Links of the Week - Ocean acidification, the Kochtopus and Peak Wheat

First off, some personal notes. I've been slacking on mobilizing concerned citizens against the airport closure however, have no fear, I am working on it.

The summer is coming to an end and the harvest has come in. Be sure to dig into delicious, local and seasonal victuals.

This real estate bubble and its eventual pop is going to continue to become a narrative that plays out over the next six months. Despite the differences in the markets between the US and Canada you've got a lot of people owning expensive houses they never should have bought. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

David Schindler continues to knock it out of the park. As of posting time only the feeblest of responses have come from the person the furthest down the line on the file, the Environment Minister, to respond to Schindler's damning report on water quality in the oil sands. Poor Rob Renner.

But enough of the chit chat this week I've got a tremendous list for you to dig into. Enjoy

+ Mitsubishi uses a fogcatcher to capture moisture, plant greenbelts and combat desertification in Oman - http://ht.ly/2xlUl

+ Why the Canadian housing market may be headed for a correction - http://ht.ly/2xlkI 

+ The Moneyless Man. A UK economics graduate has lived without money since 2008 - http://ht.ly/2xjY9

+ Don't just choose life, as the Trainspotting line goes, invest in it with permaculture - http://ht.ly/2x35b 

+ Is ocean acidification denial the next great right-wing fad? http://ht.ly/2wWWg 

+ Tertzakian: Arizona's energy policies a harbinger of things to come. An introduction to demand side management - http://ht.ly/2wLe8 

+ Canada Becomes First Country to Ban Toxic BPA http://bit.ly/d6fgu3

+ Peak Wheat? So says two US based geneticists - http://ht.ly/2vwyl

+ $1 million prize to person under 30 who shows leadership in communicating an alternative to growth-obsessed economy http://bit.ly/b0zAPj

+ A Dozen Eggs for $8? Michael Pollan Explains the Math of Buying Local - http://ht.ly/2vjMe #yeg 

+ Holy sweet Jesus is this New Yorker takedown piece on Koch Industries both amazing and scary - http://ht.ly/2vcoF

+ Why conservatives are bad on solar: http://bit.ly/9HHbKw 

+ Ocean acidification is the scariest stuff out there: Coral doctor sounds the alarm about more acidic seas - http://ht.ly/2uciz

+ People underestimate energy usage/savings by factor of 2.8. Why? They're puzzled by large appliances. http://bit.ly/97Y8t0

+ The power of fungi could make GMO crops obsolete - http://ht.ly/2tzcE

+ Very funny article from Dilbert creator on building a a green home - http://ht.ly/2sSZb

Links of the Week - Coal shortages, oil sands toxins and the end of growth

Some personal notes

I've been caught up in the Edmonton City Centre Airport debate for awhile and I plan on mobilizing some pro-closure people soon. I want to dip my toe into the advocacy field and getting like-minded people together is probably the best way to go about it.

I'm meeting with councillor Ben Henderson soon. He's the city representative for my area. I've heard good things and I'm considering volunteering for his campaign.

The Fringe Festival is getting started and it's my very first experience with it. I'm really enjoying it and I like that this is how Edmonton defines itself as opposed to cowboy hats and public drunkeness.

Enough about me, onto the links.

_____________________

+ What if there's less coal than we think? http://ht.ly/2rzTB #ableg 

+ Where is Canada on the geothermal energy scene? (hint: we're behind Nicaragua) http://ht.ly/2rjXN 

+ Alberta based company securing 100,000 hectares of African land for "diesel tree" cultivation - http://ht.ly/2r6Nl

+ Humble Energy boasts about being able to melt 80 tons of glacier a second in 1962 - http://ht.ly/2qgZU

+ “Minimum parking requirements act like a fertility drug for cars.” Donald Shoup - http://nyti.ms/dsUoYi 

+ I might, might, be okay with the #bill50 power lines if they looked like this - http://ht.ly/2pGVc 

+ In a move that should be followed by everyone, Europe mandates energy grades for houses - http://ht.ly/2pvI9 

+ A must read Nikiforuk article on the #oilsands, Norwegian wisdom and the Dutch Disease - http://ht.ly/2porg 

+ Understanding embodied energy. An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use - http://ht.ly/2oMTx 

