info@truenorthpower.com
A Publication of the FREE Wind Press - May be re-printed for personal use only
Copyright (C) 2007 TRUE-NORTH Power Systems
For commercial or non-profit publication contact TRUE-NORTH Power Systems
Lion's Head ON N0H 1W0 - (519) 793-3290
A Publication of the FREE Wind Press - May be re-printed for personal use only
Copyright (C) 2007 TRUE-NORTH Power Systems
For commercial or non-profit publication contact TRUE-NORTH Power Systems
Lion's Head ON N0H 1W0 - (519) 793-3290
Issue 4:4 Headlines: April 2006 (Special Edition)
Control of Power and The Power of Control - By: David Cooke, Director FREE Wind Test Centre
After studying the potential implementation of Ontario's new Standard Offer Program (SOP) it's pretty clear this is going to be good for the renewable energy business and good for a cleaner environment . . even good for the power utilities who will eventually see lower growth in peak energy demands. But it got me thinking. As the owner of a hybrid wind and solar energy system I can't see any benefit to me. So why is is program being offered? . . . what is the root problem being solved? Is it a lack of electricity reserves, the environment, or an inefficient distribution system. Maybe the REAL issue is more profound and I'm just not seeing it. When it comes right down to it these days, with over 6 billion people on the planet and everyone getting industrialized, we are using up earth's fuel resources at a phenomenal rate . . . much faster than the natural carbon cycle generates it. Those fossil fuels and the energy they contain are limited but our consumption is not . . so we've got to pay attention to the efficiency of consumption so it will last longer. Or maybe it's about the efficiency of generation.
The central power generation is of necessity a wasteful business. It's in the hands of big business . . and it's REAL BIG. In Ontario alone the electrical power industry is a 10 Billion dollar a year enterprise (StatsCan website). . . from mining and transportation to generation-transformation and distribution . . and that's not counting all the investment in infrastructure we've put in place over the years that allows us to flip a switch. The old Ontario Hydro was privatized in Dec 2000 and 4 regulatory and control agencies of the provincial government (OPA, OPG, ESA and IESO) were established and put in place (May 2002) to ensure we all get access to reliable power at a reasonable price. Then there is the Ontario Energy Financial Corp (OEFC) to oversee the old Ontario Hydro debt. So here's the thing. Is this latest initiative, the SOP, really about controlling the power production in Ontario or is it about the POWER of Control.
Now, before you think this is just another David and Goliath story and we need to slay the giant . . It's NOT! Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are both working very hard and well at making that supply available and so far still at a reasonable price. . . at least by world standards. They're a huge interdependent organization with multi-billion dollar systems to manage and a tough problem that never sleeps and never takes a holiday. Even the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) does amazing feats of magic every day in buying and selling power at just the right time, and few of us (including me) have any real concept of how they do it. Those are hard working people who care about the cost of energy just like you and I . . . But you see, when you are the giant . . the whole corporate/bureaucratic/political organization . . . you NEED control to handle the power . . . and that power demands control. As the giant you exude power and control and things that don't demand you attention and control aren't on your agenda. You don't spend your valuable time looking for ways to reduce the demand or dependence on your services.
So as a David, that made me wonder. I'm not a giant but I want the same kind of power the giant has. "What would I do if the GOAL was the most efficient power production? Would I need the giant? . . would the Giant care if I didn't? Would we all consume fewer scarce planetary resources if I consumed less energy and if I just collected my own power? Would that help the planet survive longer, or be cleaner and not depend on a wasteful (but necessary) giant? Giant's aren't inherently bad, just BIG, but not necessarily necessary. Let's look at it from a Total Energy Balance Sheet. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed . . but it can be converted from one form to another. There is stored energy (fuel) all over the planet. But, what if we didn't have to go out and find some of that fuel, gather it, take it somewhere and process it or burn it nearby the source and then transmit that energy to my home where I can use it. That's a lot of work. . . and a lot of energy "used up" just getting a small fraction of that energy to where I can use it. I need to mine a lot of fuel to get a little electricity. If I didn't have to expend so much energy getting and converting energy then maybe I'd have more time, energy and resources to do more work and produce less waste and cost out of the whole process. Would it make the giant sad if not everyone needed him so much?
