It is time to reevaluate the emphasis that our government has placed on wind and solar to generate green energy. What is happening to so many people due to the high costs of the production and the delivery is unconscionable.
Here are a few cheaper and more efficient ways. If the provincial and municipal governments would use even some to a deeper degree than utilized now, lower delivery charges and financial savings and energy conserved could be immense.
• Geothermal can save up to 30-70 per cent off heating and cooling bills.
• Biomass is the fourth largest energy source in the world.
• Cogeneration power units, used in such places as Queen’s University and U of T, are utilized by the East Windsor Cogeneration Centre to provide reliable clean power for over 80,000 homes. These units can be used in hospitals, schools, offices, factories, apartment buildings.
• Trigeneration (combined cooling, heat, and power) units can be used in data centres and many of the same places as cogeneration.
• Replace the linear structure in our electricity grid with a looped one.
It should be noted that if we utilize biomass, cogeneration, and trigeneration power sources, all can be localized. Fewer kms of transmission lines need to be built and maintained, resulting in savings for ratepayers and taxpayers of many millions of dollars annually.
To manage a city or a province efficiently and economically, it will be essential for a planner to understand and to utilize cogeneration and trigeneration power systems, and a looped (vs. linear) arrangement in the electricity grid.