A little reference to hazelnut oil and Jimmy Fallon can go a long way
To the Expositor:
On a Saturday Night Live segment some years ago, Jimmy Fallon commented on a plan to use hazelnut oil to power a vehicle.
New Scientist magazine reported that in the future, cars could be powered by hazelnuts. That’s encouraging, considering an eight ounce jar of hazelnuts costs about nine dollars. Yeah, I’ve got an idea for a car that runs on bald eagle heads and Faberge eggs.
Bit of a chuckle but other “renewables” are different right?! We use them right here in Ontario.
Here is a look at energy sources globally and for Ontario.
Global: coal, 29.9; oil, 32.6; gas 23.9; hydro 6.7; and nuclear, 4.5 (Renew. 1.0 Source BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013).
Ontario: nuclear, 62; hydro, 24; gas/oil, 10; wind, 4; solar <1; and biofuel, <1 (Independent Electricity System Operators 2014).
Renewable energy technology has been around for some time. For example, the first solar cell was patented in the US in 1888. Why do they not figure more prominently in the energy mix? There are three major problems that render these sources unreliable and expensive.
The first problem is diluteness. Energy from the sun and wind is not available in a form that will deliver power efficiently and concentrated in the way that water can for example. It takes a lot of material to capture this energy and it is reflected in the costs required to build the panels and turbines.
The second issue is reliability. The output from solar and wind on a dark still night is zero! Not much better on a cloudy still day. If the wind blows on a bright day and the power isn’t needed, it has to exported and usually at a loss as is the case in Ontario?
The third problem is that these technologies scale poorly. Drive up the Bruce Peninsula and you will get the idea. No problem spotting the wind farms. Anyone notice a nuclear plant? This third problem is the game breaker for biofuel. There just isn’t enough farm land to feed biomass plants that will provide power for nine million people. Not even close!
Germany is often held up as an example of a positive example of how to move to alternate energy. Germany gets about 7.5 percent of its energy from solar and wind. Germany has also paid billions to subsidize this move. Sound familiar? Interesting thing is, coal generation has not been shut down, it has increased! Remember the still in the night example? Reliable energy is required to power the German economy, solar and wind can’t deliver. They now have a power system that (like Ontario) is forced to export power at a loss when surplus power is generated. They don’t have gas or hydro to provide the spinning reserve required to back up the solar and wind generation so they have to cycle the coal plants.
There is no power grid in the world operating with alternate energy sources and for good reason. These sources cannot provide reliable power. The intermittent power they do provide is also very high cost. There is no evidence to suggest that this is going to change any time soon.
Speaking of Ontario, how are we doing with “renewable” power generation? Anyone looking at the monthly power bill has the answer. The Auditor General of Ontario has recently provided us with some evidence of the state of the energy file. Just a few of her comments:
Over the last decade, Ontario’s power system planning process has essentially broken down and has not had a technical plan in place.
Operating outside the checks and balances of the legislated planning process, the ministry has made several decisions about power generation that have resulted in significant costs to electricity consumers.
The government scaled back the role of the regulators and took to issuing ministerial directives by the hundreds.
The details are in the report but many of the example she refers to relate to renewable energy projects.
In 2007 the cost per kWh in Ontario was about seven cents. It now varies between 14 and 27 cents depending on usage and location.
Terence Corcoran summed it up nicely in the 02 Dec issue of the Financial Post, “Ontario’s electricity regime is a gargantuan fiasco, a dysfunctional, overpriced, mismanaged system…”
Hazelnut oil anyone?
Shane Desjardins
Mindemoya