Consider the whole amount of energy consumed from each ton of solid fuel to deliver me 1kW of electric energy in my home, say from coal, oil, gas or uranium. There is a lot of stored energy in a kg of coal . . but less in a kg of uranium ore, so I need a lot more of it to make a kilowatt of electricity. . . and I have to expend more energy to refine it before I can burn it. Let's look at just nuclear for a minute.
Italics paraphrased from, Bruce Power, Bruce A Refurbishment . . Environmental Impact Study Vol 1, Dec 05:
Fifty thousand tons of uranium ore makes about 170 tons of Uranium oxide that is transported to a refinery that makes about 24 tons of enriched uranium pellets that goes to the reactor. Meanwhile diesel oil and gas and other electricity is expended to mine, transport and process the U235 fuel which is "burned" and then reprocessed or stored or buried. Again with a lot of additional fuel and electricity needed to accomplish that cycle. If we ignore all the diesel, crude oil and additional electricity used in the mines, ships, trains and trucks that gather it and transport it before it reaches a reactor this is still a very low efficiency method for obtaining electricity. As the fuel is burned in a reactor, most of the energy is lost in heat but about 30-35% of that energy is converted to electricity and transmitted in power lines to your home. But, along the way another 5-20% is lost in heating up the transformers and transmission wires that carry it to my home. And that's not counting more energy expended to store, transport, encase in glass and then bury and monitor the spent fuel . . some of which is further refined for reuse. Similar categories of energy use can be identified for coal generators, who then share the transformer and transmission losses experienced by the distribution systems.
Also from Bruce Nuclear Environmental Study Vol 1, pg 6-25. Did you know that at full power, every second, 38.8 cubic meters of water pass by each of the condenser tubes and goes from 10 Deg C to 17.7 deg C. That rise in temperature equates to over 5 megawatts, of wasted heat energy, EVERY HOUR from EACH REACTOR cooling tower, and it looks like from the design, there is at least one cooling tower for each of four reactor.
That means 20 Megawatts per hour is a lot of wasted energy from just one part of one nuclear power plant. It's necessary wastage for this generation method, but wasted none the less.
So ultimately, how much energy does "the system" need to "consume" for every 1 Kwhr of energy that actually reaches my home? That's a good question and one I don't have the numerical answer for. Rest assured though it's a lot. . . possibly too much to contemplate if you are the giant because if you really stopped to think about it you'd wonder who thought that was such a great idea. Like most things, it evolved out of necessity. Remember spears? They seemed to be pretty essential until gunpowder arrived. All of a sudden the energy equation changed . . . no more long treks chasing down prey and running after wounded animals just hoping to get your spear back. With gunpowder . . . if you could see it, it's yours . . . with a good aim. Just walk over and pick it up more often than not. A lot less energy expended hunting and not so much spent on surviving . . . more time and resources for fun stuff like conquering. Now anybody could hunt. No need to rely only on skilled male hunters. Even a young child could bring home the bacon with a little knowledge about the new technology and how to control it, from those with the power. Ooops there's that power thing . . If you have the knowledge and the technology you have the power . . and when you give others the power you lose control. That's why loss of control is so important. If your the "Alpha Male" hunter you command respect and you are needed. You are depended on. But as knowledge is distributed amongst everyone those who control it become less important for that knowledge. Eventually, you are not required for survival. Ask any recent giant who tried to control the masses by restricting their knowledge and power in today's "connected society". Remember the Soviet Union? Chauchescu of Hungary? By contrast, the Internet is a great example of how distributing knowledge "the power", is a loss of control that's valuable because that loss of control becomes the true multiplier of energy to the benefit of everyone. If you let anyone participate, virtually for FREE, and the sum value of the resulting energy is so large it's incalculable. . . is that a word? There is no question hydrocarbon stored energy and distribution is the backbone of modern industrial development and nation state societies for the foreseeable future . . . but, it's also equally clear there is new knowledge. There are far more efficient ways to generate electricity and a significant way to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. We finally got around to the wind and sun. . . Why not, as a society, recognize the true value of locally gathered energy conversion over mining, refining, transporting, generating and distributing energy with all those inherent losses. If you are thinking like the giant though you would not be thinking like this . . so don't blame them for not suggesting it. If you actively promoted wind and solar energy conversion on an individual basis, EVERYONE WHO COULD would participate using their OWN money, not public money . . . and our valuable fossil fuel reserves would last longer. But, you say, doesn't the new Standing Offer Program (SOP) do just that? Well yes and no . . mostly no. Why no . . because the systems that benefit by this measure, depend on and require you to "feed the giant" . . not yourself . . Even the BIG Wind and Solar boys will benefit from SOP and so will the grid but these are co-op and commercial production solutions, not personal power systems that are also "no cost" solutions for society . . . SOP projects are way better than fossil fuel for sure but still not as efficient or cost effective as meeting individual demand for electricity at the source . . . where you live.
After studying the potential implementation of Ontario's new Standard Offer Program (SOP) it's pretty clear this is going to be good for the renewable energy business and good for a cleaner environment . . even good for the power utilities who will eventually see lower growth in peak energy demands. But it got me thinking. As the owner of a hybrid wind and solar energy system I can't see any benefit to me. So why is is program being offered? . . . what is the root problem being solved? Is it a lack of electricity reserves, the environment, or an inefficient distribution system. Maybe the REAL issue is more profound and I'm just not seeing it. When it comes right down to it these days, with over 6 billion people on the planet and everyone getting industrialized, we are using up earth's fuel resources at a phenomenal rate . . . much faster than the natural carbon cycle generates it. Those fossil fuels and the energy they contain are limited but our consumption is not . . so we've got to pay attention to the efficiency of consumption so it will last longer. Or maybe it's about the efficiency of generation.
The central power generation is of necessity a wasteful business. It's in the hands of big business . . and it's REAL BIG. In Ontario alone the electrical power industry is a 10 Billion dollar a year enterprise (StatsCan website). . . from mining and transportation to generation-transformation and distribution . . and that's not counting all the investment in infrastructure we've put in place over the years that allows us to flip a switch. The old Ontario Hydro was privatized in Dec 2000 and 4 regulatory and control agencies of the provincial government (OPA, OPG, ESA and IESO) were established and put in place (May 2002) to ensure we all get access to reliable power at a reasonable price. Then there is the Ontario Energy Financial Corp (OEFC) to oversee the old Ontario Hydro debt. So here's the thing. Is this latest initiative, the SOP, really about controlling the power production in Ontario or is it about the POWER of Control.
Now, before you think this is just another David and Goliath story and we need to slay the giant . . It's NOT! Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are both working very hard and well at making that supply available and so far still at a reasonable price. . . at least by world standards. They're a huge interdependent organization with multi-billion dollar systems to manage and a tough problem that never sleeps and never takes a holiday. Even the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) does amazing feats of magic every day in buying and selling power at just the right time, and few of us (including me) have any real concept of how they do it. Those are hard working people who care about the cost of energy just like you and I . . . But you see, when you are the giant . . the whole corporate/bureaucratic/political organization . . . you NEED control to handle the power . . . and that power demands control. As the giant you exude power and control and things that don't demand you attention and control aren't on your agenda. You don't spend your valuable time looking for ways to reduce the demand or dependence on your services.
So as a David, that made me wonder. I'm not a giant but I want the same kind of power the giant has. "What would I do if the GOAL was the most efficient power production? Would I need the giant? . . would the Giant care if I didn't? Would we all consume fewer scarce planetary resources if I consumed less energy and if I just collected my own power? Would that help the planet survive longer, or be cleaner and not depend on a wasteful (but necessary) giant? Giant's aren't inherently bad, just BIG, but not necessarily necessary. Let's look at it from a Total Energy Balance Sheet. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed . . but it can be converted from one form to another. There is stored energy (fuel) all over the planet. But, what if we didn't have to go out and find some of that fuel, gather it, take it somewhere and process it or burn it nearby the source and then transmit that energy to my home where I can use it. That's a lot of work. . . and a lot of energy "used up" just getting a small fraction of that energy to where I can use it. I need to mine a lot of fuel to get a little electricity. If I didn't have to expend so much energy getting and converting energy then maybe I'd have more time, energy and resources to do more work and produce less waste and cost out of the whole process. Would it make the giant sad if not everyone needed him so much?
