WHAT'S THE FASCINATION WITH STEAM-POWER GENERATED ELECTRICITY?
By S.(Ziggy) Kleinau

A report in Berliner Zeitung, sent to me by my sister, talks about experimental solar power stations being built in Germany and Spain. Both concepts are using large numbers of curved mirrors, following the path of the sun, to reflect the sun rays on either oil filled pipes or a tall tower carrying a large water reservoir.

In both cases the heat generated is used to turn hot water into steam to power a turbine to drive a generator to produce electricity.

The only advantage would be that these generating stations don't need any manufactured fuel, but that is offset by the source of heat being only available during daytime, even though heat storage could be possible.

But why these large costly structures which will have to feed that steam-generated power into high-voltage transmission lines with associated line loss of up to 10%? Why using steam power with an efficiency of little more than 60% in this case when our new technology of photovoltaics (PV) can deliver 100% of solar-generated electricity from roof-installed systems into buildings? Produce it where it is consumed sure no power is produced at nighttime, that's when the distribution grid is used to fill the void. Community-operated wind power should supply, often during night time, the local distribution grid, again, without having to turn water into steam just by using our vast wind resources to generate electricity directly! There is also the possibility to use water-pumped storage (by solar power) to supply night-time power needs.

Of course the emphasis is on needs, lighting with compact fluorescents uses very little, efficient appliances like refrigerators and freezers now are using only about one quarter of older models, and fans can do an efficient job keeping bedrooms comfortable at night. And then there are the fuel cells, which can, with solar- or wind power generated hydrogen (by electrolysis) even supply heat together with the clean electricity!

So why go back to inefficiency and waste we need our water for more urgent uses than to make steam??!!

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

CFRE, Ziggy's baby, is beginning to walk on its own with the initiation of four officers and four new working committees.

This evolutionary step is a necessary development in order to help soften the co-ordinator's heavy burden. As the new President, I would invite you, our members, to help the newly elected board, the initial officers, and their newly developed committees to promote the message of CFRE.

Whether you can help with our newsletter or in our workshops and display booths, or in our work to friends and acquaintances, your input will be deeply appreciated.

The time has come when everyone's input, energy and skills are deeply needed. We can no longer depend upon the co-ordinator to fulfill all of CFRE's mandate. If we truly believe in the lifestyle that minimizes our environmental footprint on this planet, and that CFRE plays a significant role in this lifestyle, then I encourage you to offer to Ziggy and the newly elected board a helpful hand in any way you deem appropriate.

All your thoughts and efforts are deeply appreciated by Ziggy and the board as we work together towards a healthy environment.

Vitold

The ELF Environmental Hybrid Electric Bus Photo courtesy of: BET Services, Mississauga (provider of battery system 'ZEBRA' and power train) and Overland Custom Coach, Thorndale, ON, (provider of ELF-based bus and modifications).

SMART THOUGHTS ABOUT A CAR
By Annette Verhagen, CFRE Board Member

I recently purchased a Smart Car, trading in my 2004 Mazda 3. I recently started a contract with the Ministry of Environment which is about a 44 Km drive into London one way and was filling up the car every 4 days with approximately $50 worth of gas. If I did any extra driving on the weekend, my fuel costs were on average $60 per week. I saw an ad in the paper promoting the Smart Car and decided to test drive one. I thought about purchasing one after the test drive and ruminated the pros, cons and what I perceived I would be giving up. I checked out their website and saw that even at the factory level, they were working on cleaner production and energy efficiency and building the car in a modular system to simplify the recycling of the car at then end of its life. They are using recycled synthetics and reducing the number of different materials involved in producing the car. The car emits 90 g of CO2 per km and averages 4.2 L/100 Km. I decided to go for it and have been very impressed so far. I wondered the other day if there was a club for Smart Car enthusiasts, like the Volkswagen camper van network. Sure enough, in the London free press yesterday (August 19), a cross-country Smart Car relay was going on and dozens of London owners took part. Smart Car clubs and Internet forums exist including the biggest, http://www.clubsmartcar.ca. It seems the Holy Grail of some Smart Car owners is to drive 1000 Km on one tank of gas (22 L with a 5 L reserve)!

CFRE FUNDRAISING 2006-2007
Update from the fundraising chair, Gary Bastin

As always, non-profit organizations such as CFRE require a regular in-flow of dollars to continue to advocate for clean energy. CFRE receives most of its funding from memberships. With exciting new developments such as the provincial government's Standard Offer Contract and the continuing challenge of moving away from coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation, Citizens For Renewable Energy needs to guarantee that funds will be there to move Ontario towards a more sustainable energy future.

The number one manner in which CFRE receives income is through its membership base. This is a reminder for all members past and present to continue to support CFRE. Our annual rate of $15 per year is one of the lowest when compared to other advocacy groups. A 3 year membership is even slightly less at $40 and saves CFRE the yearly paperwork costs. Unwaged memberships can also be purchased at $8 a year.

Of course, one time donations can be made and sent to the co-ordinator in Lion's Head by old fashioned mail. The address is at the beginning of this newsletter. If you wish a tax receipt, please make out the cheque to CCWM (Citizens Clearinghouse for Waste Management) and print in the appropriate place on the cheque that it is a donation to CFRE.

