Canada's Globe and Mail reviews the Nissan Leaf and Gives Insights into Electricity Generation in the Country

As someone who always enjoys visiting Canada (and not just because he happens to have very close friends there) this blogger finds that our neighbors to the North have a lot of very interesting and eminently sensible ways of doing things that we overlook even over here in the USA. This article on the about to be launched for sale Nissan Leaf electric car talks about the anxieties that Canadians share with us Americans - range issues and fears over charges depleting faster in the winter. But then, there is a hugely positive fact that the review casually tosses out as if it were not even worth mentioning - 70% of Canada's electricity is generated from renewable sources. In three provinces - Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, that figure is 100%.

Why is this important? The Canadians have oil - a lot of it - and they make a lot of money sending it South to us. In a sense this is a good thing - it makes the USA less dependent on rogue nations like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela for one thing - it makes money for Canada selling a mineral resource overseas. The Canadians, themselves, use their earnings from the export of their oil to prepare themselves for more renewable energy to be locally used. Smart? You bet!

A powerful and wealthy nation like the USA with a host of problems might sometimes be too absorbed with its own issues to look at solutions in other countries. That said, I do think that it would be a mistake to ignore the Canadian example. Several experts have shown that it is well possible to generate 20% of the electricity that the USA uses from onshore wind. Use offshore wind and combined wind and tidal power both in the sea and off the Great Lakes and this percentage could rise even more. I've said this before and I'll keep repeating this as long as I can - everytime I walk along Lake Michigan, I am amazed at how violently the water heaves up and down several feet even on relatively calm days. All of that energy could keep the lights, HVAC systems and office equipment and home appliances running in most of the cities that dot the lake. In cities like Chicago and Milwaukee to name just two, it could also run cars.

More Stupidity Associated With Windmill Regulations

Today's New York Times has a very nice piece about the kind of pig-headed stupidity that those who would like to use alternative energy in the USA have to face: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13wind.html Fortunately, these concerns are not something for South Asians to worry about. With India's long and magnificent coastline, I can see how a string of windmills across the country would make a huge difference in addressing the power situation. Sri Lanka could do the same across the island country's lovely coastline. And, if more power is needed, there is the option of offshore wind.

The third world nations of the world keep whining about competing with the West - this is, clearly, an opportunity. If they were to start harnessing the power of the wind in their countries, they would leapfrog ahead of the USA for example - while American technology is easily the most advanced in the world, this country's pathetic laws will keep it from competing even with third world powers in some areas in the future. Time to beat the Americans in installing windmills, I think!

Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed?

Time Magazine has some good news on the potential for wind power in the USA with this piece: Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed? With the potential to generate 16 times the amount of power that this country needs from the Midwestern States alone and even more if offshore wind is harnessed, the potential does exist for this country to show fossil fuel a huge fist. And T Boone Pickens, oilman par excellence turned wind entrepreneur, is clearly spot on in his promotion of wind power in this country.

With more and more of the media pointing out solid research - the Time piece references NASA investigations - I hope some of the die-hard skeptics as far as wind power is concerned are drawn into a positive dialogue over the potential for wind power. I also hope that the USA leaps into this and pushes the envelope for bigger and better wind turbines. There is tremendous potential for this country as well as for power generation in other countries in markets that are currently dominated by European companies. It would be good to offer some friendly competition with US products.

Compressing Wind in Underground Caves to Generate Power

As yet another example of out of the box thinking, a number of businesses are coming up with different methods of storing power generated by wind. The most interesting of these (to me, at least) seems to be an American initiative in storing strong winds in underground caves and compressing them so that when let out, they could drive a turbine and generate power. The businessman promoting this project got his inspiration from the idea of the Air Car - time to feel proud India because the Tatas are busy working on this technology which they have licensed from its French inventor - and I hope that this would be replicated at other spots around the world. The Times link is: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5992419.ece

US Now Largest Wind Power Producer

Ecogeek brings this news via Cleantechnika that the USA has beaten Germany as the world's foremost wind power producing nation: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2407/86/ In what has otherwise been a pretty bad year, this is amazing news, indeed, and I hope that the American spirit of competitiveness and a similar spirit in other countries would make the world use as much additional wind power as possible in the future. This can only be good news to a blog that aims to show fossil fuels the fist. Way to go, America! Congratulations and don't slow down, please!

Now Why Can't Universities in India Do Something Like This?

Treehugger has a nice entry about the University of Oklahoma going all wind energy by 2013: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/university-of-oklahoma-100-percent-wind-power-by-2013.php Now Madras University is bang on the sea-shore and receives very strong winds 24/7. Why on earth can't they think about doing something about wind energy? India IS big on wind energy anyway and the university could use this as a means of proclaiming its entry into the 21st century. As it is, the doofuses who run the place are more concerned with internal politics than anything concrete - I do wish there were someone who could think. Even Anna University and AC Tech who have ample access to wind and IIT Madras who are not really far from the sea themselves do not have any real focus on wind or other renewable energy during some of India's most energy deprived times. Shows what a farce the whole bloody educatiuonal system is in India!

One More Plus for Wind Energy

I forgot to post something in the earlier post - a very interesting Letter to the Editor of Businessweek points out how Wind Energy generation is superior to fossil fuel based power - windmills do not use water in addition to remaining smoke free. Every coal, oil or nuclear powered powerplant has to use tens of thousands of gallons of water for cooling processes. That is one lesser resource that more widespread wind energy would use were it exploited to the fullest. Excellent point, isn't it?

California's Million Solar Roof Initiative and Lessons for South Asia

The greed displayed by the Saudi Arabian sheikhs is promoting new interest in renewable energy and one of the most significant steps taken in recent times has been the California Million Solar Roofs Initiative which you can read about at: http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/energy/million-solar-roofs Basically, this is a plan to cover the roofs of all government buildings in California and also the roofs of private buildings whose owners are interested in this program with solar photovoltaic systems and to feed the electricity into the state's power grid. I keep wondering when the Indian government would come up with something like this. India has sunlight available across the country and such a system would help immensely in alleviating the severe power shortages that we have in the country. I am sure that the situation in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc is no different. There is a tremendous amount of money to be saved especially with oil prices rising by the day and pushing coal prices up as well as they rise.

And this movement is catching up elsewhere in the world as well. General Motors has installed the world's largest solar roof in its plant in Zaragoza in Spain and Volkswagen are planning something similar in their plants in Europe as well. The Reuters news release about this is at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringSummary/idUKCAS84477520080708 Indian companies have huge tax incentives already to use renewable energy - they can depreciate these systems at 100% in the first year of operation under current laws. And some states have very progressive approaches to this - Haryana, for example, buys electricity generated from renewable sources at Rs 15.96 per kWh. Hopefully, some entrepreneurs would go ahead and do something about the opportunities available in South Asia and make some money out of this business. They deserve to!

In other matters, this is the second post that I have made this week and I am happy to be less tardy than I have been before. Hopefully, I can keep the momentum up and get more information out. Do mail back if you ladies and gentlemen have any information for me. As always, bouquets and brickbats are equally welcome.

Cheers!