So I'm feeling a lot more optimistic today. First off, back to the fracking thing I found a couple more videos that show that it might not be all that its cooked up to be, if anyone involved can watch these and still be pro-frack-Nova Scotia I'd like to know why.
This one is about coal seam gas development in Queensland, but appropriate I thought.
Moving along to today's idea, net metering for solar and micro hydro. First off I'd like to point out that these revolutionary ideas are definitely not just mine I got them from somewhere. So I was pleased to find this report today by the NS government once I started looking into it:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/energy/resources/EM/renewable/renewable-electricity-plan.pdf
So I don't need to go on about the potential benefits of net metering, it is in the above report.
Also, luckily my copy of the Herald Magazine fell on the floor upside down so I saw the back cover, which has an ad with with the link from Nova Scotia Power, indicating they are working on the net metering thing.
http://www.tomorrowspower.ca/
Back in 1995 I had the opportunity to volunteer at a research station in Cape Tribulation Australia. It was completely off grid (easier to do in the tropics of course) and powered by a combination of solar and microhydro. I had never seen a microhydro system before and remember being amazed that this small white capsule, maybe less than a foot long, contained a turbine which was placed in just a trickle of a stream. There were a lot of hoses involved and I wasn't that interested in technology at the time so I don't remember much more, but remember thinking, wow, it really doesn't take much water movement to create electricity. Obviously they'd draw more power from it in the rainy season, when the solar panels would be less effective.
Part of why I bought land where I did was because I thought by being by a river, maybe some day it would be possible to have a microhydro system provide at least part of my power, if not all sorts of power for me and my neighbours. Ironically enough one day while I was away, my husband noticed a couple of fellows at the foot of our property doing something in the river. One was an electrician who was testing out a microhydro system he'd just invented, for a client with a cabin that was located far from the grid.
I wasn't around to see it but asked him later about solar and micro hydro and he pointed out that unlike Ontario, where private landowners can receive payment for selling power back to the grid, this option doesn't exist in Nova Scotia; or it does but it isn't lucrative for small systems. He figured that the ability to sell power back to the grid would offset the cost of purchasing and installing solar panels, and more people would be inclined to do this. So it makes me glad to see the government report above, although writing up a plan and actually implementing it are two very different things. I'm still confused about the whole thing though so maybe I'll send him the "tomorrowspower" link.
As for microhydro, it seems to me that where river water creates energy consistently (unlike the sun or wind) and if someone where to give someone like this electrician a small bag of money to go away and invent something efficient, I think there's a good chance they would.
I find it funny that there's money for the oil and gas industry to come up with all sorts of crazy technology but you don't hear much about that sort of investment in research for solar and microhydro. Or even look at how far they've gotten with drone technology; someone put the resources into developing drones and now they've become quite sophisticated in their uses for surveillance and attacking people. I would think that if more investment was made in soft technology, more solutions would be found. Or maybe more creative people will just come up with solutions on their own. Check out this video by a Newfoundland guy who figured out a way to use cans to make solar powered heating units:
I think about computers, and all the advancement that has been made since my first 286 which ran on DOS. It makes me feel optimistic for the future of renewables.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist: maybe the problem is that the oil and gas industries are so powerful that the thought of decentralizing power by putting renewable into the hands of the masses would be a threat to their ability to make profit. On that level I could see why a certain someone would say that "solar and microhydro are not economically viable" - unlike the oil and gas industry maybe they're not as set up to offer jobs and profits for shareholders. I just don't know. I do think that with cheaper energy people and business owners would have money freed up for more things, such as creating jobs for others and having time to invent and create new interesting things. Where the energy would be cleaner there wouldn't be the worry of cleaning up air or water pollution made from burning oil and gas.
Now I'll admit that natural gas is a much cleaner burning fuel source and I've greatly enjoyed low heating costs in Regina from using it. In fact it was cheaper to heat a 3 storey 1912 character house in Regina through a winter where the temperature would get down to -50 with natural gas than it was to heat a small house in Halifax. I couldn't believe it. I just think the risk of water and soil contamination from trying to extract it from Nova Scotia could outweigh the benefits, so it is a big gamble to make. If all these other places are pumping out natural gas for cheap can't we just import some of theirs? I love bananas but that doesn't mean I would try to grow them here.
I'll post the following video eventhough it is pretty "out there" and if you do some googling you'll see it is controversial and not without its critics. Some of it I like and I think it is interesting food for thought. I'm also open to reviewing evidence that reliance on oil and gas is great for people and so plan on watching "Frack Nation" - a pro fracking documentary that just came out, to see another point of view. I'm trying to keep my mind open.
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