Category Archives: Renewables

(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 →

(March 9, 2010) A March 6 meeting, outlining the downside of wind turbines, drew close to 200 people to Creemore’s Station on the Green. Continue reading →

(March 6, 2010) The Ontario government’s rush into renewable energy, and industrial wind turbine generated electricity in particular, is likely to reveal the law of unintended consequences. Continue reading →

(March 5, 2010) Ontario’s strategy of picking winners likely to fail. Ontario’s provincial auditor or other independent groups should periodically audit the programs and subsidies being offered through the recently passed Green Energy Act to ensure the programs are producing the promised environmental and economic benefits, says an Energy Probe report published today by Michael Trebilcock, Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Toronto, and James Wilson, a recent University of Toronto Law School Graduate. Continue reading →