Consider the whole amount of energy consumed from each ton of solid fuel to deliver me 1kW of electric energy in my home, say from coal, oil, gas or uranium. There is a lot of stored energy in a kg of coal . . but less in a kg of uranium ore, so I need a lot more of it to make a kilowatt of electricity. . . and I have to expend more energy to refine it before I can burn it. Let's look at just nuclear for a minute.
Italics paraphrased from, Bruce Power, Bruce A Refurbishment . . Environmental Impact Study Vol 1, Dec 05:
Fifty thousand tons of uranium ore makes about 170 tons of Uranium oxide that is transported to a refinery that makes about 24 tons of enriched uranium pellets that goes to the reactor. Meanwhile diesel oil and gas and other electricity is expended to mine, transport and process the U235 fuel which is "burned" and then reprocessed or stored or buried. Again with a lot of additional fuel and electricity needed to accomplish that cycle. If we ignore all the diesel, crude oil and additional electricity used in the mines, ships, trains and trucks that gather it and transport it before it reaches a reactor this is still a very low efficiency method for obtaining electricity. As the fuel is burned in a reactor, most of the energy is lost in heat but about 30-35% of that energy is converted to electricity and transmitted in power lines to your home. But, along the way another 5-20% is lost in heating up the transformers and transmission wires that carry it to my home. And that's not counting more energy expended to store, transport, encase in glass and then bury and monitor the spent fuel . . some of which is further refined for reuse. Similar categories of energy use can be identified for coal generators, who then share the transformer and transmission losses experienced by the distribution systems.
Also from Bruce Nuclear Environmental Study Vol 1, pg 6-25. Did you know that at full power, every second, 38.8 cubic meters of water pass by each of the condenser tubes and goes from 10 Deg C to 17.7 deg C. That rise in temperature equates to over 5 megawatts, of wasted heat energy, EVERY HOUR from EACH REACTOR cooling tower, and it looks like from the design, there is at least one cooling tower for each of four reactor.
That means 20 Megawatts per hour is a lot of wasted energy from just one part of one nuclear power plant. It's necessary wastage for this generation method, but wasted none the less.
So ultimately, how much energy does "the system" need to "consume" for every 1 Kwhr of energy that actually reaches my home? That's a good question and one I don't have the numerical answer for. Rest assured though it's a lot. . . possibly too much to contemplate if you are the giant because if you really stopped to think about it you'd wonder who thought that was such a great idea. Like most things, it evolved out of necessity. Remember spears? They seemed to be pretty essential until gunpowder arrived. All of a sudden the energy equation changed . . . no more long treks chasing down prey and running after wounded animals just hoping to get your spear back. With gunpowder . . . if you could see it, it's yours . . . with a good aim. Just walk over and pick it up more often than not. A lot less energy expended hunting and not so much spent on surviving . . . more time and resources for fun stuff like conquering. Now anybody could hunt. No need to rely only on skilled male hunters. Even a young child could bring home the bacon with a little knowledge about the new technology and how to control it, from those with the power. Ooops there's that power thing . . If you have the knowledge and the technology you have the power . . and when you give others the power you lose control. That's why loss of control is so important. If your the "Alpha Male" hunter you command respect and you are needed. You are depended on. But as knowledge is distributed amongst everyone those who control it become less important for that knowledge. Eventually, you are not required for survival. Ask any recent giant who tried to control the masses by restricting their knowledge and power in today's "connected society". Remember the Soviet Union? Chauchescu of Hungary? By contrast, the Internet is a great example of how distributing knowledge "the power", is a loss of control that's valuable because that loss of control becomes the true multiplier of energy to the benefit of everyone. If you let anyone participate, virtually for FREE, and the sum value of the resulting energy is so large it's incalculable. . . is that a word? There is no question hydrocarbon stored energy and distribution is the backbone of modern industrial development and nation state societies for the foreseeable future . . . but, it's also equally clear there is new knowledge. There are far more efficient ways to generate electricity and a significant way to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. We finally got around to the wind and sun. . . Why not, as a society, recognize the true value of locally gathered energy conversion over mining, refining, transporting, generating and distributing energy with all those inherent losses. If you are thinking like the giant though you would not be thinking like this . . so don't blame them for not suggesting it. If you actively promoted wind and solar energy conversion on an individual basis, EVERYONE WHO COULD would participate using their OWN money, not public money . . . and our valuable fossil fuel reserves would last longer. But, you say, doesn't the new Standing Offer Program (SOP) do just that? Well yes and no . . mostly no. Why no . . because the systems that benefit by this measure, depend on and require you to "feed the giant" . . not yourself . . Even the BIG Wind and Solar boys will benefit from SOP and so will the grid but these are co-op and commercial production solutions, not personal power systems that are also "no cost" solutions for society . . . SOP projects are way better than fossil fuel for sure but still not as efficient or cost effective as meeting individual demand for electricity at the source . . . where you live.