Other fundraising ideas are being currently considered. Applications to various supporting agencies will be made. At workshops, CFRE-produced booklets detailing updated energy information will be available for purchase. Renewable energy postcards and stationary is also an idea in the works.

Many thanks for your continuing support. Please stay tuned for more announcements and information in this regard.

SPOTLIGHT ON...A Day in the Life of a Solar-Powered Household
By Charles Middleton
Email read on CBC Ontario Morning show

Canada Monday, 4pm. Outside, it's almost 30 C., inside, 23 C. We - my wife and I - have no air conditioning, only passive solar. The windows are shaded throughout the day. We open the house to the cool night air and start the day at around 18 C closing it up when it gets warm.

December is different. The low-angle sun penetrates deep into the house, but we add heat from the wood stove.

Today, we had breakfast on the deck as the sun came up, with bread warmed in the solar oven. The photo-voltaic solar array of about 50 sq.ft, silently and seamlessly powered up the batteries in yet another day's cycle. The hot-water panels, about 64 sq.ft, circulated piping hot water to the storage tank. We did a large laundry in the washing machine, and hung it on the line to dry to a sun-and-wind-fresh crispness. After showers, dinner was on the deck, cold beer from the fridge, a curry cooked in the solar oven, and the first broccoli from the garden.

We have lived this way since 1990. We are not connected to the grid and, for energy, are self-contained. This is a solar-powered life-style. It is not rocket science, but draws on the solar technologies developed for space exploration. These are now available at your local hardware store, and there are many other Ontarians out there who are quietly living with the sun, as all human beings did until fossil fuels came along a mere couple of hundred years ago. The many marvellous civilizations of history have grown and flourished with the sun alone. Why not us?

So, for Canada Day, look ahead - to a brilliant SOLAR future.

A brief review: A STUDY FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (IEER)
Reviewed by Annette Verhagen

An article by Annie Makhijani and Arjun Makhijani Low-Carbon Diet for France, Hold the Nukes in the August issue of Science for Democratic Action discussed a study and two scenarios for France to phase out nuclear power and achieve about 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by mid-century with existing or near-existing technology and about 40 percent reduction with more advanced technology that is available at present but may not be economical as yet.

"France is the iconic country for nuclear power advocates. It gets nearly 80 percent of its electricity from 58 nuclear reactors. France got rid of the use of oil in its electric power sector in 1973. Because of very low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in its electric power sector, due to the predominance of nuclear power and secondarily hydropower, France is not required under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce it CO2 emissions below their 1990 level, unlike other western European countries".

The central question they posed was: Could France decide to phase out nuclear power and achieve substantial reduction in CO2 emissions simultaneously over the next several decades?

They noted that the two great transformations of France's electricity sector from coal and hydro to oil and hydro, and from there to nuclear each took less than three decades.

The plan IEER laid out also transforms nuclear phase out combined with CO2 reductions in the next 30 years (by 2040).

This report is interesting and encouraging. Just imagine; if France could phase out their nuclear generation (80%) by 2040, then Ontario could phase out nuclear generation of electricity (50%) by 2020. In fact similar studies/scenarios have been generated from the Pembina Institute and the Suzuki Foundation to confirm this can be done.

To get more details on this report go to the IEER report on their website www.ieer.org . Details of the references and scenarios can be found in the full report.

PHOTO: Hugh Morrison, Manager of Ontario Power Generation's Western Waste Management Facility with the Co-ordinator in front of a Dry Storage Cannister which will hold spent nuclear fuel bundles for 50(?) years   QUOTABLES... "If sunbeams were weapons of war, we could have had solar energy centuries ago." Sir George Porter (quoted in the Observer, 26. August 1973)

NOTABLES...

CFRE's strategic planning for the rest of 2006 includes:

• to work with OSEA to make the regulations on the Standard Offer Contracts for small generators simple and the costs reasonable,
• to inform and advise the public on the benefits of clean and safe renewable energy generation and conservation through our displays and workshops,
• to advocate the application of the Precautionary Principle, especially in regard to nuclear refurbishments and expansion of nuclear generation.

And, of course, we need all your help, as highlighted in the previous newsletter, to call, email, write your MPs and MPPs to express your concerns on existing and/or proposed legislation!

The more pressure we put on these politicians the better, especially with provincial elections and possibly federal, too, in the near future!

