Hi Norm

This month, the Centre for Energy commissioned a survey to test Canadians’ knowledge of their energy system and gauge their opinions about the importance of our energy industry. The survey’s results suggested two conclusions. First, that Canadians believe the energy industry is important and second, that Canadians’ knowledge of their energy sources is good.

But there is always room for improvement.

So starting today, the Centre for Energy is hosting a virtual tour of Canada’s energy system – 75 stops across the country in 75 days – and Norm is your tour guide. From hydro dams to nuclear power plants to oil sands to wind farms, Canada’s diverse energy system is a mosaic of sources working together to power the movement and growth of day-to-day life. And we are all connected to it.

The complexity of Canada’s energy system can be difficult to capture, yet more and more, the perspectives and habits of energy consumers within and beyond our borders are shaping energy policy and regulation. So come along for the ride and take the trip with Norm.

He could become your new best friend.

Green makeovers of office buildings

West-facing, 32^nd floor, and green; sustainability and eco-friendly are becoming a major selling qualities for commercial leases.

In order to make spaces more attractive, many buildings are undergoing green retrofits. This trend has become popular, not only because of positive effects on the environment, but also because it saves tenants money.

Hey, times are tight – why not look for ways to save?

In Toronto, the TD Centre will undergo renovations that will eventually help them apply for LEED status. They’re doing this not for philanthropy; they believe this will make them more competitive in the leasing market. In a city with an 8.4% vacancy rate, that makes sense.

This isn’t an isolated case.  Avison Young reports that most tenants are looking to reduce costs in any way they can. Rather than constructing new buildings, a lot of the focus in Toronto is to retrofit older buildings with more efficient features.

As a result, spaces in green buildings rarely stay vacant for long. The tenant is happy to save money; the owner is happy to be making money again, and the environment is “happy” too; everybody wins.

In British Columbia, a partnership between B.C. Hydro, the Ministry of Energy and BOMA are prepared to make 17,000 commercial buildings more energy efficient. B.C. wants to see a 1/3 reduction of greenhouse gasses by 2020.

Projects like this are a cornerstone of the plan. Because commercial buildings make up about 5% of B.C.’s emissions, the goal is to reduce energy demand by 9% per square meter of commercial space.

Trends don’t always last, but wanting to spend less and make more money is hardly a “trend.” The green retrofit trend is expected to gain momentum as those with buying and leasing power demand lower costs and thus, more eco-friendly action.

Wednesday Words

Btu |  British thermal unit is a unit of heat energy equal to the heat needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit at one atmosphere pressure (sea level)

The Great Oil Sands Journey Part 3

Bitumen finally grows up

Once you manage to get the bitumen separated from the sand, the next step is to get it upgraded, a process needed to convert bitumen into a product with a density and viscosity similar to conventional light crude oil. Upgrading, like life, comes in a series of stages.

Wells to Wheels
Part three of a five-part series

The first stage deals with breaking up the enormous carbon molecules. We’ll look at this as similar to being a child because they still have many school years to complete before they are ready for a career, though, to be fair, they have already come quite a long way. For bitumen, the ultimate goal is to get a career in fueling cars, jets or furnaces, or becoming a plastic or asphalt. Just as there are many jobs in the world, so too are there many petroleum products.

Bitumen contains more carbon-rich hydrocarbon molecules than conventional oil, so it’s important to upgrade the bitumen into a product that refiners can work with. This is usually done through a process called “coking” which breaks down heavy oil molecules into lighter ones by removing the carbon. Another approach is hydro-processing, which adds hydrogen under high-pressure to help balance out the carbon to hydrogen ratio. If you’re torn between which of the processes to use next time you want to break down some carbon-heavy molecules, a common approach is to do both.

The second stage is a process called hydrotreating. We’ll look at this stage as similar to being a highschool student. These students have accomplished many years of school and soon they will be graduating. If there is anything still childish in them, they are encouraged to get it out of their systems now. The same is so with bitumen. Hydrotreating, for example, removes childish things like sulphur and nitrogen.

Once upgrading has happened, the oil must be refined. This is the process of transforming the crude oil into a classy, well-dressed product. Well, actually, we’re going to look at this phase as the college student phase. First, what refining does is distill the oil at various temperatures to make various products. Of course, all refineries are different, but ultimately they separate and process the mix of hydrocarbons in the oil, transforming it into a whole array of different products like gasoline, lubricants, diesel or jet fuel, depending on which tray it evaporates up to and settles on after it has been heated. Think of this as like specialization. Before people can enter the work world, they should specialize their learning in certain subjects that match their interests and aspirations. The crude oil’s final product – its destiny – is determined by its makeup, its boiling point and the tray upon which it settles.

Here’s refining in a nutshell

This separation is done through an atmospheric distillation tower which is a tall steel tower layered with perforated trays at different levels. Each petroleum product has a different boiling point so the distillation tower is able to separate the different products through heating and cooling. The distillation process is continuous and begins by heating crude oil in a furnace until it turns into a vapour which rises through perforations in the trays. As the vapours rise, they shed their heaviest components, which condense onto the tray, liquefy and are then drawn off the tray by pipes. Heavier hydrocarbons boil at a much higher temperature than lighter ones, so they settle in trays near the bottom or middle-bottom, resulting in products like jet, diesel and furnace fuels. Lighter oils collect at the top, resulting in products like light gasoline and petrochemicals.

Interestingly, despite the fact that much of Canada’s fuel demand is met through oil sands, much of the bitumen is sold to U.S. refiners rather than being refined here in Canada. This is mainly because Canada’s older refineries are designed to process predominately low-sulphur light crude oil. However, some Canadian refineries are being retrofitted to handle synthetic crude.