+ "Growth as we have known it can no longer be our goal. That party is over." - http://ht.ly/2om5E - #MUSTREAD

+ What is biochar? http://ht.ly/2obi0

+ Environmentalism can never address climate change - http://ht.ly/2nzX9 

+ The Department of Energy ponies up $43 million for 20 megawatts of flywheels, an ancient energy storage technology - http://ht.ly/2nF07

+ What does 322 tonnes of arsenic look like? Environment Canada has numbers out on oil sands toxins - http://ht.ly/2nC5l 

+ There is an oversupply of location-inefficient properties - http://ht.ly/2nNKu 

+ Alberta's Interface Carpet? Read about the innovative, sustainable plastics manufacturer Flexahopper - http://ht.ly/2n4q1 

+ Permaculture. Far more than organic gardening - http://ht.ly/2lx0f

Change Your Lights/Save Money - Now With Financial Incentives!

0233 - Domo Lightbulb

Have you ever walked down a stairway in a multi-unit residential building and noted that those lights are always on. When no one is in the stairway those lights are, by definition, 100% inefficient. So what would help? 

I don't say this very often but Alberta has just instituted a very smart idea. Provide a monetary incentive on a per-light basis to upgrade to newer, more energy efficient lighting.

It's called Light It Right and it's being administered by one of my favourite arms length non-profit organizations, Climate Change Central. These incentives are aimed at the commercial market where, conceivably, they're going to get the most bang for your buck. The types of buildings that can apply are below

• Restaurants
• Retail
• Multi-unit Residential
• Office/Hotels; and
• Warehouse/Recreational Facilities

Back to our original example of the permal-lit stairway, with a $40 rebate on occupancy sensors and a $2 rebate on each CFL fixture not only is the original financial blow softened but the building owner will pay far less on the electricity bill.

The simple fact is the internal rate of return on upgrading your lighting system is better than almost any other retrofit option out there. It just makes sense. Check out this example from the LightItRight.com site with Crowfoot Dodge in Calgary. Their project cost to replace the metal halides in their shop was $80,000. The project payback is 24-42 months and the fixtures they're installing are 60 to 65% more efficient. There are more examples of how businesses upgraded their lighting and saw the benefits. One office saved over $100,000 and a popular Calgary bar saw great results as well.

If you are a business owner, property manager or anyone who makes decisions in regards to building management you need to bring this up. Not only will you save money but, I say this without a trace of hyperbole, the opposite sex will swoon at your sight, riches will be laid before you and delicious victuals will constantly be on the menu. What are you waiting for? Go to Light It Right.

Links of the Week - Beekeeping, bicycles, solar energy, fossil fuel subsidies, permaculture and more

Personal notes.

I've just finished the Introduction to Permaculture book that that I recieved when I did my intro class with Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture. He's having his Permaculture Design Certificate course this weekend, if you're interested in this line of thinking I recommend you start. It's simply an amazing way of looking at the world.

Starting to read Ishmael.

I'm eating a lot of kale chips these days. They're super easy to make and apparently nutritious. Simply tear kale off the stalk, rub in olive oil, stack a 2-5 on top of each other, salt and pepper and about 8 minutes in the oven at 400 celsius. Here's a very enthusiastic lady telling you how to make them in more detail.

This weekend I was lucky enough to get out to my friend's straw bale house for another day (half-day) of work plastering. It's awesome, fun, dirty work. If you're interested in helping build an awesome house with a bunch of awesome people contact me.

This weekend I also visited the downtown farmer's market. Simply tremendous. I really enjoy the outdoor setting and it's nice not to be shoulder to shoulder like you are at Strathcona. I picked up some very delicious heirloom carrots from Greens, Eggs and Ham, a great little outfit near Leduc. Next time I'm thinking of getting some duck eggs and maybe some guinea fowl.

This week we have a large variety of awesome links; hunt, peck, read and enjoy.

+ A well done primer/explanation/feature/profile on urban beekeeping in Edmonton. Check it out - http://ht.ly/2kEAV

+ Bicycle Highways. Specialized roadways for bicycles are the best solution for motorists, cyclists + cities - http://ht.ly

+ Joe Bageant: Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball - http://ht.ly/2kmsA  - A little more negative than I usually post and the guy's understanding of the derivatives market isn't great, but he's quite the polemicist

+ Finding a sense of surplus - http://ht.ly/2kw8G - Exploring the third permaculture ethic in a thoughtful manner. Loses me a bit in the secularization bit but some great points nonetheless. 

