Driving a hybrid saves more than the environment
July 31, 2008
TD Insurance announced its Green Wheel program, which offers drivers of hybrid vehicles a five to ten per cent discount on their auto insurance.
Software company bridges environment, balance sheet
July 31, 2008
The Times Colonist profiles Victoria-based Carbonetworks, which help companies manage their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce their carbon footprints.
Corn-based ethanol: The negatives outweigh the positives
July 31, 2008
Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson argues that increased use of corn-based ethanol is not the best option for reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Full Story [The Globe and Mail]
Off we go, into the wild green yonder
July 31, 2008
Though air travel began with a very light carbon footprint, it’s since become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention becoming vulnerable to fuel prices . Air travel doesn’t travel light, and the weight its begun to carry concerns both its airlines and customers.
Pitching lower fuel costs and higher efficiency speaks to two of the industry’s largest concerns. It isn’t surprising, then, that Bombardier’s recent announcement of its CSeries passenger planes is specifically geared toward addressing the cost of fuel and the impact of that fuel’s use. Designed to carry between 110 and 130 passengers in each plane, the line boasts 20 per cent less fuel use, and emits up to 20 per cent less CO2 and up to 50 per cent less nitrogen oxide (NO2).
But as the National Post’s finance section reported, fewer orders prove that the plane’s new features don’t necessarily make for an easy sell. Certainly, upgrades like “blended winglets” have been able to improve the efficiency of existing planes, and given the $46.7 million price tag of a new CSeries plane, airlines are understandably motivated to maintain their existing fleet first.
Buying the newer planes wouldn’t be the only way for an airline to nod to environmental concerns. Carbon offsets, now available for purchase withan airline’s tickets, are also designed to assuage the emissions released by air travel. Just another way to avoid leaving a carbon footprint in the sky.
Climate change solutions, left, right and centre
July 30, 2008
Acknowledging the need to prevent climate change has officially become mainstream. How do we know this? Because it has its own political spectrum: a far right, a far left, and shadings in between.
It used to be that right-wingers were depicted as either unconcerned about the environment or even global warming deniers. While the debate still continues on whether global warming is human-caused, increasingly being viewed as right-wing doesn’t necessarily denote gun-toting, straw-chewing, Anne Coulter-quoting rednecks. Well…maybe it can still mean those things, but when it comes to the environmental right, you can increasingly add “eco-conscious” to the list.
So if the belief in curbing climate change has its own left, right and centre, what exactly is the approach of each ideology? Let Flow give you the abridged course of Climate Change Politics 101:
Left-wing climate change solutions
The most visible approach to fighting global warming from the left is to implement government legislation that will curb the production of greenhouse gases. Initiatives include carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs, both of which were introduced to BC earlier this year and gaining more widespread interest across other provinces. Other left-leaning approaches to stopping climate change include banning, subsidizing and other financial incentive programs. The premise behind these approaches is that big business cannot be trusted to curb its own emissions, and that government intervention is required in order to stimulate a market for clean energy.
Right-wing climate change solutions
The view from here is that market forces will solve climate change woes by necessitating the growth of new, innovative and environmentally sustainable technologies. In other words, leaving the government out. As one National Post blogger notes: “Rising prices for fossil fuels will make alternatives more attractive to industrial and individual consumers – and point to which are the most practical – far faster than government prodding and poking of the marketplace.”
So, with right-wing economic ideology based in Adam Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” of market forces, the environmental right now believes invisible market forces, such as commodity prices and demand for cleaner technologies, will push individuals and businesses towards innovative solutions due to the financial gains such solutions bring to their enterprise.
Centrist climate change solutions
Tucked in the middle is an environmental centrist movement that is seeing influential voices from both right and left wing camps who are, instead of engaging in yelling matches with those on the other side, are calling on their own, what New York Times refers to as “political brethren” to move towards the “pragmatic center on climate and energy”. For example, traditionally conservative Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, has written a book entitled A Contract With the Earth, in which he challenges conservatives to acknowledge climate change and embrace the need for the affordable reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. As the New York Times article describes, Gingrich’s book is written primarily for conservatives, empathizing with their frustration with the left’s reliance on government intervention in the fight against climate change and encouraging them to partake in crafting a new “entrepreneurial environmentalism.”