The fact that oil sands refining jobs and opportunities go south has caused quite a stir in recent times. With the struggling economy, many organizations, such as the Alberta Federation of Labour, are speaking out and urging the Alberta Government to intervene and stimulate the creation of refineries, and jobs, in Alberta.

So there you have it… the full process of oil’s journey from the oil sands mine or in-situ well, right up to the point where it becomes a refined product that is ready and willing to do its job. And just as it is so in life, entering into the work world is just another beginning.

Next week:  Wheels to Winds – Everyone wants a piece of the plump pump pie

Obama calls for climate action at U.N.

President Obama issued a call for all nations to come together in the battle against climate change during his speech at the U.N. on Tuesday

Full Story [The New York Times]

Solar energy on the cheap

A new project is demonstrating how homeowners can affordably reduce greenhouse gas emissions with solar power

Full Story [Calgary Herald]

Solar Toys

Solar power: it’s not just for energy. It has countless practical – and impractical – uses.

Consider the Solar Light Cap. Better than a flashlight because you wear it on your head, the Solar Light Cap charges during the day, and can be turned on at night for as many as five hours. See six feet in front of you, and stop fumbling around in the dark.

Next time you go  camping, wouldn’t it be nice to use your tent to charge your GPS system? Solar powered tents come with LED lights installed inside, with solar panels that can be attached to the roof.

The Glastonbury Solar Tent, made by Orange, features coated solar threads woven right into the fabric. It’s able to charge batteries, there’s a floor heater, wireless Internet access, and “Glo-cation” technology – if you get lost, just text your tent, and it will light up for you.

Or, let’s say you’re the type that would rather camp in your backyard.  How about a solar-powered spinning sunflower to enhance your garden? It moves much like the wind-catching variety, only this one spins when the sunlight warms its solar panel.

Let’s not forget the kids.  Animal Planet offers three solar-powered animal toys. When fully charged the zebra, elephant and giraffe delight kids with realistic movements.  They raise their feet, turn their heads and twitch their tails.

You can even use solar gadgets to charge your other gadgets.  PowerGorilla makes a portable charger that can be plugged in and carried with you and your laptop wherever you go.  It’s also good for iPods, portable DVD players, cameras, you name it.

If you think about it, it’s kind of poetic – using solar to charge your battery-devouring toys.

Carbon footprint of the internet is growing

When Google started, there weren’t enough computers around to bother worrying about their combined energy efficiency.

Over time, computer and Internet use has exploded in ways they never imagined. In addition to probably rubbing their hands with glee, Google also started devoting resources to thinking about how much energy they were wasting.

Every search and every page you load requires energy, releasing 20 milligrams of CO2 per second. While it may not be included in your energy bill, it comes from somewhere. Giant data centres – warehouses of servers storing every Internet file – require lots of energy.

The Internet has an enormous carbon footprint, and it’s only getting bigger. Certain environmental groups claim the IT industry has an even bigger carbon footprint than the aviation industry. It happened so quickly that many Internet firms had a hard time catching up.

Luckily, some were prepared. Google’s headquarters makes use of 9,200 solar panels, and their new Toronto office is Bullfrog-powered. It’s also constructed almost entirely from recycled materials, from old tires for their floors, to pop cans recycled into work stations.

Google’s data centres were already upgraded to be energy-efficient about six years ago; way ahead of the curve. The company is now looking at enhanced geothermal energy as an equally green – but possibly more reliable – energy source.

In Kelowna, the biggest green data center in Canada has recently been completed, and runs on hydroelectricity. RackForce Networks Inc says that it has only 2% of the carbon footprint a typical data centre does.

In time, renewable energy sources may prove the most important “Google search” ever.

Municipality vows to become carbon neutral by 2010

If the municipality has it their way, Whistler will be the first carbon neutral community in Canada – by next year

Full Story [Pique Newsmagazine]

Report overwhelming but necessary

At 235 pages of text, graphic and tabular information, a new report from the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) is probably more than the average consumer will want to know, but it should be recommended reading for politicians and policy-makers at all levels. In essence, the report (50-page summary 2.0MB PDF) underscores the critical importance of the petroleum industry to Canada.

It points out that the petroleum sector is a significant contributor to Canada’s economic well-being with benefits that extend far beyond the producing provinces’ borders. “Investments in new developments and expenditures in ongoing operations provide jobs that generate income-multiplier effects and economic spin-offs…”

In not only assessing the current environment but also modelling 25 years ahead, the report’s team of 11 authors – led by Peter Howard, the Calgary-based think-tank’s vice president of research — tries to plug what they say is a “knowledge gap” about a key industry “that is often misunderstood” despite its economic importance.

The upstream end of the industry has a $3.5-trillion effect on Canada’s gross domestic product. Of that, nearly $2.6 trillion occurs in Alberta alone. While there are relatively smaller direct effects on other economies, Alberta’s good fortune spills over to its neighbouring provinces as well as elsewhere in the country.

The federal tax yield from all that activity amounts to some $408.6 billion, topped again by Alberta at $311.3 billion, with lesser amounts from six other provinces and the Northwest Territories. Provincial coffers, meanwhile, take in $282.4 billion with proportionally similar intakes by the other jurisdictions.

Then there are the jobs: 24,522 person-years of them, generating not only federal and provincial income tax and retail revenues but also municipal taxes.

“Policy-makers and business leaders require a clear understanding of the value and contribution of the petroleum industry to the economy,” CERI says. “Their decisions will certainly impact the level of private investment and have wide-ranging effects across various, seemingly unrelated, industries.”

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