+ Why a retail chain with a $14 billion market cap that has to answer to shareholders jumped on the clean energy train - http://ht.ly/2k35p

+ A permaculture primer - http://ht.ly/2jWa0

+ What kind of non-existent horseshit problem are we solving? The future of cities and transportation http://ht.ly/2jU3L 

+ A call for an end to the primpy lawn - http://ht.ly/2j2FL 

+ Slow money, local business and social capital. A must read for savvy residents of #yeg and #yyc - http://ht.ly/2jk2S

+ Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that subsidies for fossil energies far outweigh those for renewables - http://ht.ly/2j1zh #ableg

+ An example from DC that applies almost anywhere. You can't consider the cost of housing without considering the cost of transportation - http://bit.ly/aV1FOB 

+ The Business Case for Solar Power Manufacturing from @TheAUMA - http://ping.fm/WeTZX 

+ The Growing Problem With Food. The trends and challenges of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. An interesting study from Nature that makes some troubling assumptions I don't agree with - http://ht.ly/2itXo

+ In the scare the crap out of you section: Global phytoplankton in decline - http://ht.ly/2ipZM

+ You can't have your car and the planet too - http://ht.ly/2i0vG 

+ Level the playing field: Fossil fuel subsidies undermine renewables - http://ht.ly/2hphR - A great editorial on the subject from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix of all places. 

+ Solar is cheaper than nuclear according to Duke University researchers - http://tinyurl.com/2co3kz3 - They've got solar down to about $0.14 a kilowatt-hour, which is still more than we pay here but an encouraging sign.

+ How bike lanes in Berlin compare to Calgary. Yeah, it's no contest - http://post.ly/osMy 

+ Genius. Harvesting energy from falling waste water - http://ht.ly/2fFed - These little distributed generation ideas are going to sweep through various industries.

+ This article on human powered cranes has just blasted my feeble little mind - http://ht.ly/2fpbo - An extremely detailed look at just how people moved several hundred tons of stuff at one time before there were diesel powered cranes. It wasn't just slave labour, it was some pretty crazy engineering as well.

The Edmonton City Centre Airport, Envision Edmonton and a whole lot of old people clapping #ecca #yeg

I was crazy enough to plop myself down in a muggy airport hangar for two hours on Thursday, July 29 for a public forum thrown by Envision Edmonton to talk about the future of the Edmonton City Centre Airport.

Let me set the scene for this public forum. It was hot. It was muggy. Foodwise there were decent wraps but the cookies were a little stale. Demographically we're talking old, white and male. The young people in attendance all seemed to be blue shirted Envision Edmonton volunteers. There was a lot of tables set up to get people to sign their petition. They had fuzzy plans for redevelopment of the site. These involve LRT stations, VIA rail stations, more light industry and other stuff that I don't remember. Numbers and drawings were noticeably absent at the event but perhaps they'll be released online soon. UPDATE - The slides that they had at the forum are online here. Again, no capital projections, no renderings of buildings and nothing on the process. Just some top down maps of where they think the buildings they want to happen should exist.

I was fairly new to Edmonton when the city went through it's Close the Airport/No, Don't Close the Airport convulsions and wasn't very civically engaged at that moment. While I thought little of it at the time I was mostly for the closing of the airport. I think people, homes and families are much better downtown neighbors than private jets and light industry. I also didn't enjoy the hypocritical and self-righteous nature of the pro-airport side. I thought the issue was put to rest but as Al Pacino said in one the movies he appeared in "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Charles, or Chuck, Allard is the son of Dr. Charles Allard, the founder of ITV (now Global Television) and is the man behind Envision Edmonton. Allard "who keeps a plane at the International but doesn't fly much" has set on this issue like a man grimly determined to beat this horse until it is well and truly deceased. He's on his way to collecting the amount of signatures required to put the issue to a plebiscite and has sunk a lot of time and money into this Envision Edmonton venture.

Chuck Allard, who is not the greatest public speaker, gave a little speech to start off and then we were off to questions from the general public and ostensibly, a panel discussion. This is where it can go south very fast. People really like to hear themselves speak at these things and the question to statement ratio is almost always insufferably in favour of the long, drawn out statement.

