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Green-Up
ED says Province needs to push renewable energy Denmark a model to look at, says Pollution Probe’s executive director The executive director of Peterborough Green-Up, Sue McGregor-Hunter, says communities might be more inclined to take advantage of wind power if there were credits to pay entrepreneurs for their power generation overages. McGregor-Hunter says the recent announcement by the Province for waterpower and landfill gas projects, as well as five new wind farms are great, but there are some policy changes that have to take place, too. She says right now, excess power generation is just wasted power. There is no credit of any kind paid to individuals or organizations that use wind power when they generate more than they need. The excess could be diverted to the main energy grid, she says, and a credit of some kind given for their contribution. "So we need a change in policy that will see these credits be paid out. The Province has been talking about removing this barrier and we hope it will happen soon," says McGregor-Hunter. In Peterborough there has been some interest in small hydro projects, she says, particularly on the Otonabee River near Trent University. With small hydro, turbines are placed on existing dams. By taking advantage of existing dams, she says there isn’t the same kind of environmental flooding damage that occurs with large-scale hydro projects. Ken Ogilvie, executive director of the national organization Pollution Probe, notes that Demark is an innovator when it comes to creating community-based solutions for the renewable energy sector. Canada needs to pay attention to Denmark and other international models if it truly wants to make qualitative changes to the way people harness electricity, he says. Pollution Probe, which is working on a consumer’s guide to green power, has long been pushing for more widely-used renewable energy forms. "The Danish government has community-based co-ops set up for renewble energies," says Ogilvie. "People in Denmark actually own shares in the renewable technologies," he explains, saying this is a model Canada could be looking at. Scotland, too, is a hotbed for renewable energies, says Ogilvie. There, the aim is to have 18 per cent renewable energy for power generation by 2010 and 40 per cent generated from renewable sources by 2020. |
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