The first are the economies of scale and improved supply chains that result from more turbines being manufactured.  In Canada, the growth of wind across the country, including the generation for Bullfrog customers, is helping build the scale and experience the industry needs to be cost competitive.

The second cause of wind energy’s newfound competitiveness has to do with the technology itself. The technology is improving to the point that capacity factors – the ratio of the amount of energy that a turbine produces and the theoretical maximum amount of energy that a turbine can produce – are increasing. Improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of wind turbines result in decreases in operations and maintenance costs and increases in the generating capacity of the average turbine. In the 1980s, the capacity of the average turbine was 1,800 MWh; today that number has increased to an impressive 2,900 MWh.

As a result, the cost of electricity from onshore wind turbines will drop 12 per cent in the next five years.  To put this in perspective, before any subsidies or forms of support are taken into consideration, the cost of energy from onshore wind turbines has dropped by 14 per cent every time that the installed capacity has doubled between 1984 and 2011.

The European situation is a little rosier than in Canada. Canadian terrain, distance and wind regime, among other things, make wind power more expensive here at home. In addition, conventional electricity prices are lower here in Canada than generally in Europe, so the cost of renewable power has further to fall in order to reach parity. However the trend is certainly in the right direction, and if not in 2016 then likely in the 2020s Canada could reach the point of cost parity for wind.

Bullfrog customers help reach this holy grail of cost parity not only by supporting the development of wind power economically, but also by empowering the government to support developing renewable power at scale. We need to continue to be vocal about our support for renewable energy alternatives.  If we do, Canada – like Europe – will reach a point where new wind power will be cost competitive with fossil fuels.

As Justin Wu, the lead wind analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, put it: “In the next few years the mainstream world is going to wake up to wind cheaper than gas, and rooftop solar power cheaper than daytime electricity … we are clearly talking about a whole new game.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the San Francisco-based energy consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics have worked together to publish a study that appeared last month in the journal Science.

Entitled “The Technology Path to Deep Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cuts by 2050: The Pivotal Role of Electricity,” the article takes the state of California as a case study for how to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.

So how would it be achieved? The solutions may not surprise a Bullfrog Power supporter. The study has three central suggestions:

1. Transitioning from oil and gas to electricity for cars, heating systems and equipment that use these dirty fuel sources.
2. Changing how we use and generate our energy by working to improve efficiency and decarbonizing electricity.
3. Using wind and solar for up to 74 per cent of the state’s electricity needs.

How many of us are already on the path to sustainable living? When many people imagine a carbon-free future, they envision a radically different world, hampered by restrictions and restraints. What is most surprising is how little our lives could change.

At today’s pace of innovation, “the scientists say that all of this will be technologically feasible by 2050.”

If Canada committed to an equally aggressive target, how soon might we be living in a zero-emissions future?

The global market demand for clean technology is huge. It is estimated to have been $1 trillion in 2010 and this is expected to triple by 2020, when it will be the third-largest global industrial sector. Even during the recession, Cleantech continued to grow by 19 per cent. In 2010 alone, it expanded by an impressive 56 per cent.

What these developments in clean technology tell us is that collaboration among business, government, ENGOs and the voluntary market is helping to advance the industry—but there is more work to be done. Only by continuing to support renewable energy providers and clean technology companies can these predictions become reality.

By choosing green energy with Bullfrog Power, you support renewable energy providers and help fuel the Canadian Cleantech industry. You also send a message to government that Canadians understand that our future economic prosperity is tied to our commitment to sustainable development.

Join us here at The Bullfrog Blog as we explore green energy news and the continuing progress of the global movement to fight climate change and find sustainable ways of living.

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

Up until recently, the consensus was that mankind was living in the Holocene epoch, a stable 10,000 year stretch in the Quaternary period. Now, a growing number of scientists are making the case that that we have entered, or rather created, a new epoch: the Anthropocene, “the recent age of man.”

The fossils of our age will be remarkable, revealing entirely unique buildings and materials. The fossils will also reflect the impact of people on the vast majority of earth’s ecosystems, and provide evidence of humans’ homogenization of plants and animals through domestication. The Anthropocene fossil records will also show extinctions at a record rates. Changes to the earth’s systems, including humans’ involvement in the recycling of carbon and nitrogen, will reflect the dawn of a new age.

Should the Anthropocene be accepted as a new epoch, it could have a profound and welcomed effect. Most of the previous paradigm shifts―from Copernicus’ to Darwin’s―minimized the importance of humans. A paradigm shift that instead recognizes the magnitude of the impact humans are having on our planet, measured on a geological scale, holds the potential for transforming our perspectives the same way evolutionary theory did, and fundamentally affecting the way we think and act as a species.

What do you think? Would recognizing the Anthropocene shift the paradigm and result in significant changes? What changes?

