass production as a source of feedstock for sustainable biofuels ...... [More]

I am somewhat of a car enthusiast and like to follow the latest news about where technology is taking us with respect to what the car experts are inventing to ensure a greener planet. It’s all very interesting and just ...... [More]

It seems to me that whenever we talk about renewable energy, the subject of coal is seldom far away. In a recent New York Times Money & Business article, writer Peter Galuszka wrote, “Coal remains a critical component ...... [More]

The Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 ("Bill 150") implemented a bold new framework implementing a broad series of coordinated actions designed to make it easier to bring renewable ...... [More]

A few years ago I saw a documentary1 that really resonated with me. The plot centres around a man, his wife, and three children living on their tiny farm on the shore of the Yangtze, the gargantuan waterway ...... [More]

While the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has goals for increasing the use of wind energy from the current 40 MW to 2000 MW by the year 2020, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) recognizes there are ...... [More]

Winter in Ontario this past year was pretty much a non-starter - Environment Canada claims the average temperature for the 2011/2012 winter was 5.1°C (9.2°F) above normal. The net result was a much lower fresh1 ...... [More]

While recently doing some research I came across the title - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. Being an avid hockey fan, my curiosity was naturally piqued. I had to find out how on earth a hockey stick figured ...... [More]

"Ontario's local distribution companies are showing initiative and innovation in the development and delivery of community-based conservation activities, as well as supporting and delivering province-wide programs, " says ...... [More]

The Ontario Power Authority ("OPA") has issued draft new program rules ("FIT 2.0 Rules") for the Province's Feed-in Tariff Program ("FIT Program") on the heels of the review recently completed ...... [More]

I recently read with fervent interest about the future of a world centred on renewable energy as seen through the eyes of Jeremy Rifkin.¹ He believes one of the biggest problems facing us today ...... [More]

Introduction:

On Thursday March 22, 2012, the Ontario Government released the much anticipated results of its review (the “FIT Review”) of the Ontario Feed-in Tariff program (“FIT ...... [More]

A Toronto, Ontario-based wind power company is proposing to build a green energy project on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The plan is to operate nine wind turbines on the shoreline, some 200 kilometres east of Toronto, ...... [More]

INTRODUCTION

Ontario's Long Term Energy Plan ("LTEP") and the Ontario Power Authority ("OPA") Feed-In Tariff Program ("FIT") evidence the Province's continuing commitment ...... [More]

"Frankly, there is little opportunity to expand hydropower other than improving the efficiency of existing sites," says John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil. "The best sites for hydropower plants are already being ...... [More]

Last year, Ontarians went to the polls in a provincial election and Canadians brought back the Conservatives in the federal election. Now, the United States is gearing up for the 2012 presidential election. The Energy portfolio ...... [More]

For years, water shortage, water pollution, and flooding have constrained growth and affected public health and welfare in almost every country around the world. The forms of and solutions to the problems are different in ...... [More]

In a spiralling worldwide demand for energy there’s no doubt renewable energies will continue to up the ante, particularly in developing markets, in this massive game of chance. Success in the game will largely depend ...... [More]

Earlier this year the European Commission warned the European Union (EU) that it must double its annual spending on renewable energy if it hopes to meet its binding goal of having 20 per cent of its overall energy mix come ...... [More]

Earlier this year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that renewable energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) savings equivalent to 220 to 560 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO_2eq) ...... [More]

Not many subjects have been so contentious recently as climate change and renewable energy – in particular, wind power. When an area has been identified as an ideal location to install wind turbines, it doesn’t ...... [More]

This story begins some twenty years ago with a couple of pioneers – Paul and Fritz Klaesi. They moved from their native Switzerland to Canada to start a dairy farm northwest of Ottawa, Ontario. As their operation grew, ...... [More]

The Frankfurt School-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)¹ Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance recently released its Global Trends 2011 report in which it stated that investments ...... [More]

On July 13 2011, John Podesta, President and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, and a key figure in the drive for clean energy jobs in the U.S., addressed ...... [More]

I live in a part of Ontario, Canada that is currently mired knee-deep in the on-going wrangling between governments, proponents, developers, energy providers, and naysayers surrounding the installation of up to 60 offshore ...... [More]

As air travel increases and ground vehicles burn more alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, aviation’s share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is poised to grow exponentially. This situation is definitely ...... [More]

I recently came across an advertisement for an electric car. It read, in part, as follows:

... our latest production, is the most exquisite creation known to the automobile world. ...... [More]

As the world searches for solutions to rid itself of its reliance on fossil fuels, more and more attention is being paid to the value of the renewable smart grid.  Advancements in this technology are growing rapidly as ...... [More]

Some time ago I did an article on the growing use of ethanol since its introduction in 2008 into auto racing with an emphasis on the multi-class endurance racing called the American Le Mans Series.  In early 2010, new ...... [More]

It may seem odd to be dedicated to saving the environment in the middle of a war zone but that is exactly what’s happening with the NATO International Security Assistant Force (ISAF) at and around Kandahar Airfield in ...... [More]

It's certainly no secret that the world continues to face ecological and environmental problems. According to Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, "...running out of natural resources ...... [More]

Ontarians used to be like everyone else in the electrified world – they never thought about their power until the lights went out or their bill arrived.  People just wanted to have power, pay a reasonable amount ...... [More]

Nearly forty years ago, I gawked in amazement as my father-in-law, a senior manager with the South Western Electricity Board (SWEB) in England, gave me a first-hand glimpse at the future of power generation.  I was looking ...... [More]

My previous article looked at the reasons coal remains an energy production source of choice for many countries.  It’s evidenced by the fact that coal currently fuels more than 40 per cent of the world’s electricity ...... [More]

Then, in the gigantic industrial growth which occurred throughout the Western World in the last half of the nineteenth century, coal came to its throne and reigned with a despotism as black as its own dusty lumps.  Ships, ...... [More]

In December 2000, the UK’s first offshore wind farm was commissioned off Blyth Harbour in Northumberland. Consisting of two 2-MW turbines sitting one kilometre out in the North Sea. The units, the largest windmills ...... [More]

The United States currently consumes more than 38,000 litres of oil per second. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know usage at this rate is unsustainable and America’s future energy security will eventually ...... [More]

Auto racing has consistently promoted rapid vehicle technology innovation and integration. As car companies found they really could ‘race ‘em on Sunday and sell ‘em on Monday’ technologies ...... [More]

Despite President Obama’s eleventh-hour life-saving injection into the Accord, the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit ended with the widely-held opinion amongst the clean technology and environmentalist factions that the ...... [More]

Climate change is not a sin of humanity, or even a result of something we could have easily predicted or avoided.  It is, rather, an accident of chemistry, specifically that carbon dioxide has greenhouse climate effects.  ...... [More]

French scientist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) discovered through experimentation that there is a fixed amount of mass in the universe.  In other words, nature is a closed system where no amount of manipulation ...... [More]