The Balance of Power
When you consider the "TRUE Cost" and waste in central generation and distribution the current methods are seriously wasteful. These methods are still the ONLY way to provide power to everyone and so the inefficiencies are necessary for most users and especially for large concentrations of people and industry. . . but there is also a large population of people, both in built up areas and in the countryside who could, at the same time, produce their own power at a fraction of the cost compared to central generation and as a benefit improve the overall efficiency of the system. So why is that such an afterthought instead of top priority. Mostly, I think it's because few people yet have experienced the value of generating their own power and no one has ever stopped to add it all up at a societal level. Since the system appears so necessary for everyone, we fail to examine how we could make it unnecessary for anyone. That would change the Balance of Power.
If we simply add up all the energy used to make and deliver power centrally it's obvious. I don't know the actual numbers in this calculation but you can pretty easily see they are non-trivial and highly reflective of the REAL value that is available through personal power generation from wind and solar particularly.
When you consider the "TRUE Cost" and waste in central generation and distribution the current methods are seriously wasteful. These methods are still the ONLY way to provide power to everyone and so the inefficiencies are necessary for most users and especially for large concentrations of people and industry. . . but there is also a large population of people, both in built up areas and in the countryside who could, at the same time, produce their own power at a fraction of the cost compared to central generation and as a benefit improve the overall efficiency of the system. So why is that such an afterthought instead of top priority. Mostly, I think it's because few people yet have experienced the value of generating their own power and no one has ever stopped to add it all up at a societal level. Since the system appears so necessary for everyone, we fail to examine how we could make it unnecessary for anyone. That would change the Balance of Power.
If we simply add up all the energy used to make and deliver power centrally it's obvious. I don't know the actual numbers in this calculation but you can pretty easily see they are non-trivial and highly reflective of the REAL value that is available through personal power generation from wind and solar particularly.
So is that a FAIR comparison? . . I'd say it's the ONLY fair comparison . . if you are talking about "global warming", pollution, tight budgets, huge costs for nuclear refurbishment and dwindling fossil fuel reserves. That's the kind of energy that gets USED UP for every kilowatt that the consumer gets whether they use it or waste it. No wonder so much conservation efforts is focused on getting the consumer to conserve and rightly so, since every kilowatt saved is many times saved in generation and distribution. But, knowing that really points out the even greater value of "distributed generation", and especially personal generation using wind and solar hybrid systems. Big turbines and solar projects can also save enormous amounts of fossil fuel and SOP addresses that, but those commercial generation methods still only serve to support the grid and they attract additional infrastructure and costs to monitor, contract, operate, bill and maintain. In fact, they can't exist at all without the whole central generation infrastructure and the grid (there's that control thing again) . . . if there is no grid power there is no distributed power, not even from these efficient SOP renewables projects. On the other hand, personal power systems need to take far less or even nothing from the the system except a monthly connection billing in some cases . . and Personal Power systems can definitely add to the stability and reliability of the grid. Every kilowatt added is many kilowatts of mining, transportation and refining fuel saved from the left side of the table. Maybe that "critical" commerce is why there is no one looking for ways to reduce it. Personal systems should get every opportunity and incentive we can offer, but we don't need to give cash incentives or expend more than legislative efforts . . . just "Stop Taxing private renewable generators" and encourage their growth by not setting unnecessary restrictions on their use. The multiplier for every installed watt is huge. . . share the power and those who can will too.