Another voice in the centrist movement is that of Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, authors of the book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. Their main criticism of the left is the use of fear tactics in mobilizing western society toward a greener way of life.
“Martin Luther King didn’t give the ‘I have a nightmare’ speak; he gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech,” explains Shellenberger in a video interview. “We need politics that is positive and that inspires people around an exciting and inspiring vision of the future.” Shellenberger believes the solution to climate change is, much like the right-wing approach, market-oriented and technology-driven but also similar to the left-wing approach in that he does believe government has a role to play in terms of investing in new technologies rather than legislating against old ones.
So next time someone asks you what you think should be done about climate change, ask them if they want the right answer, the left answer, or the one in the centre. Or better yet, reflect on where you stand. The more people think about how much of a role government should play in the environmental movement, the more people become engaged in the political process. And the more people educate themselves about politics and environment. the more people can participate in one of the most important conversations in the history of mankind – preserving the planet on which we all live.
Ontario gets by with a little help from new friends
July 30, 2008
When it comes to provincial climate change initiatives, Ontario has shown that it isn’t interested on going it alone. Its latest announcement, that the province will join the international Western Climate Initiative (WCI), is the second significant partnership Ontario has entered as a way of dealing with climate change. The first, a still-nascent cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec, was announced in June.
The first agreement signaled that, even without the consensus of Canada’s provincial governments, and in the face of the federal government’s own “soft target” climate change plans, the province would be committing to the kinds of emission-reducing climate change initiatives that energy-producing provinces like Alberta were decrying.
According to a Globe and Mail article on the announcement, Ontario’s inclusion in the WCI would bring the total Canadian population under the US-Canadian agreement to 70 per cent. The majority number is a significant one, given that it inevitably compounds the difficulty of any other Canadian provinces who want to opt out of the arrangement. As Flow has pointed out, in a country whose power grids are often connected, across both provincial and national borders, excluding one territory from the actions of another is almost impossible.
Ontario’s pair of partnerships isn’t the first major provincial initiative aimed at climate change. Significantly, the provincial government committed in 2004 to including five per cent ethanol in Ontario gasoline by 2007. But in the wake of increasing skepticism over biofuels and their effects on food prices), as well as the overall emissions produced during their creation, Premier Dalton McGuinty recently softened his stance on ethanol production, suggesting that the province might revise its plan to include 10 per cent ethanol in fuel by 2010.
Federally, a similar requirement is still on the books, after Bill C-33 was passed, requiring five per cent “renewable content” by 2010. But, as Ontario’s recent announcement shows, while the province may be making its climate change decisions with the help of partners, it isn’t certainly isn’t above picking sides.
From Dallas to Calgary: The Schulich I comes home
July 30, 2008
Its carbon fibre surface is covered in 2,208 solar cells, together delivering about 1200W to an electric engine that delivers less than one horsepower. Still, its solar energy was enough to carry the 220 kg Schulich I, the third incarnation of the University of Calgary’s Solar Team, 2,400 miles (about 4,000-kilometres) from Dallas, TX in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, crossing the finish line in the team’s hometown on July 22.
Finishing sixth in a field of 15 solar car competitors, the Schulich I solar car is the successor to the Soleon and its X1 prototype, built in 2005 for the U of C’s first entries in Australia’s World Solar Challenge and North American Solar Challenge races. The car itself is named after Seymour Schulich, whose $25 million donation to the university led to the engineering department’s renaming in his honour. Now, the department’s students, along with students from programs as varied as science and commerce, are helping to develop a $750,000 project designed to demonstrate the viability of solar power.