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

Franz Tattenbach, president and CEO of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, recently made a case in the Toronto Star for subsidy reform. According to Tattenbach’s article, reform has the potential to bring about two critical benefits:

• It’s a powerful solution to climate change. The phase-out of subsidies for fossil fuels could provide over 40 per cent of the greenhouse gas reductions required by 2020 to limit the global temperature rise to around 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
• Subsidy reform is good economic policy. With the current subsidies, governments are giving $312 billion of taxpayers’ money annually to fossil fuel producers. Governments give producers an additional $100 billion annually. Eliminating subsidies would allow these funds to be directed towards much more sustainable uses including transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Tattenbach also thinks that Canada is in a position to lead on subsidy reform. All of our political parties have in one way or another supported reform, and the country, through its membership in the G20, has agreed with the international community that action is required. Further, Tattenbach states, “As the one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas, Canada’s commitment to act on this issue positions it as a credible leader in international discussions and negotiations on subsidy reform…”

The article was written and published prior to the recent election. Is there a good chance the author’s vision will come to fruition in this new parliament – or is he being optimistic?

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

The bill called for the federal government to develop strategies to bring greenhouse gas emissions 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to bring emissions 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. These targets were in line with those set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Bullfrog has long argued that the transition to a low-carbon economy presents enormous economic opportunity—perhaps the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century. But for business to act and seize that opportunity, it needs clarity and certainty from government. The longer we linger without a clear national strategy, the more others will seize the opportunity and Canadians will be left behind.

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

Read more:

Toronto Star – Climate bill, Commons crushed in one blow

Globe and Mail – Tory Senate overturns opposition bill for first time on climate change

CBC – Killed climate change bill flawed: Harper

A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the G20 subsidizes energy costs by $312 billion annually. The IEA states, not surprisingly, that reducing subsidies would have a “dramatic effect” on global demand for fossil fuels.

The IEA report, however, focused on downstream subsidies – subsidies to consumers and not subsidies to producers. A November 2010 report by the Geneva-based Global Subsidies Initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development estimates that the oil sector in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Labrador and Newfoundland receives $2.8 billion in subsidies from the federal and provincial governments annually. The report concludes, among other things, that the governments are net losers of revenue from these subsidies, that any employment impacts are questionable, that fossil fuel-based emissions are higher as a result of the subsidies, and that the oil sands are disproportionately benefitting from the subsidies.

Have a look here to learn more. The fact that not only are we encouraging fossil fuel use through subsidies, but also that the subsidies are a net drain on government coffers and don’t help with employment in the country, is disturbing.

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

As the BP spill in the Gulf made evident, one of the unseen costs of conventional energy is the impact of an oil spill – on the environment, on business and on the lives of the people who live in the affected area. It should go without saying that Canada must learn from the Gulf oil spill. We should  ensure companies meet high operating standards and have disaster plans in place, and that we all understand the potential impact of a spill. It is therefore disturbing to read that our federal Natural Resources Minister has received briefings suggesting that he avoid discussing spill scenarios with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

What in your view are the right steps for the federal government to take regarding offshore spill scenarios?

With this as background, governments across Canada began to make real progress on renewable energy. In 2007, the BC Energy Plan introduced ambitious renewable power goals for the province. The first wind farm in BC was built in 2009 (which supplies bullfrogpowered customers in that province). The Ontario government introduced a series of programs to kick start renewable development including RES, RESOP and most recently, the Green Energy and Economy Act. By 2014, these Ontario programs should increase the amount of power coming from renewable sources by 10-14% in the province. In 2007, Nova Scotia introduced a Renewable Energy Standard to increase the amount of renewable energy in the province, and more recently, the 2010 Electricity Plan set a mandatory target of 25% renewable power by 2015.

While these programs are groundbreaking and should add a modest amount of renewable power to Canada’s electricity grid, we should not take progress on renewable energy for granted. Many obstacles remain before Canada’s energy mix will be fundamentally changed. These obstacles include the artificially low price of conventional electricity and the additional cost of renewable electricity, an asset intensive system that has been built to manage conventional forms of generation, entrenched interests and shifting political winds to name a few. The difficulty North American governments are having putting a price on carbon and the lack of progress the international community is making negotiating a successor to the Kyoto treaty are but two illustrations of how difficult it is to make progress on climate issues. Now more than ever it is important for individuals to show their firm support for renewable power.

At Bullfrog, we want to thank all of our customers who have made the choice to support clean, renewable power, but we also recognize we have a long way to go.  We hope the next five years brings us closer to a clean, energy future.

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power

In the past few days, there have been two articles in the Toronto Star on the heat wave in Russia and its impact on wheat supply: “Today Russia, tomorrow the world” and “Russia’s climate problem is our problem.” Russia has banned all grain exports for the rest of the world so that Russian demand can be met without rising prices. Following upon the heat wave and the ban, the global price of wheat has risen by over 80% since June. This type of reaction, by countries to restrict trade in the face of scarcity and by the markets to put a value on supply threats, is certainly a likely response if climate change increasingly threatens food supplies.

Perhaps more disturbing are the recent findings by Canadian scientists relating to the base of the world’s food pyramid – phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms in the world’s oceans and they account for more than half of the world’s organic matter. Canadian scientists from Dalhousie University have recently published in the journal Nature a report indicating that there is a long-term trend, associated with increasing water temperatures, of a 1% annual global decline in phytoplankton, totaling an astonishing 40% decline since 1950.  If this trend continues, it will have massive negative impacts on the food chain above the phytoplankton.

A short informative CBC piece on the findings:

If you add the cost of negative impact on the food chain to the price of fossil fuels, suddenly renewable energy starts looking very cheap.

Tom Heintzman
President, Bullfrog Power