The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) released the results of their year-long study to identify the factors that encourage successful wind energy projects. The research focused a wind energy project that failed to get off the ground in northern New Brunswick. Check out the report and more information on the CCNB website, HERE.
Tag: Renewable Energy
ICYMI: Mark Jacobson in conversation
“What if the wind doesn’t blow?” CRED-NB was co-host in the Sierra Club’s webinar conversation with internationally renowned renewable energy expert Dr. Mark Jacobson in September. The video of the event is HERE.
What if the wind doesn’t blow?
Join us for a webinar with internationally renowned renewable energy expert Dr. Mark Jacobson, Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 8pm Atlantic by zoom. Register HERE.
NB Power executives and their friends in the nuclear industry like to diss renewable energy with the tiresome phrase: “the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow” – duh! We’ve never heard of the sun not shining or the wind not blowing for a month in New Brunswick, and the Lepreau reactor has been down much longer than that! What happens then? We have many options for intermittent power.
Dr. Jacobson is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, where he is the Director of the Atmosphere/Energy program. He has written extensively on how to transition to 100 percent wind, water, and solar in all energy sectors, as well as on electricity grid reliability under those scenarios.
This webinar is hosted by the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, CRED-NB and other partners. Join us for this interesting conversation!
Environmental groups support call for review of new model for NB Power’s transformation
Today the environmental organization New Clear Free Solutions asked for a review of its model to transform NB Power to a renewable energy utility in a way that will keep electricity rates low and achieve its required equity goals. The request is supported by the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB).
On July 4, the NB Power board fired its CEO and engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Canada to perform a strategic review to transform the utility. The letter sent today to the NB Power board Chair Charles V. Firlotte requested a meeting between New Clear Solutions founder Chris Rouse and the team conducting the strategic review at PwC Canada.
Chris Rouse, with more than 25 years’ experience in industrial systems engineering, has been an intervener in three of the last four NB Power rate hearings. He developed an alternative Integrated Resource Plan for NB Power with the following elements:
-Achieves a 95% renewable energy mix by 2040 or sooner
-Maintains low and stable rates
-Achieves NB Power equity targets in the near term, and pays down NB Power debt and makes NB Power very profitable in the longer term
-Creates significant economic activity and jobs
“For successive years NB Power management teams has ignored alternative plans to make public investments in renewable energy. The firing of the CEO and engagement of PwC is an opportunity for transformative change to develop a public electricity utility that New Brunswickers need,” said Rouse.
The model proposed by New Clear Free Solutions has been validated by NB Power, which included the model as an appendix in its 2017 IRP but they never implemented it. “This is in spite of their own review of the modeling performed by NB Power System Planning Engineer Darren Clark who stated at a rate hearing “We reviewed Mr. Rouse’s model and functionally I believe the majority of what he is setting out to do, the model is accomplishing.”
The letter to NB Power states that NB Power has two main ways to achieve the transformational economic and environmental goals the board is looking for. The first is large rate increases which would be “unpopular” considering inflationary pressures already on New Brunswickers. The second option, which this plan promotes, is an equity injection from our carbon tax revenue into NB Power, to invest in renewables and efficiency in lieu of rate increases. This is already possible under current legislation, and a great way to give the carbon tax back to New Brunswickers to help curb inflation.
The letter states that ”Using the carbon tax revenue to make investments in renewables and efficiency not only enables NB Power to meet its equity target without significant rate increases, but also reduces fuel and purchased power cost that will give NB Power more free cash flow to reinvest. This reinvestment will compound like compound interest and will exponentially transition the electricity grid to 95% renewable, achieve equity targets and make NB Power very profitable.”
The Coalition for Responsible Energy Development (CRED-NB) speaks for more than 20 groups and 120 individuals in the province advocating for a nuclear-free renewable energy future endorsed the meeting request. Representative Susan O’Donnell stated “CRED-NB is interested to see a third-party review of how this plan for NB Power can support a sustainable energy future for all New Brunswickers.”
The letter to NB Power is available on the New Clear Free Solutions website, HERE.
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For more information:
Chris Rouse
506-650-0007
Energy efficiency is the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest way to address the crisis
Interview in The Guardian with Amory Lovins, HERE:
But just as with the 1970s oil shocks, the problem today is not where to find energy but how to use it better, he says. The answer is what he calls “integrative, or whole-system, design,” a way to employ orthodox engineering to achieve radically more energy-efficient results by changing the design logic.
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“In 2020 the world added 0.4 gigawatts more nuclear capacity than it retired, whilst the world added 278 gigawatts of renewables – that’s a 782-fold greater capacity. Renewables swelled supply and displaced carbon as much every 38 hours as nuclear did all year. Where nuclear is cheap, renewables are cheaper still and efficiency is cheaper than that. There is no new type or size or fuel cycle of reactor that will change this. Do the maths. It is game over.”
New Brunswick’s offshore wind energy resources could replace our coal and nuclear energy
NB Power must close its Belledune coal energy plant by 2030. The utility is betting that new nuclear reactors (SMRs) will be built by that date to generate replacement energy. However offshore wind power could replace not only Belledune but also the Point Lepreau nuclear plant, and developing wind power would eliminate the need for more nuclear reactors. We can look to the U.S., the U.K. and the E.U. for guidance. Read the article by Martin Bush, published by the NB Media Co-op, HERE.
New report: Towards a Clean Atlantic Grid
The Pembina Institute published a report in January that will interest anyone looking for information about how to transform our electricity grid using real clean energy (not dirty nuclear or fossil fuels). Check it out HERE.
In this study, they examined the cost of providing reliable electricity in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia using balanced mixes of clean energy technologies and resources (clean energy portfolios) compared against natural gas and nuclear power plants, which are currently proposed as the default replacement for coal. Clean energy portfolios included a mix of commercially available zero-carbon electricity supply and demand management options, including solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and imported hydroelectricity. In all cases, they found that clean energy portfolios provide the same services as gas and nuclear power plants at a lower cost per unit of energy over the lifetime of the energy source, even without reliance on imported hydroelectricity
Have your say on New Brunswick climate policy development
Check out the Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s toolkit to help prepare a submission to the provincial consultation on the NB climate change plan. Are you worried about climate change? Do you want the provincial government to do more to protect you and your family from its impacts? Speak up! The CCNB toolkit includes sample letters plus the video and slides of the presentation by Dr. Louise Comeau to the government’s climate change committee. Deadline for submissions to the government is Feb. 24. More information and links HERE.
We encourage all CRED-NB champions and everyone concerned about climate change to have their say in this consultation opportunity.
The Federal consultation on Canada’s Climate Plan closed in January. Environment and Climate Change Minister Guilbeault launched a consultation in December that’s now closed. It was open to all members of the public. CRED-NB will post news when we learn of the consultation outcome.
Moving toward a decarbonized electricity grid
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick hosted a webinar featuring speakers from the Pembina Institute, moderated by the CCNB’s Louise Comeau. The presentations include a comparison of the costs of new nuclear energy vs renewable energy. Recommended. The slides and recording are HERE.
We Can Achieve 80% Renewables in New Brunswick by 2030
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) published a statement today stating that New Brunswick can achieve 80% renewables by 2030. The statement links to a factsheet.
The statement is responding to the CBC report about the plans by the government of New Brunswick government to keep the Belledune coal-energy plant operating into 2040.
CCNB has created a letter-writing tool to speak out for renewables. Use it to send your letter to the provincial minister of energy Mike Holland, cc to Premier Higgs. It’s at the end of this page.