Category Archives: Alternative Energy

(July 8, 2010) Yesterday’s scorcher scorched wind power’s reputation and its long-term bottom line, too. This simple chart demonstrates why no company can make a profit supplying wind power to the electricity system without government subsidies, and why no society can count on wind power when the power is most needed. Continue reading →

(May 28, 2010) Opponents of a proposed wind farm off the Scarborough Bluffs have adopted the old Bob Dylan folk classic, with their own spin, as a rallying cry: ‘the answer is not blowing in the wind.’ Continue reading →

(May 28, 2010) On Wednesday evening, as a part of a panel of energy insiders, I spoke in Toronto’s financial district before an audience of some 150, most of them professionals interested in the clean energy industry. On Thursday evening, I spoke to some 300 of their victims, in a school auditorium in a residential neighbourhood 15 miles away. Continue reading →

(March 28, 2010) Investors could soon be scratching their heads over a rumoured $1.5-billion IPO for Bloom Energy and its fuel cell, a gizmo the size of a CD that can provide power to a home without needing to be connected to the electric utility’s power lines. Unveiled amid much hoopla on 60 Minutes last month, the Bloom fuel cell is touted for being able to run on natural gas or biofuels, for being more efficient than a conventional natural gas power station and for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading →