All posts by Roy Hales

Extending Wind Farm Usage

By Roy L Hales

Around 40% of Germany’s wind turbines will soon be 15-years-old.  The French, Italian, Spanish and British fleets are also aging. More than 86 GW of Europe’s wind capacity is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030. A new report by New Energy Update describes an alternate solution, extending wind farm usage.

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How Is FM Radio Still Relevant?

By Roy L Hales

In a world where even television is being eclipsed by the internet,  recent polls show that close to 80% of the American public still listens to FM radio at least once a day. More Americans listen to AM/FM radio each week than use Facebook. The statistics are similar for Canada. How is FM radio still relevant?


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How The Basil Creek Culvert Project Is Over The Top

By the time you hear this, the Ministry of Transportation crew will have left Basil creek. As Cortes Streamkeeper Cecil Robinson observed, prior to this “if the fish came early and the rains were late, they just simply couldn’t get through the old culvert. They died right there.” Now more of them will swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Then he proceeded to describe how the “Basil Creek culvert project was over the top from the very beginning. Everything that needed to be done, is done: and then some more, always some more.”

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Replacing the Culvert at Basil Creek

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure closed a small segment of Whaletown Road on Cortes Island. The impact on the local community is minimal. However British Columbia’s threatened fish stocks greatly benefit from projects like replacing the culvert at Basil Creek.

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Victoria’s Passive Houses

By Roy L Hales

When I first interviewed Rob Bernhardt in 2014, you could count the number of British Columbia’s passive houses on your fingers. The Berhardts built the first certified passive house in the Victoria region. Rob went on to become the CEO of Passive House Canada. I recently interviewed him again, during a quick peek at Victoria’s passive houses.

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