Blue Ocean off Maui wallpaper
Ontario, Canada has had what has been called a feed-in tariff program to encourage small scale alternative energy production. The small scale facet does include homeowners and small businesses who would install solar power for instance and sell the excess back to the power company. It is a new concept in North America and Ontario has made some changes to the original program, Feed-In Tariff 2.0
As of early December, the Ontario Power Authority said that it had received more than a thousand small-scale renewable energy project applications, cumulatively representing over 8,000 megawatts of generation potential.
….“We’ve had an outstanding response,” the chief executive, Colin Andersen, said, adding that an additional 1,500 megawatts would be made available with the construction of more transmission capacity in southern Ontario. He estimates the investments represent about 5 billion Canadian dollars, or $4.7 billion, in economic activity.
A feed-in tariff, advanced renewable tariff or renewable energy payments as a policy incentive was pioneered in Germany. What makes Ontario’s especially interesting, in addition to its tremendous success, is the goal of the government to go coal-free energy generation. Why don’t we try something like that here. Well there are similar state based programs in Florida, Vermont, Washington and California. It’s too bad states such as Montana, Nebraska ( very coal dependent), Arizona, New Mexico and a few other states that are prime potential solar energy producers are not on track to more decentralization of the energy grid.
Like many people I find nuclear energy attractive as an energy source that is low greenhouse emissions, but remain concerned about waste that is highly toxic for 10s of thousands of years. If push comes to shove and we head in the direction of a new generation of nuclear plants maybe thorium will make it a little easier to live with, Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
After it has been used as fuel for power plants, the element leaves behind minuscule amounts of waste. And that waste needs to be stored for only a few hundred years, not a few hundred thousand like other nuclear byproducts. Because it’s so plentiful in nature, it’s virtually inexhaustible.
I wonder if thorium could be used in a Pebble reactors such as the one in use in China. They operate at high temperatures, but only require passive safety measures and does not produce the kind of radioactive fluids of traditional nuclear power plants.
What would you do if a harbor seal decided to make your back yard home, Baby seal in garden named Rudolph
The RSPCA is now caring for the seal, which has been renamed Gulliver, at Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre near Hastings in East Sussex.
Keeper Elaine Crouch said baby seals often became separated from their mothers in bad weather such as storms or floods.
“This one is a really good weight, and not starving but has been completely lost,” she said.
They surmise the seal probably came from a stream that connects to the River Rother.
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