Posts

Graphic of the Week: The hidden "fuels" of renewable energy

An important reminder "renewables" refer to the energy source being converted to electicity, and not the materials required to build the machines needed to do the conversion.

Social cost of carbon

I've been surprised at the White House's use of the shady term "carbon pollution" (it's like referring to drowning as "water pollution"). Now people are taking a look a policy set on the basis of a "social cost of carbon" (SCC) calculation - and while I agree with setting policy by estimating future costs, I wouldn't justify the policy based on a spreadsheet. This shot is probably deserved: "And finally, I return to the issues raised in the preceding post, 20 tips for interpreting scientific claims. Some commenters seemed to think this was pretty much kindergarten stuff and of course policy makers (or their staffers) understand this stuff.  Well anyone taking seriously the White House’s SCC numbers needs to go back to kindergarten and pay attention to the 20 tips."

Ring of Fire Deception

As Cliffs halts development  if becomes apparent McGuinty's 2010 commitments were about 2 jobs: the MPPs from Thunder Bay re-elected in 2011 ...in the region known as the Ring of Fire.It is said to contain one of the largest chromite deposits in the world -- a key ingredient in stainless steel.There is no substitute for chromite. There is no North American producer of chromite.Its the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century.Your government is fully committed to working with northerners, Aboriginal communities and mining partners to fully realize the Ring of Fires potential.Together, we will create Ontario jobs... via Text of throne speech | Toronto Star . via Ring of Fire Deception .

Graphic of the week: The great "80% of world's energy could be generated from renewables" fallacy

Bright Ideas from Toronto Hydro discloses they Failed Math

Parker Gallant has a new post at Energy Probe - examining Toronto Hydro's cost claims. Coincidentally, I had a blog post this week congratulating Ontario's powers on making my Hydro One billing more honest; previously the metered usage was marked up 8.5% (which the stated was to account for line loss), but finally the billing is actually for what customers' meters indicate. The charge was unchanged, because the delivery charge just now contains the charge, instead of pretending usage was higher. There is a difference though. Apparently the change was required to comply with measurement Canada rules - which are probably similar to rules in the U.S. If Ontario local distribution companies have been the only ones exaggerating the consumed wattage, then all the cost/kWh figures in Ontario have been understated in comparisons to other jurisdictions. Bright Ideas from Toronto Hydro discloses they Failed Math For the approximately 700,000 customers of Toronto Hydro who have either...

Valuing public transportation systems

Writing on electricity in Ontario, I've frequently argued the value of a watt is simply the value of the incremental cost of the watt it displaces - meaning vRES sources with no dispatchability and not expectation of production during peak periods are only worth the fuel displaced when they are producing. This article argues public transportation systems have much higher value than generally recognized for the same reason - they displace traffic in the most congested areas, at the times of heaviest gridlock.