North America must change its energy habits!

Comment

Comment by Robert hudgens on September 5, 2009 at 12:11am

I think if people realy wanted to use renewable energy they could at little cost . There are books out on the market that talk you thru it step by step as well as what materials you need , all of wich are found at your local hardware store. For instance one im looking at is solar panel with 6 batterys and a wind generator with 6 batteries. the price in materials was quoted at 150 dollars for the panel set up and 60 dollars for the wind set up. the problem you run into is ....
1. its going to kill jobs since the more people come off the grid the less people will be imployed by the power companies.
2. they tell you its hard and complicated so you dont even look into the fact you can do it yourself.
3. People just want to wait and let their government make the decission for them (sad but true)
So protecting the inviroment and cutting back on our own carbon footprint realy boils down to the individual and their ability to step out of their comfort zone long enough to see it realy isnt so hard.

Comment by Nina Pruesse on April 23, 2009 at 7:16am

Well said! Thank you for so eloquently stating the ways in which Canada can change its energy policies to reflect the world we live in. I just joined PVTV and this was the first video I watched. As it happens, I attended a meeting in my small community last night for people who are interested in renewable energy. Some of these folks are working through the red tape to get small wind and solar projects running and last night we discussed the difficulties of doing this. I will definitely recommend that they watch your video. Very inspiring. Thank you Keith Stewart!

Comment by Tom Jarmyn on March 22, 2009 at 9:53pm

Arguing for lower energy usage by comparative arguments that are inaccurate (saying that the Obama Administration plans to create 5 million jobs in clean energy when Obama's stimulus program will create 3.5 million jobs all in including expenditures on all of the infrastructure programs - bridges and roads. The campaign estimate was 4.1 million jobs) or fail to acknowledge that one of the major energy costs in Canada is the transport driven by the wide span of distance as compared to Europe undermines the validity of the whole proposition.

I also suggest that advocating that we change from gas driven cars to plug in hybrids that will be powered by dirty coal plants (as they would be in Ontario given our attitudes to nuclear power) is hardly worthwhile from a climate change or cost position.

The conclusion of the discussion that deals with some practical building solutions was a welcome change from the beginning of the discussion which frankly undermined the validity of its conclusion. There are legitimate building programs and financing vehicles that could be used to encourage these upgrades.