Ontario is installing a number of localized electrical generators powered by natural gas. If you are interested in how they compare to nuclear power look at www.cleanairalliance.org website FactSheet #20.
Ontario is installing a number of localized electrical generators powered by natural gas. If you are interested in how they compare to nuclear power look at www.cleanairalliance.org website FactSheet #20.
Think Globally - Act Locally
We've all heard the phrase, but what does it mean for electricity? Here's a REAL way we can actually do that with electricity in concrete terms. The ONLY actual barriers that prevent most people from owning their own renewable energy generators is the taxes they must pay to own one . . taxes to earn the money to buy one and taxes to spend it on the purchase. . . taxes to connect it to the grid and to have it approved whether it's connected or not. The solutions are virtually all legislative. There are no technical barriers to personal power systems that are not already in place in the safety code. Even the home utility meters we currently have in the system are fine. The don;t need to be replaced with dual register SMART Meters. They don't need to be calibrated (tested for accuracy) in both directions because private producers do not even want to be paid for excess production. Really, it's not worth the trouble in most cases. The source is free and unlimited so with their own needs satisfied why spend more personal funds to become a commercial generator too. It's a lot simpler and cheaper to just satisfy your own needs.
There's is no desire or need to compete with other generators. Private renewable energy generators are very uncomplicated. No big ticket items . . no treasury board approval for massive projects . . no inter-provincial agreements . . no RFPs or bidding wars by insider lobbyists. No contracts to manage no changes to current billing methods. The current utility meters are already accurate and certified for use in the direction the Utility cares about, so if you don't care to be paid for the extra you may provide from time to time, what does it matter? Based on the knowledge of the balance sheet, these changes will directly impact the global energy shortage and the inefficiency of fossil fuel conversion with virtually NO government investment or vast expensive projects to manage public funds. Even without considering greenhouse gas savings . . . . very Kilowatt you produce for yourself is tons of Uranium ore or coal and many kilowatts of other energy that does not need to be mined, refined, generated, transported . . . . . or wasted.
Three Easy Steps: You have the knowledge and knowledge is POWER . . If you can make you own power then governments should not be trying to extract every nickle of taxes they can from your efforts, and the rest of us should say "go for it" because you become less dependent on me and there is more power central available for everyone. Lots of people producing their own power can provide decades of payback for the whole system and infrastructure on a planet that desperately needs it. This is not a call for everyone to start living by oil lamps and firewood. We own a 2800 sq ft modern home with modern electric conveniences, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, dishwasher etc. . . and we used less than 400kWhrs last month. I can easily generate that myself with a small wind and solar hybrid system (which does not qualify for SOP) and even leave the lights on too long once in a while without worrying.
STEP 1: Get people informed: Knowledge is POWER. Let your MP(Fed & Prov), as well as your municipal council know that you now understand how you personally can help reduce the energy demand and make our limited and inefficient fossil fuels energy system last longer. You can generate much of your own clean energy from wind and solar. Tell them how energy efficient it REALLY is and how beneficial to EVERYONE it is by showing them the TOTAL ENERGY BALANCE SHEET. Tell them that whatever excess power you produce yourself, you are willing to give to the grid for FREE! Why FREE, because you don't NEED to get paid for such a contribution. It's a small amount anyway. It was FREE in the first place. . . and there's more energy coming your way tomorrow. If you size your system properly you'll have a little excess now and then and if you don't use it or can't store it, why waste it. The giant has it's own problems and you may just want the use of the Grid occasionally so it's just your small contribution to the whole energy system. It will be to your advantage to stay connected so you can have as much energy as you are willing to pay for but you don't HAVE to if you don't want to. It's not worth sweating over a few hundred or even a thousand kilowatts excess if you have all you need for free. Even it 11 cents/kWhr that's only $11/hundred and it cost you that much already to buy it back (Remember SOP is not Net Metering). . . . But very thousand systems who do will contribute megawatts of benefit to the system. If you Net Meter then the credit will offset the use every billing period and the excess will work to everyone's advantage . . . if they simply remove the legislative/tax barriers around personal systems.