Here are some addresses:

Prime Minister Harper, Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington St., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2, NO PHONE # listed, Fax 613-941-6900 email pm@pm.gc.ca	Dwight Duncan, Minister of Energy, Hearst Block, 4th Floor, 900 Bay St. Toronto, ON, M7A 2E1 Tel 416-325-1398 Fax 416-327-6754 email write2us@energy.gov.on.ca
Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6 Tel. 819-997-1441 Fax 819-953-3457 email Ambrose.R@parl.gc.ca	Laurel Broten, Minister of Environment 135 St. Clair Ave. W., 12th Floor Toronto, ON, M4V 1P5 Tel. 416-314-6790 Fax 416-314-6748 Email : through her web site.
Minister of Health Tony Clement, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6 No Phone # listed, Fax 613-992-5092 email Clement.T@parl.gc.ca	Linda Keen, President of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission(CNSC), 280 Slater St., P.O.Box 1046, Ottawa, ON, K1P 5S9 Tel. 1-800-668-5284 Fax 613-995-5086 email keenl@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca
Premier Dalton McGuinty, Room 281, Main Legislative Bldg. Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M7A 1A4 Tel 416-325-1941 Fax 416-325-3745 email dalton.mcguinty@premier.gov.on.ca

Please take the time to send your concerns, especially regarding the Deep Geological Repository, to the Ministers of the Environment and the Premier!

QUOTABLES...

Dietrich Bonhoefer
(Theologian, 1906-1945)

FROM THE COORDINATOR...

Days are getting shorter, the oppressive heat is gone – looks like we are heading into the golden days of autumn!

Things have been busy just the same with our display at the 2-day Windfall Eco-Festival in Newmarket with assistance from Vitold, Rick Procter, Peter McIllwraith and Tim Rudkins. Also attended the Smog Summit and the Shared Air Summit in Toronto following personal invitations.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) held a public consultation Open House on the Environmental Assessment of Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) proposed Deep Geological Repository (see insert) for nuclear waste at the Bruce Nuclear site on Lake Huron. Together with Bill Trick and Glen Estill, CFRE members, the Coordinator attended looking for clarification and making contact with representatives from Environment Canada and Health Canada. Also attended a conference titled “Is the Coast Clear?” on the state of Lake Huron in Grand Bend in July and visited Deb and Brian’s state-of-the art new off-grid log home in the vicinity.

An International Conference on Low Level Radiation Effects is taking place at the McMaster University in Hamilton August 25-28. The Coordinator has registered to attend and will take part in a tour of the nuclear reactor there as well.

The annual Renewable Energy Sites Tour by the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group is coming on Saturday, Sept.9 and with 110 people registered is already sold out.

Congratulations go to our Vice-President, Annette Verhagen, for trading in her not-so-economical car for a beautiful Smart Car! She says she is getting all kinds of comments and questions from people but can only say good things about this little gem.

CFRE received an invitation from the CNSC to take part in a Non-Government- Organization Regulatory Affairs Committee (NGO RAC) of this federal nuclear regulator involving semi-annual meetings. After some consultation we conditionally agreed to join.

And then we will be at the Feast of Fields again with our display. It will be on Sunday, Sept. 17 at the Albion Hills Conservation Area on Hwy. 50. So come out to say hello and at the same time enjoy the great organic food! At the end of September the Coordinator will make his annual trip to Germany to check out the state of Renewable Energy deployment there, and also join in a family reunion, returning November 1st.

So help us spread the message true to our motto: PRO-ACTORS - NOT REACTORS!!

Feast of Fields, Albion Hills Conservation Area

Future Workshop co-sponsored by CFRE "COMMUNITY ENERGY - A CO-OPERATIVE MODEL" Saturday Nov. 4/06, 2 - 5 p.m. Toronto Waldorf School, 9100 Bathurst St. Vaughn. For info call Vitold Kreutzer, 519-923-3005

TWO INSERTS

Click here to see insert one: Notice of Public Hearing, October 23, 2006 (is in PDF format)

Insert two: Dangerous plan to bury nuclear waste near the shore of Lake Huron.

Ontario Power Generation(OPG), our publicly owned utility is obliged to manage the nuclear waste from private operator Bruce Power and from its own reactors at Pickering and Darlington.

To try to accommodate the fast increasing amounts of radioactive waste from refurbishing those aging reactors and from normal operation OPG is planning to blast two 660 m deep caverns into low permeable limestone rock only 1,300 m from the shore of Lake Huron on the Bruce Power site near Kincardine.

Never before has a project like this been attempted. OPG is trying to assure the public that these types of radioactive wastes don’t have long half-lives, which determines the level of danger to human health and the environment. They don’t explicitly say that the intermediate-level waste, containing filters, steam generator- and retube components contain radionuclides which emit dangerous radiation for many thousands of years, for example the Carbon-14, a potent cancer causing radionuclide, has a half-life of 5,300 years!

To dump wastes like this into deep caverns of questionable rock formations and then closing them off and walk away is irresponsible and unconscionable.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission(CNSC) is to conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment into this unprecedented project. It is not widely publicized and is not intended to have input from independent experts.

The refurbishing of those aging reactors, which should be put in retirement, is causing the urgency of a drastic solution for the huge amounts of lethal waste.

How safe this proposed method of containing radiation-emitting waste over thousands of years would be, especially with the specter of climate change, needs to be meticulously investigated with full independent expert studies and public involvement.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is holding a public hearing on October 23^rd in Kincardine. There needs to be a massive turnout for this important event to show public concern for this dangerous undertaking.

For more information call the CNSC at 1-800-668-5284 or Ziggy Kleinau, Coordinator and senior energy researcher, Citizens For Renewable Energy, 519-795-7725.