There was a lot of vitriol towards the current city council. A lot of people called Stephen Mandel stupid. One lady even brought out the "Won't somebody please think of the children" defence in regards to keeping the Aviation Musem open. There was a fair bit of applause anytime anyone seemed passionate and made some points in favour of the airport. All stuff you would expect at an event like this.

I asked a couple of questions. One was about the amount of medevac flights in comparison to the total amount of traffic. The response was 3,000 flights out of a total of 80,000 flights over a year. Of those 3000 about 10% of those flights are time-sensitive, that is, the patient is not stable. That's 0.375% of all total flights or around 300 people a year. Keep that in mind the next time you hear the pro-airport side mention the medevac argument. The other question was about the funding of Envision Edmonton. Allard replied that funding came from mostly small and medium sized businesses. I asked if the funding details would be released, he said perhaps. I asked him twice if he personally was funding Envision Edmonton. He answered yes the second time I asked it.

While it wasn't the best use of my time I'm glad I went for one reason. I figured out that these people don't represent me. I do not wish for their plans to succeed. In fact I hope they are stymied in all of their efforts. Let me reiterate. I want the Edmonton City Centre Airport closed and the land redeveloped for people with an eye towards mixed use, mixed income, transit-oriented walkable development with an emphasis on public over private space. I believe that that is a better use of this tremendous resource rather than the continuation of a small, private, operation that chews up far too much valuable real estate close to Edmonton's core.

 

 

Big Batch O' Links - Prepare your mind, for a mind explosion

I hope you brought your reading helmet because I've been saving up some good ones.

So much better than a golf course. Prairie Crossing: The ‘urban’ farm of the future? http://ht.ly/2eSak

"Farming is the new golf." How new urbanists are combining food production and city planning - http://ht.ly/28IVQ

A basic permaculture principle explained. Decoding Pattern: Part 1 - http://ht.ly/2eGIt

Mine the gold, keep the silver. The low hanging geothermal fruit in Alberta can be found in our mature wells - http://ht.ly/2eLrm 

More low hanging fruit. An Edmonton based company is creating electricity from the kinetic energy being produced by pumpjacks - http://ht.ly/2foPS

Some cool biomimicry. Beetle inspired bottle harvests water from dew - http://ht.ly/2e5dx

A positive sign. For the second year in a row more money was invested in renewable electricity than coal, natural gas and nuclear combined - http://bit.ly/9baEDT

Spain produces the annual equivalent of a nuclear power plant from solar power every year http://bit.ly/9JuDVT

Sprawl defender and new urbanist square off in a very interesting debate - http://ht.ly/2aN4c

A game changer. Mycoremediation and its application to contaminated sites - http://ht.ly/2au5W 

Via @desmogblog: Lies Concocted By Climate Deniers Likely To Stick Around Despite Corrections http://bit.ly/aSOHK2

Walkable and Bikeable Neighborhoods in Demand - http://bit.ly/aDGpWS 

An intriguing idea - Open Source Clothing - http://ht.ly/28Tjh

Super cool living machines to treat waste - http://ht.ly/2foVJ

The Energy Efficiency Pyramid - An Extremely Useful Educational Device

If you're a policymaker, a civic sustainability planner or just someone who wants to get better value out of your utility bill let me acquaint with a handy visual device which will make your life a whole lot easier.

It's called the Energy Efficiency Pyramid and like the old US style food pyramid it provides a simplistic, easy to understand visual to decode what can be a daunting process.

The originator of the pyramid was the COO of a Minnesota utility. It has ten levels and like the food pyramid should be read from the bottom up. Homeowners or policy makers who don't know where to start should simply start from the bottom and work their way up. The higher you go the less cost effective the solutions become. Keep in mind these are not set in stone, each structure faces different challenges and building science is constantly being refined. However, the structure of this pyramid is solid. The inspiration for this entry comes from this blog post at Green Building Advisor.

From the bottom up, here are the pyramid’s ten steps.

1. Home energy audit

Start with the audit. Get a blower door test and see how airtight it is. While the federal government has withdrawn its support from helping out with the energy audit process you can still use this federal site to find an auditor in your area. If you're in Alberta check out this page from Climate Change Central. It's got the skinny on how you can save money on your home energy evaluation. 

