Good start . if the siteC is built our hydro bills will have to go up about 40% . This will help with fixed costs .

It would be interesting to see how well they work during our winters.. Not worried about snow covering them but we are certainly low on the time we actually get sun in the midst of winter in this area.

Good thing is that if it is a success then we have a viable option year round for us.

Good luck :-)

One would think that if the panels came from Highglen School they already know how they work. eh?

Ataloss can you backup your statement? Your source please?

Hows your solar house doing, you seem to avoid my question.

Hey UNBC lets see some costs, and power output figures compared to hydro? Hey UNBC hows that electric go cart doing, any figures?
Hey how come that bastion of green energy Germany is building coal power as fast as they can?

Hey Ataloss what do you think of the 65 billion in contracts awarded to IPP’s.

Ataloss did you know that large Hydro power is the cheapest form of power in the world?

Don’t forget to keep the snow and dust off those panels.

Solar panels in northern latitudes, now that’s funny.

The overall cost of the project is about $53,000 and is being covered by UNBC, School District 57 and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. Still taxpayer money for what? What is the goal? Reinventing the wheel.

One of the largest solar fields in the world is at the same latitude north as PG over in Germany.

In 2011 the tar sands contributed %8 to Canada’s ghg. As they are doing constant upgrades its expected to triple the output of crude in 3-4 more years. So is running around %18 now potentially hitting %25 in next few years. Btw that doesn’t take into all the other ghg from trucks and other machinery plus all the gas they burn etc. can’t find the true numbers but guessing %30 ish right now.

Off topic but this thumbs up, thumbs down thing kinda ruins the flow of the discussions.

I agree with axman. Do we really need a scorecard on here ?

Seamutt:”Hey how come that bastion of green energy Germany is building coal power as fast as they can?”

Germany intends to eliminate current use of nuclear power by 2022. Some plants have already been closed ahead of their intended retirement dates. It is presumed that fossil fuels, wind power, solar power, biofuels, and energy conservation will be enough to replace the existing capacity from nuclear power. The policy includes phasing out nuclear power, and progressive replacement of fossil fuels by renewables.

Note: “…progressive replacement of fossil fuels by renewables.” It is an ongoing process – they need to have enough power to put on line every time a nuclear plant is taken off line. The ultimate goal is the replacement of fossil fuels by renewables! Most nuclear power plants are nearing the end of their life span anyways. Rather than spend billions to replace them they have decided to phase them out, as promised.

Finally, a good news story from UNBC!

Uh Pval. Have you actually ever met anyone from around here that gives a rats ass about ghg’s? Google electric bills in Germany and you can see what the bird blenders and phony solar have done for them.

pee val, here’s a tip….percentage sign follows the number.

Why build coal power if costly inefficient renewables are the end game. Build renewables they take no more time than coal maybe less time to build. Oh wait since the idiot decision to shut down nuclear coal is required to back up so called renewables and supply system stability to renewables. Renewables are not firm power and never will be. Can you predict the sun and wind?

Shutting down the nuclear was a dumb knee jerk reaction to Fukushima. Those reactors where in the process of shutdown just like they where designed to do in that situation, it was the tsunami that took out the back up power that was the source of the problem.

Those that give me a thumbs down I challenge you to refute anything I posted.

Ataloss you out there, Ataloss hello.

Since Germany pushed renewables their coat of electricity has skyrocketed and they fear industry will leave for cheaper power. PG how much are you willing to pay?

“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”

“That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild (see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.

This is huge. More than I ever could have possibly imagined. And more is coming in the days ahead! The Bild piece was just the first of a series.

Mark this as the date that Germany’s global warming movement took a massive body blow.

Today, not one, but two of Germany’s most widely read news media published comprehensive skeptical climate science articles in their print and online editions, coinciding with the release of a major climate skeptical book, Die kalte Sonne (The Cold Sun).”

http://judithcurry.com/2013/06/15/tilting-at-windmills-in-germany/

This piece never to be seen on the CBC.

Hey Seamutt, I’ll take the challenge.
‘Renewables are not firm power and never will be.’

That is an absurd statement on many levels. Biomass generation is as firm as anything one gets from petroleum or hydro.

If one flies a kite to the stratosphere it has constant trade winds 100% of the time with enough energy to replace all other power sources on the planet. I recently heard on the CBC a guy has the patents and is proceeding to build a 1.5km tower prototype that would eventually be a 24km elevator made of gas bags that would take materials to space, as well as house turbines up in the stratosphere capable of powering whole cities with more reliability than nuclear power.

Myself I think its only a matter of time until we tap into the electromagnetic power of the universe around us. One day we will store power in magnets as batteries that store vast amounts of energy with minimal loss over long distant transport.

I see it as stepped magnetism via one material to another amplifying the storage capacity to the point where a shipping container sized device could power a whole city for a year.

If one could use less energy to turn a magnet then the magnet generates, by overcoming magnetic resistance and thus generating motion to build up a storage that when released would be akin to a perpetual source of magnetic potential….

Tesla (inventor of the modern power grid and wireless communication) had a vision of the next irritation of the energy cycle beyond the power grid we have today. He envisioned a kind of electric charge threshold for perpetual charge from a universal osmosis from background energy that permeates everything in the universe.

I would charge my magnetic batteries via lightening as a way to overcome the magnetic resistance through becoming a conduit between the heavens and mother earth. This would represent a whole new era for humanity with unlimited energy capacity.

To harness the lightening power I would build a plane that has an outer shell of highly conductive material that would act as a Faraday cage protecting the plane, and then I would load the plane with a magnetic battery container and fly the plane into the most nasty storms on the planet.

This special plane would be called the Eagleone Mothership and once in the most nasty of storms I would deploy the electromagnetic osmosis drones (EOD’s) lol and there would be dozens of EOD’s that would race out in all directions around the mothership while attached via highly conductive tethers. Once deployed they would absorb and conduct the energy from storms directly into the magnetic batteries absorbing the lightening bolts.

Eventually replacement technology will come along and I am sure it will be just as reliable as nuclear or petroleum.

Time Will Tell.

I know quite a few families who survive off grid with current solar technology. They do this from necessity, as grid power is too far away. Most of them do have to use back up gensets during winter months (avg use gensets for 1-2hrs/day to top up batteries from Oct-late Feb.). The technology has gotten more efficient in the past few years.
These off grid homes utilize extra power efficient appliances (fridge/freezer, LED lighting, propane stove, propane heated clothes dryer) and can run their homes quite well. It is not yet perfect, but give it time.

SORRY SEAMUTT.. but the technology is there, and a few more years of developement will make it feasable for people to chose to go off grid. As it stands today, approx $18,000 will get you enough panels with a power inverter and deep cell battery storage along with a 6kw back up generator (priced it out for a remote home). The newest panels are about 3 times more efficient than those from 10 years ago.
One house that I know very well runs 6 panels and a small wind turbine and in an entire year only burns about 45 gal diesel through their genset. Still not perfect, but once battery technology improves it should become possible to go without generator power.