Like the Calgary team’s own history in the two solar races (some American teams have been competing since 1990), youth is an essential part of the UC Solar Team. Run almost entirely by undergraduates, mostly in their second or first years, the team appeals to students like Darshni Pillay, operations manager and co-chair, who are looking for the kind of practical experience that can only come from sun-baked blacktop.
“You don’t learn about this stuff in your lectures and labs,” says the second-year engineering student, who started as the team’s logistics manager during the 2007 World Solar Challenge. “You come in on your first day and nobody knows anything but what you’ve learned in your classroom.”
Early tasks for solar team volunteers include engineering projects focusing on using solar energy, like improvised iPod charging stations (“you have to be very brave to use them but we did make them,” says Pillay), before moving on to the technical challenges of moving a solar car at 70 km/h across continents.
Selecting team members to drive the Schulich I in this year’s North American Solar Challenge began in February. After being selected, candidates entered a training regime with former solar car drivers that included hot yoga, designed to prepare them for the intense heat of the race, and weight training three times a week.
Having trained their bodies, drivers moved on to driving an extremely unconventional vehicle — not only is the solar car powered by an alternative energy technology, it has only three wheels and is subject to extreme heat. Ironically, the same sun that fuels the Schulich is also capable of baking its driver, strapped into a five-point harness in a cockpit that could only accommodate a driver less than 5’8”.
“The temperature [in the car] is about five degrees higher than it is outside,” explains Pillay. “So in Dallas it’s 35 and you’re sitting in there for six hours. [Hot yoga] taught them to not let the heat get to them, to focus on the driving and not let the heat get to as much.”
One of the car’s two drivers, Jeff Wickenheiser, began on the car’s four-person electrical team, where he continued to work when not in the driver’s seat. Because he was under the height limit, Wickenheiser was selected, logging about 17 hours in pre-race driving and 25 during the race itself.
“It was a fun experience,” he says, “though I’m not sure if I’ll ever do it again. Maybe I’ll let someone else have the privilege.”
As for the heat in the Schulich I, he says simply: “The hotter days were quite hot, the cooler days were quite nice.”
The intensity of the race also included the “lead” and “chase” support vehicles, carrying the team’s remaining team members. Before the race, in fact, the convoy carrying the Schulich I took the route its car would eventually take, preparing its drivers and crew. But driving in a truck along the highway is entirely different from the solar car, inches from the ground and reaching speeds of up to 110 km/hr (though the car usually average between 60 and 70 km/hr). Not that that dissuaded the team’s drivers.
““The entire time I did feel completely safe. It is fairly safe in terms of it has a steel chassis,” says Wickenheim, adding: “of course, that’s not going to hold up to a semi or a van.”
But if the speed and heat didn’t bother Wickenheim, the same can’t be said of the Schulich I itself.
This year’s race began with a few technical glitches, notably the failure of the battery protection system (BPS), which monitors the voltage and temperature of the car’s batteries. Because of the difference in temperature between Calgary and the race’s start line in Dallas, where temperatures are as much as 20 degrees higher, the car experienced a few last minutes scrambles. But if the high temperatures dampened the car’s batteries it didn’t dampen either the team’s enthusiasm or, for that matter, the car’s other systems.
“Mechanically the car was perfect,” says Pillay. “It was definitely electrical that was the weakness, related to the heat and the humidity.”
Every night, the car’s tires were changed, brakes maintained and windows washed. During the day, the team sprayed the Schulich I’s solar panels with a water mist that helped prevent the delicate solar panels from overheating, which could cause them to develop fractures or otherwise deform.
With the year’s races completed, the UC Solar Team is now turning to a set of tasks that are no less important, if more likely to be done in the comfort of their workshop than in the summer sun —improving the Schulich I’s design for the car’s next incarnation.
“One of the things we have is a telemetry system in the car and that monitors the battery,” explains Pillay. “So we’ve kept all that data, we’re going to be using the same set of batteries for the next vehicle. What the charging and discharging rates are, and what’s the overall behavior of the batteries. We have a program that basically monitors us on our route and tells us how our car is performing on a given stretch of road.”
