Western Maryland sits on top one of the most controversial shale deposits in North America. There were 245 cases of water contamination in the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania and reports from West Virginia as well. Maryland’s Departments of Environment and Natural Resources have been studying fracking operations in these two states for over three years and just released a draft report (p 2 of attached) on how fracking “can be accomplished without unacceptable risks of adverse impacts to public health, safety, the environment, and natural resources.” These proposed rules are the strongest in the US and, using them as a criteria, I decided to grade the LNG development in my province. British Columbia gets a conditional “F” in Fracking.
Ben Thibault, of the Pembina Institute, says Alberta’s electricity was 65% less expensive when wind is generating over 600 MW, than when production fell below 300 MW. Wind energy is subsidizing Albertan ratepayers.
If the stock market’s response is any indication, E.ON has the right idea. Shares are selling at a two year high. A little over two weeks ago the price was €12.948; yesterday’s closing sale was €15.055. On November 30, Germany’s largest utility announced that it will split into two parts. A new company will be formed to take over conventional energy sources, allowing E.ON to focus on the new energy world.
Last week the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) released a report stating BC could develop geothermal for half the cost of hydro. That’s only the first of a series of benefits, that include little environmental impact, more jobs and energy that costs less to produce. CanGEA claims there is a sufficient geothermal potential to meet all of British Columbia’s future power needs. (p 7) Geothermal could supply the 1,100 MW of capacity and 5,100 gigawatt hours per year (GWh/yr) of energy that the proposed Site C dam offers, but an officer of BC Hydro says it is not likely they will switch to Geothermal.
PV solar has been increasing at a rate of 50% a year for the past decade. This has led many utilities to question the impact that continued expansion will have on their investors and ratepayers. Andrew Satchwell et al studied the effects of PV solar penetration on two hypothetical utilities. In Financial Impacts of Net-Metered PV on Utilities and Ratepayers: A Scoping Study of Two Prototypical U.S. Utilities, they concluded the negative impacts of Net-Metered PV will fall on investors; Ratepayers may only feel modest losses.