So why spend the money? Green Building Advisor lays it out pretty clearly.

  • When considering energy retrofit work, most homeowners prioritize the wrong steps. An energy audit provides valuable information to counterbalance misleading advertising pitches for worthless products.
  • Your audit is likely to reveal unseen defects in your home — for example, thermal bypasses (air leaks) through convoluted, hidden chases, or insulation gaps revealed by an infrared camera.
  • At the end of your audit, you’ll receive a customized list of the most important energy retrofit steps for your house — a list that may differ from your assumptions (or even from the recommendations of the energy conservation pyramid).
  • By identifying the most important retrofit tasks for your specific house, a good audit can save you hundreds of dollars that might have been wasted on inappropriate work.

2. Low-cost to free measures to reduce plug loads

This one is easy in theory but harder in practice. It can be summed up like so, "Turn your crap off."

While it is as simple as turning your lights off you can reduce your power bill by eliminating or reducing your phantom loads. GBA again with the handy list.

  • Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
  • Turn off appliances that aren’t being used.
  • When not in use, unplug chargers for cell phones and similar battery-operated gadgets.
  • Put televisions and other “instant on” appliances on a plug strip — and remember to turn off the plug strip when the appliance isn’t in use.

3. Lighting

This is an easy one and the rate of return on lights is almost always fantastic. Simply ensure that your house is incandescent free. Use either CFLs or LEDs to light your house. 

4. Air sealing

This is not caulking, in fact because caulking can trap water it can sometimes do more harm than good. You should contract an experienced contractor who will work with a blower door. Just a note as this isn't mentioned in the pyramid but if you really do seal your home tight you should probably invest in a heat recovery ventilator. Your house will need lungs as well as a way to move moist air from the kitchen or bathroom out of the house in an orderly fashion. 

Blower-door directed air sealing work is usually concentrated in a home’s basement (especially at the rim-joist area) and attic (where huge thermal bypasses are often hidden under a layer of fiberglass batts). Most air leaks are best addressed with two-component spray polyurethane foam.

5. Efficient appliances

Refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer. These consume more energy than you think. If you have any appliances older than 10 years you should think about replacing them with more efficient models. Don't always trust the Energy Star label either, really look at the annual kWh number and compare it. 

Remember that less is more, by sizing down your appliances you end up saving much more money over it's lifecycle. And for heaven's sake don't leave your old fridge plugged in in the basement.

6. Insulation improvements

I used to live in an un-upgraded 1950s era home in Calgary. Spend a winter in a home like that and you really realize the value of air sealing and insulation. While upgrading your insulation can be time-consuming and expensive we're already more than halfway up the pyramid. This is where cost decisions start getting trickier. 

More tips from Green Building Advisor.

  • In colder climates, it makes sense to install R-60 insulation in your attic — as long as the attic is accessible and roomy enough to accommodate the insulation depth.
  • If your stud bays are empty, they can be filled with dense-packed cellulose insulation installed through holes drilled from the exterior.
  • Basement walls can be insulated on the interior with rigid foam insulation or closed-cell spray polyurethane foam.

7. Water heating

A cool little piece of technology is the drainwater heat-recovery device. Not only are they cool, but they're cool-looking as well.

If you have an older, inefficient water heater you can replace it. There are quite a bit of options on this front. 

  • A high-efficiency gas-fired water heater;
  • A high-efficiency electric resistance water heater;
  • A heat-pump water heater;
  • An instantaneous gas-fired water heater;
  • An indirect water heater connected to a boiler;
  • Any of the above, supplemented by a solar water heater.

8. Space heating and cooling equipment

We're almost to the top here. Replacing your heating and cooling equipment can get expensive and if you're dealing with an older house can be tricky as well. However the bonus about progressing up the pyramid is this; by the time you get to this step you're going to need much smaller and cheaper heating and cooling equipment.
If you jump to this step ahead of others you may be wasting money on oversized equipment.

9. Replacement windows

If you think about it windows are pretty amazing pieces of technology. We put giant holes in our homes and put see-through glass in them. I won't get into specifics but choosing windows can get real complicated real fast. Be sure to consult with a trusted professional.

In Alberta you should have more south facing windows than any other side of your house. Those south facing windows should have a high solar heat-gain coefficient.

