Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Ontario MicroFIT program is a keg about to run dry. Nobody knows if there’s another keg in the cellar. The Ontario Power Authority isn’t saying. There are encouraging signs, but past experience has taught us to be pessimistic. We’ve been here once...
For the past three weeks I’ve been talking about the shortcomings of the MicroFIT program. First, the OPA’s online application process. Second, the Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) and the problematic and inconsistent ways of each. Third and most recently,...
This is the third installment of a series looking at the Ontario MicroFIT program. Part I looked at the Ontario Power Authority and the shortcomings of its online application system. Part II looked at the way each Local Distribution Company (LDC – your...
Last week I spoke briefly about the simplicity of the German Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program. I contrasted it with the unnecessary complexity of the Ontario MicroFIT program – a program modeled, if you can believe it, on the German one. I elaborated on just...
I haven’t experienced Germany’s Feed-In Tariff program directly, but I’ve heard all about it. It’s easy. If you decide you want to participate, you go through a perfunctory application process and you’re in. You get whatever rate is in effect when you...
Late last summer, I was walking the neighbourhood near where a rooftop residential solar PV system was about to be installed. People tend to be more interested and less sceptical about solar when their neighbours are getting into it, so it’s good policy...
It all started about 4.5 billion years ago. A small, unremarkable star began to shine, warming a small, unremarkable planet. After a mere billion years, life began to emerge. Another three billion years later, plants began to appear, and all that sunshine...
Kids are very aware that some rules are enforced and some aren't. They test every rule constantly. They keep testing in the hopes that the parents will get exasperated and drop the rule to avoid the hassle of enforcement. Will mom and dad notice if I...
If there is an environmentalist's dream technology, it is surely solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. All you need is sunshine, and a PV array will produce electricity. No harmful byproducts. No carbon dioxide. No smog. No acid rain. No radioactive...
Wind energy has become the favourite whipping boy in the renewable energy world. However, solar energy has its critics as well. Wind energy opponents are usually current or prospective neighbours of turbine installations. Solar energy naysayers are typically...
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