Canada's proven non-carbon technology

If we have an election this Fall there will be considerable focus on the evnvironment and the Green Shift. I support the Green Shift but that's not what I am writing about here.

My concern is that in the battle over the Green Shift the debate will lose sight of the need to develop other sources of energy beyond carbon.

Canada can be a true world leader in non-carbon based energy technology. This offers great economic advantage ignoring the political (much of the world's oil supply is in the hands of not very nice people) and the environmental.

Non-carbon based technology is practical now and becoming more so day by day. I have a picture here of the huge wind turbine at Pickering. Canada's proven CANDU technology generates eletricity world wide. And even tidal energy (see below) is becoming a reality.

Tidal power moves forward in eastern Maine

August 24, 2008
By JERRY HARKAVY The Associated Press

EASTPORT, Maine — Workers spent the past winter tinkering with high-tech turbines slung beneath a barge in the cold waters off the Maine coast before getting them to produce a modest 20 kilowatts, enough electricity to power a half-dozen homes.

Far from discouraged, Ocean Renewable Power Co. is spending the summer preparing to deploy larger turbines capable of producing up to 5 megawatts.

Eventually, the company envisions producing enough electricity to power 22,000 homes by harnessing the power of Passamaquoddy Bay, where twice each day the tide rises and falls upwards of 20 feet, the greatest tide change in the continental United States.

"This is our beachhead opportunity to enter the market," project manager John Ferland said.Even before energy prices surged, a study conducted by the electric utility industry concluded that tidal power could be produced at a cost competitive with wind power and power plants fired by natural gas.

Companies raced to file permits with Federal Energy Regulation Commission, but Ocean Renewable Power has moved a step forward by using its turbine generating unit to produce power. It is one of dozens of developers positioning for a lead role in tidal power technology.

"Basically, the technology is here. It's just a matter of engineering it for the lowest cost, the highest reliability and the longest survivability in a hostile and corrosive environment," said Roger Bedard, who led the study for the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif.

See story on tidal power here:

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS02/808240363/0/FRONTPAGE