STEP 2: STOP Taxing Personal Power: If those with the controls understand the Total Energy Balance Sheet, then laws will be passed laws promote and encourage personal power system ownership. Certainly, no one wants to be inefficient and wasteful. Even a 10 year tax break would encourage private ownership and recognize the REAL value of the personal power contribution but it should be permanent as long as central generation is dominant.
1. No GST or PST on Sales and installation. Great we already have PST rebates . . good for Ontario.
2. Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) write down of the money invested on a personal system against personal taxes
3. No cash hand outs or complicated contracts or subsidy formulas. These tax benefits are already available to businesses. Why not individuals?
STEP 3: Adopt simple legislation: If personal systems are simple their legislation should be too. The electrical code already addresses all key safety concerns.
1. No zoning restrictions on Solar and more realistic zoning limits on small wind would go a long way
2. Get Federal Weights and Measures labs to calibrate existing meters in both directions, but ONLY if utilities pay for it because they want to track these small generators excess production. Practically speaking, they don't need to track the free energy going to the system . . it's just "negative load". . . less demand on the generators and the grid, no money is changing hands and no credits needs to be tracked.
3. If people want to be credited because they've put in an oversized system then existing Net Metering rules work fine but change it so the net metered customer is allowed to set the date for settling accounts annually. This is because seasonal production variances should not penalize small consumers and take their best winter or summer production. Equal billing on historical annual use seems to work just fine. The extra accounting and cost of dual register meters for personal systems are burdensome on everyone, and unnecessary for the consumer, especially since it is generally unnecessary to install more capacity than is needed for the private use themselves.
4. And one more operational issue. Reduce the UL Std 1742 5min reconnect rule (to maybe 5 sec) for personal systems under 10kW. This operational limitation makes small wind very inefficient for no practical reason. Even with thousands of 1-10kW systems going on or off-line due to wind fluctuations, the effect of rapid reconnection, even over a small local distribution area, is likely negligible. If the grid has failed, they would not even try to connect anyway. This part of the Standard was meant for large commercial generators and studies have shown that distributed megawatt wind generators have far less affect on the system than originally thought. Let's think this whole energy conversion thing though . . . one more time.
Bottom line . . There is NO downside.
It just takes awareness of the TRUE value . . a bit less legislation. . . and everyone wins!
We've all heard the phrase, but what does it mean for electricity? Here's a REAL way we can actually do that with electricity in concrete terms. The ONLY actual barriers that prevent most people from owning their own renewable energy generators is the taxes they must pay to own one . . taxes to earn the money to buy one and taxes to spend it on the purchase. . . taxes to connect it to the grid and to have it approved whether it's connected or not. The solutions are virtually all legislative. There are no technical barriers to personal power systems that are not already in place in the safety code. Even the home utility meters we currently have in the system are fine. The don;t need to be replaced with dual register SMART Meters. They don't need to be calibrated (tested for accuracy) in both directions because private producers do not even want to be paid for excess production. Really, it's not worth the trouble in most cases. The source is free and unlimited so with their own needs satisfied why spend more personal funds to become a commercial generator too. It's a lot simpler and cheaper to just satisfy your own needs.
There's is no desire or need to compete with other generators. Private renewable energy generators are very uncomplicated. No big ticket items . . no treasury board approval for massive projects . . no inter-provincial agreements . . no RFPs or bidding wars by insider lobbyists. No contracts to manage no changes to current billing methods. The current utility meters are already accurate and certified for use in the direction the Utility cares about, so if you don't care to be paid for the extra you may provide from time to time, what does it matter? Based on the knowledge of the balance sheet, these changes will directly impact the global energy shortage and the inefficiency of fossil fuel conversion with virtually NO government investment or vast expensive projects to manage public funds. Even without considering greenhouse gas savings . . . . very Kilowatt you produce for yourself is tons of Uranium ore or coal and many kilowatts of other energy that does not need to be mined, refined, generated, transported . . . . . or wasted.