10. Renewable energy equipment

At the peak of the pyramid is the sexiest and least cost effective solution, small-scale renewable energy equipment. GBA sums it up well; 

There are many reasons you may want to have PV panels or a wind turbine, but saving money isn’t one of them.

Remember, it makes no sense to invest in an expensive PV system until after you have invested in all of the other measures listed on the pyramid.

Again, many thanks to Green Building Advisor for the original post.

Sustainability Links of the Week - Carbon finance schemes, cul-de-sacs and permaculture inspired water strategies

An exhaustive analysis of the carbon mitigation schemes the US and (in lockstep) Canada could enact- http://ht.ly/23nHE

This hydro-kinetic run of river operation is wicked cool - http://ht.ly/22J22

The Energy Efficiency Pyramid. An extremely useful visual device, policy makers take note - http://ht.ly/22wRW 

How cul-de-sacs make you fat and kill your community - http://ht.ly/22rCR 

Encana is name checked in this Vanity Fair feature on shale gas - A Colossal Fracking Mess - http://ht.ly/21uah

Of particular relevance in Alberta's dry climate - The Permaculture Approach to Water http://bit.ly/ctYtSV 

How to power the energy innovation cycle - http://ht.ly/23WIG 

Do You Want to Lower Your Condo Fees and Your Utility Bills? Set Up an Energy Effiency Condo Loan

This post was inspired by a presentation by Mark Hartman, the Building Energy Programs Manager for the City of Vancouver, gave at the Sustainable Buildings Symposium.The PDF of his presentation is attached at the bottom of the post.

Financing tools, like the one discussed below, become ever more important as municipalities do combat with the two headed monster that is climate change and peak oil. Cheap energy, whether gasoline, natural gas or electricity, is set to become more expensive and given Canada's geography, climate and energy consumption proclivities these challenges must be met head on.

Previously existing building stock will need to be upgraded in order to improve their heating load and electricity use. A barrier to large-scale energy efficiency retrofits is the upfront capital expense. When you start talking about replacing every clothes dryer or every hallway lightbulb in a condo complex the costs quickly mount. However, condos are in a unique position to leverage inherent advantages in order to access capital to finance these measures. Those advantages are:

  • Density
  • Existing capital/Condo funds
  • Governance structure tied to the building/Condo boards

So with these advantages what comes next? Mark Hartman actually brought a plan forward to his condo board and helped see it through. You start off with an energy assesment, build up the business case and find a loan. In Hartman's building they found a seven-year-payback for the proposed retrofits. They then acquired a 10-year loan attached to the condo and with that money they enacted measures that saw a 30% savings in energy use with a concurrent 10% drop in condos fees. 

The big pinch point is the loan. If you read Hartman's presentation below you'll find that these aren't the largest loans. The program cost for 15 units with three partners was $20,000. Banks are hardly going to be cimbing over each other in order to finance these projects. In his presentation Hartman argues for a special provider of these kind of loans, a one-stop-shop where people, organizations and companies who are mitigating their carbon footprint can access capital.

During his presentation he also mentioned that if you aggregated enough of these loans together you could turn them into asset-backed paper. This has its challenges but the idea really caught my ear. This would be paper on the capital markets that would be tied to things we want ie. energy efficiency. This is more than just saving money on your bills, this is the realization of energy efficiency as a commodity.

So what were the exact changes? Hartman didn't offer too much details but if you follow the energy efficiency pyramid you really can't go wrong.

Seeing as how 55% of Vancouver's greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings this is a quintuple win. The condow owners get lower condo fees and electricity bills, the condo board looks like a hero and have set up a positive situation for future members, the city of Vancouver marches further down its path to become the greenest city in the world, the lender makes money on the interest from the loan and the world wins because there is less carbon dioxide in the air. 

(download)

 

 

Alberta's carbon tax fund jumpstarts five renewable energy projects #ableg

Ok, they have an awkward name, the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) but it's one of the most novel and forward thinking ideas Alberta's ruling party has come up with recently.

Couched in this terrible nomenclature is a seed of a good idea. Set a limit on carbon emissions from your worst emitters, set a cap and tax them $15 a ton or let them offset their activities through the carbon offset market. Then use the money raised through the tax to back greenhouse gas reducing projects and technology.

