Energy in Canada #1
February 23, 2009
A STRONG PARTNERSHIP
Canada is the largest, safest and most secure supplier of energy to the United States. From supplying natural gas to developing fuel cell technology, Canada is vital to ensuring North America’s energy security. Read More
THE HYDROGEN HIGHWAY AND BEYOND
Canadian researchers are world leaders in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. This innovation is being shared with our southern neighbour through various government and private partnerships. Read More
CAPTURING CARBON TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
Through the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, 80 U.S. and Canadian stakeholders are working together to make carbon dioxide capture and storage a viable option for combating climate change. Read More In 2008 the Centre for Energy in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted the ninth cross-border forum on energy issues. Seventy-five participants, including academics, policy makers and industry representatives assessed the importance of carbon capture and storage to Canada and the United States in developing resources and addressing climate change. The Centre for Energy sat down with the seven panelists who led the discussion at the forum. The interviews give listeners a technical, environmental and social perspective on carbon capture and storage. Listen In
POWERING A NATION
In 2007, Canada exported over $3.1 billion in electricity to the United States. An increasing portion of this electrical energy is being sourced from renewable sources, such as hydropower and wind power. Read More
FROM FOOD TO FUEL
Producers on both sides of the border are exploring the many sources of and uses for bioenergy. In 2008, Canada had 16 ethanol plants and four biodiesel plants operating or under construction, with a total capacity of 1.9 billion litres per year. Read More
Defining the details
February 23, 2009
Environment Minister Jim Prentice says Canadian and American officials will begin work “almost immediately” on fleshing out the bare-bones Clean Energy Dialogue plan announced by Prime Minster Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama.
He told reporters that 2009 – which will wind down with the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Copenhagen Nov. 30-Dec. 11 – is crucial to any success in controlling greenhouses gases.
“It is a pivotal year in development of a Canadian domestic policy and . . . development of policy in the United States as they work toward a domestic approach,” Prentice said. “All of this happens on a parallel path with Copenhagen, where the world will turn the page on Kyoto and replace it hopefully with a new international protocol.”
The environment minister echoed Obama’s stated enthusiasm for carbon capture and storage as a preferred option for reducing emissions from coal-fired power stations in the U.S. and, by inference, enhanced oilsands production.
”Carbon capture is feasible presently,” Prentice said, citing EnCana’s Weyburn project, which takes pipelined carbon dioxide from a coal gasification in North Dakota and injects it into its Weyburn-area oil fields to boost production.
”Its commercial application to coal-burning thermal electricity plants and also facilities such as oilsands . . . requires work and that is why the Prime Minister and the President announced they would be collaborating on this.” He predicted widespread commercial application and said Canada and the U.S. would “lead the world in the coming year in terms of demonstration projects.”
Clean Energy Dialogue
February 22, 2009
A new Clean Energy Dialogue intended to improve climate change collaboration between Canada and the United States has been unveiled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and visiting U.S. President Barack Obama.
The Prime Minister’s Office said officials would meet “in the coming weeks” to set the dialogue in motion but there were no other elaborations during or immediately after the two leaders’ 40-minutes news conference that wrapped up the President whirlwind five-hour visit to Ottawa, his first foreign foray since his inauguration.
The Clean Energy Dialogue was first announced by Harper, who declared that the meeting – which included a private 33-minute chat originally scheduled to last only 10 minutes and then a two-hour working lunch with staff – had launched “a new chapter in the rich history of Canada-U.S. relations.”
Obama added that “how we produce and use energy is fundamental to our economic security” and he indicated that the priorities would be carbon-reduction technologies and enhancements to the cross-border electrical grid.
Asked how closely Canadian and U.S. climate change strategies could be harmonized, Harper pointed out that since the U.S. lacks a national strategy until Obama’s administration puts one in place, “it’s rather early to talk about harmonization.”
He also insisted that the two countries’ approaches to emissions reductions “are not that different”, that “generally speaking, the targets are more or less the same” even though his stated preference is “intensity-based” emissions reduction targets in contrast to Obama’s preference for hard caps. However, Harper said they were “two ways of measuring the same thing” and said he was “convinced that we will have a great deal in common as we move forward” and that North America would demonstrate “leadership to the world on the climate change issue.”
Obama said there are sound economic reasons to make both economies more energy-efficient and although there were “no silver bullets to solve all out energy issues”, the Clean Energy Dialogue represented “an an extraordinary beginning.”
Citing his country’s reliance on coal-fired generating stations, Obama said the solution is effective carbon capture and storage. “That would make an enormous difference in how we operate,” he said, implying that it also held the key to U.S. acceptance of oilsands crude.
While the technologies were “not there yet”, he hoped to have the U.S. “committed and ready” for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, scheduled next Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
Moreover, increased coordination with Canada and Mexico could lead to hemispheric “leadership” which he said would be more likely to draw countries such as China and India into the emissions-reduction process.
Obama also reiterated that he would like to see the labour and environmental side accords to the North American Free Trade Agreement integrated into the main body of the pact so that they could be enforced more effectively.
Friday Facts
February 20, 2009
In Canada, commercial wind turbines exist in eight provinces and the Yukon, with plans underway for the development of turbines across the country.
Source: Canadian Wind Energy Association. 2007
Gas tank of the future takes a step closer
February 19, 2009
A new breakthrough has brought scientists one step closer to a hydrogen economy
Sun-powered device converts CO2 into fuel
February 18, 2009
Scientists from Pennsylvania State University have devised a new way to turn carbon dioxide into fuel
Europe ‘unaware’ of its water footprint
February 18, 2009
Find out more about the emerging concept of a water footprint
Canadians still warming up to energy efficiency
February 18, 2009
While Canadians are clearly “greener” than they used to be in terms of energy consumption, we evidently still have plenty of room for improvement. That’s the indication from the results of Statistics Canada’s latest Households and the Environment survey. A biennial collaboration with the Environment and Health departments, the survey was initiated in 1991 and the latest is based on data collected from more than 21,000 households between late last year and early this year.
“Rising energy costs and environmental concerns about the need to reduce energy consumption provide incentives for households to adopt energy conservation measures,” the agency says in an introduction to the survey, which is downloadable. Request Catalog No. 11-526-X.
“Lowering the temperature by just a few degrees at certain times of the day is one way Canadians can reduce their energy consumption,” it says, noting that the heating season can last up to 10 months in some regions.
Of the nearly 12 million households with at least one thermostat, 42% have installed the programmable kind. However, 16% apparently couldn’t be bothered or were unable to actually program them.
Another potential energy-saver is a federal proposal, announced in April 2007, to introduce national lighting efficiency standards by 2012 with a view to phasing out less-efficient lighting. Some 84% of respondents to the latest survey indicated that they had installed at least one type of energy-saving light in their homes, the most common option evidently being compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) despite concerns about appropriate disposal due to mercury in their ballasts.
With forced-air furnaces being the heat source of choice in 53% of Canadian homes, filter maintenance remains a critical element of efficiency. Two-thirds of the 2007 respondents said they changed filters at least every six months while others changed them every three months or more frequently. Fully 22%, however, admitted they changed filters only once in the preceding year and 5% had not done so.
Worryingly, 6% indicated they had no idea when their furnace filter was last changed.
Wednesday Words
February 18, 2009
Deuterium | naturally occurring hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron
Cutting costs with solar walls
February 17, 2009
A Toronto-based company is providing a low tech, cost effective option in the solar heating market
Full Story [The New York Times]