Three Easy Steps: You have the knowledge and knowledge is POWER . . If you can make you own power then governments should not be trying to extract every nickle of taxes they can from your efforts, and the rest of us should say "go for it" because you become less dependent on me and there is more power central available for everyone. Lots of people producing their own power can provide decades of payback for the whole system and infrastructure on a planet that desperately needs it. This is not a call for everyone to start living by oil lamps and firewood. We own a 2800 sq ft modern home with modern electric conveniences, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, dishwasher etc. . . and we used less than 400kWhrs last month. I can easily generate that myself with a small wind and solar hybrid system (which does not qualify for SOP) and even leave the lights on too long once in a while without worrying.
STEP 1: Get people informed: Knowledge is POWER. Let your MP(Fed & Prov), as well as your municipal council know that you now understand how you personally can help reduce the energy demand and make our limited and inefficient fossil fuels energy system last longer. You can generate much of your own clean energy from wind and solar. Tell them how energy efficient it REALLY is and how beneficial to EVERYONE it is by showing them the TOTAL ENERGY BALANCE SHEET. Tell them that whatever excess power you produce yourself, you are willing to give to the grid for FREE! Why FREE, because you don't NEED to get paid for such a contribution. It's a small amount anyway. It was FREE in the first place. . . and there's more energy coming your way tomorrow. If you size your system properly you'll have a little excess now and then and if you don't use it or can't store it, why waste it. The giant has it's own problems and you may just want the use of the Grid occasionally so it's just your small contribution to the whole energy system. It will be to your advantage to stay connected so you can have as much energy as you are willing to pay for but you don't HAVE to if you don't want to. It's not worth sweating over a few hundred or even a thousand kilowatts excess if you have all you need for free. Even it 11 cents/kWhr that's only $11/hundred and it cost you that much already to buy it back (Remember SOP is not Net Metering). . . . But very thousand systems who do will contribute megawatts of benefit to the system. If you Net Meter then the credit will offset the use every billing period and the excess will work to everyone's advantage . . . if they simply remove the legislative/tax barriers around personal systems.
STEP 2: STOP Taxing Personal Power: If those with the controls understand the Total Energy Balance Sheet, then laws will be passed laws promote and encourage personal power system ownership. Certainly, no one wants to be inefficient and wasteful. Even a 10 year tax break would encourage private ownership and recognize the REAL value of the personal power contribution but it should be permanent as long as central generation is dominant.
1. No GST or PST on Sales and installation. Great we already have PST rebates . . good for Ontario.
2. Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) write down of the money invested on a personal system against personal taxes
3. No cash hand outs or complicated contracts or subsidy formulas. These tax benefits are already available to businesses. Why not individuals?
STEP 3: Adopt simple legislation: If personal systems are simple their legislation should be too. The electrical code already addresses all key safety concerns.
1. No zoning restrictions on Solar and more realistic zoning limits on small wind would go a long way
2. Get Federal Weights and Measures labs to calibrate existing meters in both directions, but ONLY if utilities pay for it because they want to track these small generators excess production. Practically speaking, they don't need to track the free energy going to the system . . it's just "negative load". . . less demand on the generators and the grid, no money is changing hands and no credits needs to be tracked.
3. If people want to be credited because they've put in an oversized system then existing Net Metering rules work fine but change it so the net metered customer is allowed to set the date for settling accounts annually. This is because seasonal production variances should not penalize small consumers and take their best winter or summer production. Equal billing on historical annual use seems to work just fine. The extra accounting and cost of dual register meters for personal systems are burdensome on everyone, and unnecessary for the consumer, especially since it is generally unnecessary to install more capacity than is needed for the private use themselves.
4. And one more operational issue. Reduce the UL Std 1742 5min reconnect rule (to maybe 5 sec) for personal systems under 10kW. This operational limitation makes small wind very inefficient for no practical reason. Even with thousands of 1-10kW systems going on or off-line due to wind fluctuations, the effect of rapid reconnection, even over a small local distribution area, is likely negligible. If the grid has failed, they would not even try to connect anyway. This part of the Standard was meant for large commercial generators and studies have shown that distributed megawatt wind generators have far less affect on the system than originally thought. Let's think this whole energy conversion thing though . . . one more time.
Bottom line . . There is NO downside.
It just takes awareness of the TRUE value . . a bit less legislation. . . and everyone wins!