Closing of coal burning stations

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thoughts anyone....

Get ready for your hydro rates to go through the roof out there Why don't they use the new tech for burning coal and convert those old plants ?Natural gas is going to cost a bundle in the next few years its a red herring the oil companys are setting up industry for a big fall in North America.I've got a friend in the the drilling business and he said every rig in NA driiling for just gas and hitting pockets on every hole and we still won't have enough gas to fill the demand of industry let alone heating our homes in 5 years from now

It's about bloody time.

Rev theres new tech for burning coal that makes it very close tothe same as gas Are you not always saying we should invest in green technology :P

The new coal burning technologies are not that clean...a lot of the data on that has been skewed. We need new technologies, but that is not the answer for us. It is the answer in places like China and India, where they cannot keep up with demand through other methods, so sell the technology to them and make it even cleaner. Then we can sell them coal too.

The truth is that Canada has far more options than most places because of out geography. We have access to a lot more hydro, tidal, wind, and solar energy than we have even thought about.

Something that Ontario and the rest of us have been avoiding is conservation and home/neighbourhood generation. That's real progress. It's very available too. There are a lot of cottages etc that are completely off the grid. Convert the plant to gas, put up wind mills and solar power in neighbourhoods. Subsidize people who want to put in home generating systems. Put conservation education into place (remember the old ads about turning out lights etc.? They worked).

So move the plant to natural gas and start conserving. Then the excess can be sold. For that matter, all of the excess electricity generated in home and neighbourhood generators can also be sold.

"excess electricity generated in home and neighbourhood generators can also be sold."

Yes it can, but it would lead to higher administration costs, but I support decentralizing the "grid" so to speak.

There are a few ways we can generate electricity in local environments, and we need to move in that direction.


You both have good points.

The admin costs aren't that high, Jay. Your meter simply runs the other way when you're at work or asleep. When you're at home, you'd likely have to buy some electricity. Depending on your usage, you'd either get a bill or a cheque at the end of the month.

Subsidies could be in the form of long-term loans through crown hydro producer or government. Most of them offer that service for furnaces, water heaters etc now.

The time you are at work though, is the time that industry in Canada and the northern US need the most power. In the evening when you are watching TV, doing laundry, and have all the sex toys plugged in you use more energy, but industry needs less during those hours.

Self generating energy is the best method for citizens to participate in energy conservation in addition to generating energy and pumping back into the grid.

The Public Utilities Regulaotry Policies Act (PURPA) encated in the US in 1978 basically put a method in place commonly referred to as Net Metering. This law, basically allowing homes and businesses to sell energy to the utility companies.

This is the way this works: by means of wind, solar or other sources of natural energies, a homeowner can produce its own energy, if the energy produced exceeds demand, the energy is pumped into the grid for others to use, thus reducing conventional forms of energy production.

The best part of this, is that most states fund this project by upto 50% of the costs to the homeowner and I believe 35% for businesses.

Google Net Metering and you will get a better idea. Does something similar exist in Canada?

Never mind Rev answered that already :P

I know that the California government was basically making it impossible to generate your own electricity a few years ago, I think not. That's when Enron was running things though, so hopefully that's changed.

I don't know the situation in all of Canada. About four years ago Manitoba hydro wouldn't buy electricity from homeowners, but would allow you to give it back. I understand that they will buy back now, but electricity is so cheap here that nobody bothers...the set-up is too expensive to get a payback on. We do have a lot of cottages etc that are off the grid though.

Thers a guy in Alberta selling a solar system for your house that garauntees you'll receive a chech fromyour hydro company every year instead of writing one The only problem is cost 50,000 for the system if I had the money I'd have it installed .The system is supposed to be more efficient in the winter than the summer its that good Tax breaks for people interested would be a great idea Rev

The system in place seems to be a little different in the states, but to get more specific, I think its a great way for citizens to contribute to the environment.

As a matter of fact, I've been looking into this in New York since January. Turns out, you also receive a 15 year real property tax abatement, if you implement it by January of 2006.

Hey mrmom if you ever need solar energy, I can always run a wire from New York to Kamloops :P, think it will defeat the purposes of cost? :P