The team also uses the lessons learned while maintaining the Schulich I to teach new lessons to Calgary schools and other public forums, demonstrating the value of solar power. By showing the solar car’s success, they team is able to show that solar technology is viable and useful, especially as escalating gas prices send consumers rushing to alternative fuels.
In fact, this year’s race several new regulations designed to bring the car closer to the reality of, as Pillay says, “driving down the Deerfoot.” Drivers’ weight is regulated (with Wickenheim having to carry ballast to increase his weight) and the race required the driver’s seat to be more vertical than in previous years.
For Pillay, the project ultimately signals the viability of solar technology, eventually paving the way for cars that could actually drive alongside our current, fossil-fuel-reliant cars. And while she cautions that we’re unlikely to be driving our own Schulick X’s down Calgary roads any time soon, she adds that the technology is slowly creeping into our everyday lives.
“The technology has a long way to go, but I think you’ll see it being slowly integrated,” she says, pointing out that solar cells are already available in that most iconic of Canadian hardware stores, Canadian Tire. “There might be solar cells on your car, but maybe only for your air conditioning, or for backing up your car batteries. Or maybe you’ll plug up your iPod into a recharging station.”
She and Wickenheiser both also point out that solar technology could eventually become integrated with alternative energy technology we already consider, such as cars powered by electric motors filling up at fuel stations powered by solar panels.
As for the project’s ultimate goal of demonstrating solar power, Pillay takes special pride in an alternative energy project breaking new ground out of a province known for its production of fossil fuels. Inducted on July 1 as “official Calgary ambassadors,” the team received Calgary’s iconic white hats before taking the Schulich I on its North American tour. And for Pillay, the symbolism couldn’t be more fitting.
“I love it, I think it’s great. The irony gets me every time,” she says. “The fact that the race goes from Dallas to Calgary is even better.
“I thought it was more than appropriate.”
(Read a day-by-day travelogue of the UC Solar Team’s race on their blog.)
It’s time to stop playing politics with climate change: A non-partisan approach to renewable energy
July 30, 2008
Conservative Senator Elaine McCoy’s special column in the Montreal Gazette urges Canadian politicians to work together to fight climate change.
Solar cars will save the world
July 30, 2008
Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer made a stop in Vancouver with his solar car in early July. This article profiles the car and its driver.
Solar powered golf carts hit the green
July 29, 2008
Golf, beyond the game itself, is perhaps best viewed as a venue for securing business deals. Who knew it would end up driving one of the solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
For a while now golf carts have been touted as an energy efficient alternative to gas-powered automobiles, but thanks to a new solar powered variety, cart manufacturers are raising the bar even further.
Suncatcher Golf Ltd. specializes in creating solar-powered sunroofs for golf carts and interestingly their biggest customers are not golf courses but rather people who use the carts to get around town.
This concept isn’t new and, as some readers may recall, using golf carts outside the golf course was popularized last summer when Leaf Rapids Mayor Ed Charrier called on residents to use the carts to get around regularly. “Why would you start your vehicle for a two-second ride uptown?” asked Charrier in this Victoria Colonist article. The Manitoba town even started offering incentives for residents to make the switch, including providing free golf carts with each of the 66 houses the town purchased, renovated and put on the market.
Of course there is a downside – solutions accompanied by new problems seems only par for the course when it comes to mitigating climate change. With increased use of golf carts as a means to decrease emissions and save energy, the number of golf cart injuries is also on the rise. According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the injury rate from golf cart accidents has risen more than 130 per cent since 1990 with nearly 150,000 golf cart-related injuries recorded in that time. One study says about 1,000 Americans are injured in golf cart accidents per month.
So while Suncatcher Golf Ltd. is using innovation to steer golf carts in the right direction environmentally, cart manufacturers may need to start outfitting them with safety features such as seatbelts and front brakes. Only then will the golf cart truly fit the environmental movement to a tee.
Of course, when it comes to the golf course, even though Mark Twain described the sport as “a good walk ruined”, dropping the cart altogether would improve your environmental score even further.