You'd never think it, or see it reported, but Alberta keeps quite good tabs on our largest GHG emitters. Called specified gas emitters, the CCEMC and it's related family of corporations are in charge of collecting data on Alberta's GHG emitters as well as the upkeep of a small carbon credit system. While you might find the data impossible a little tricky to find, I imagine the majority of them are coal fired power plants with the rest being cement/lime/concrete operations. From this they've raised $121 million dollars. Now what do you do with it?

The objectives of the fund are to achieve actual and sustainable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to assist in adapting to climate change. That's a pretty fuzzy goal but I'm not going to complain, at least there's been some movement on this file and they're backing projects that aren't all carbon capture and storage related. They put out a request for proposals last year and received 233 different ones. They then narrowed it to 30 candidates. You can read an older blog post of mine on the shortlist here. From that shortlist they decided on 16 different projects spending $71 of their $121 million dollars.

Of those 16 they've picked, they announced the details on five projects today. These were the renewable energy projects. Earlier today I did a blog post on the subject with the facts and some more context at Alberta Oil's website.

I'll relist them again with a bit of commentary after each. The projects and organizations receiving CCEMC funding are:

Enerkem Inc., $1.8 million for reduction of greenhouse emissions through greening biofuel production and carbon dioxide utilization, from pilot plant to commercialization, in Edmonton - This is quite interesting and speaks to the quality of Edmonton's waste management practices. I recommend you read this article on the subject. Here's a quote.

Consider Enerkem, for instance. The Montreal firm uses a thermochemical process to produce a synthetic gas, which can be converted to liquid fuels like ethanol plus a range of biochemicals. In Edmonton’s case, the waste-to-biofuel facility will convert sorted municipal waste – roughly 100,000 tonnes per year – into 36 million liters of ethanol per year. The city, Enerkem and Greenfield Ethanol, Canada’s largest producer, inked a 25-year agreement in 2008 that promises emission reductions in excess of six million tonnes – the equivalent of taking 12,000 cars off the road. The potential market is huge: 20 million vehicles were registered in Canada as of 2009.

City of Medicine Hat, $3 million, for the Medicine Hat Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Project - If you click the link it will take you to the Wikipedia page on the subject. Concentrating solar thermal is cool and I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure it's not the best fit for Canada. Mostly because our sunniest areas are arable land and at this point it's not the best use. If you have a desert just sitting around CSP works great. 

ECB Enviro North America Inc., $8.2 million for Lethbridge Biogas, Biogas Cogeneration Project - I had a great conversation with president  Thane Hurlburt after the offical speeches. While ECB has faced some difficulty and delay in getting their large scale biogas idea off the ground biogas is such a great fit for the Lethbridge area that this should put them over the hump. Lethbridge is home to Feedlot Alley, a 500 square kilometer region northwest of Lethbridge known for it's preponderance of CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). With all of those animals in one place you get a lot of waste. That waste can sit in a barn offgassing methane all year or you can use an anaerobic digester to harvest the methane, burn it for heat and electricity, get rid of the smell and create wonderful organic fertilizer. It's a quadruple win, except for, you know, the animals. 

Plasco Alberta Inc., $10 million for the Plasco Alberta Energy and Waste Conversion Project, in Red Deer County - I had an interesting conversation with former MP and now senior advisor to Plasco, Bob Mills after the official speeches. An interesting dude he's one of the most passionate people I've ever met in regards to the subject of garbage. I'm not too familiar with the technology but this Ottawa based company essentially has a very high-tech incinerator that vapourizes muncipal waste with plasma arc technology.

Enmax Corporation, $14.5 million, for home generation - This is the one project that most Albertans are going to have a chance to interact with. Enmax has been planning this for a long time and it looks like they're finally ready to roll out small scale renewables in the home and increase the number of micro-generators in Alberta exponentially. Details are coming but essentially the plan is to roll out 9000 turnkey home generation operations with installations starting in 2011. There are currently around 150 micro-generators in the province. This is quite a drastic repositioning for a utility company and I wish Enmax all the best in regards to this scheme.

One final note. The CCEMC has only spent 57% of money it raised, with $50 million left over for next year. That's quite a haul. Given that 2009 will probably be a better year than 2008 the CCEMC could be sitting on quite a pile of cash in its short existence.