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Tag : Solar PV (73)

OPG hoping to build battery energy storage at Saunders dam

Cornwall Standard-Freeholder / Todd Hambleton / 07 September 2017

A community meeting will be held just under two weeks to discuss an Ontario Power Generation project for the R.H. Saunders Generating Station in Cornwall that will involve the use of a battery-based energy storage facility.

Ontario Power Generation wants to build the facility adjacent to the dam, which would be used to absorb energy in times of excess system generation, or release energy in times of a system generation shortfall […]

“Battery Energy Storage complements renewable generation like wind and solar, and will help (the Independent Electricity System Operator) maintain system reliability,” said OPG director of media, issues and information management Neal Kelly.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

New Abbey Dawn Solar Project already feeding the grid

KingstonRegion.com / Tori Stafford / 04 June 2017

Local group Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-op and SolarShare, a provincial solar energy co-op, hosted a tour and celebration at their Abbey Dawn Project on Sunday, June 4. There, a few dozen people toured the brand new 500 kW solar project, learning about the state-of-the-art tracker technology the project uses, and about how the system operates. The Abbey Dawn Project is the first in Canada to use Canadian company Morgan Solar’s Savanna dual-axis tracker technology, which follows the sun’s daily east-to-west path and seasonal changes in its elevation.

In short, the technology allows the system to run more efficiently, with yield increases of 25 to 40 per cent over those without the tracker technology.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

New book ranks the top 100 solutions to climate change

Vox / David Roberts / 10 May 2017

By now, the looming dangers of climate change are clear to anyone who’s been paying attention, covered extensively in both academic literature and the popular press.

But what about solutions?

For all the hand-wringing on climate change over the years, discussion of solutions remains puzzlingly anemic and fractured. A few high-profile approaches, mainly around renewable energy and electric cars, dominate discussion and modeling. But there’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors.

At least until now.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

OREC targets $2 M with fifth securities offering

OREC / 16 January 2017

The Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op launches its fifth securities offering and is seeking to raise up to $2 million to invest in four local solar power projects. The Co-op’s latest projects include a rooftop project at both the Twin Elm Rugby Park and KIN Vineyard in Carp along with a ground mount system in Alfred, Ontario, and a rooftop system on a private building. These projects will start to produce power for the grid starting in June, 2017.

OREC’s previous four securities offerings raised $5.1 million, financing 13 solar rooftop projects in Ottawa – four of which are found on local French language schools.

“Working with the French school boards to install these solar projects has been such a pleasure. We are accomplishing our environmental and educational goals, while also providing a profitable, socially-responsible investment option for our members,” says Janice Ashworth, OREC’s General Manager.

Investments can be made by purchasing Preference Shares or Member Investment Notes and is open to all residents of Eastern Ontario who become members of the co-op. OREC’s preference shares have 20-year terms, are RRSP & TFSA-eligible, and average a 4% annual dividend plus return of capital over time. Member Investment Notes have five year terms and provide a fixed 3% annual return with the capital returned at the end of year five.

As opposed to a mutual fund where individual investors have little control, with a co-op, every investor becomes a member and has a vote in decisions that affect operations and investments.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

The best batteries for your off-grid battery bank

Mother Earth News / Allan Sindelar / December 2016/January 2017

Renewable energy systems should be sized so that the total amount of daily charging energy from all sources — PV, wind, hydroelectric, or generator — exceeds a home’s total average daily load. The role of the battery bank is to provide stored energy between charging periods — nothing more. When carefully planned and executed, the batteries in a home power system will run everything in your home — but “everything” will include far less than in a typical mainstream home.

Living well on a small and finite amount of electricity starts with careful adherence to three basic principles: Shift inappropriate loads to other forms of energy, reduce waste through efficiency, and use power in proportion to the amount available.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

A renewable home energy retrofit: How we did it

Mother Earth News / Ron Davis / June/July 2015

I must admit that our transition away from fossil fuels isn’t complete. Much of what we buy — including a great deal of our food and even the energy-saving equipment we’ve installed in our home — is produced and shipped using fossil fuel energy. We can and will take further steps to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, but life altogether independent of them may not be possible in our economy without full withdrawal from it and a return to the kind of lifestyle that existed before the Industrial Revolution. Lee and I are incredibly pleased, though, with what we’ve accomplished. Reducing our carbon footprint has been a major emotional boost for us. We value knowing that our home is powered by solar energy that we, ourselves, collect, and that the good Earth shares its heat in winter and accepts our heat in summer by way of our geothermal system. Many people in our community have visited our home to check out our systems and ask us questions as they get started taking steps to cut their own carbon footprints. It’s immensely gratifying to be that example for others.

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