I understand that previous…

I understand that previous efforts to move to a future away from fossil fuels to renewable sources have had some issues but it is critical that we, the people and our governments, continue to make the necessary investments (i.e. sacrifices) to insure a sustainable future for our children.

I would like to suggest that we pursue a strategy of growing the use of renewable sources on a wide variety of small scale projects instead of focusing on utility-level installations. Incentives could be offered to stimulate growth in a number of areas:

- Farmers have the space & the energy requirements to justify a long term investment.

- Large warehouse operations have the roof space that could be transformed into solar installations leaving good farm land available to produce food. Industrial scale storage technology is progressing to the point that many operations could be largely self sustainable. At a minimum, the building codes should be changed so that no new large warehouses should be built without implementing a renewable energy solution.

- Additionally, new home building codes should be changed to require, at a minimum, the basic infrastructure (i.e. hard wired) to allow the easy installation of solar panels & a battery storage either at the time of construction or at a future date. The costs of panels & batteries are coming down & the ability to amortise these costs via a long term mortgage makes the investment relatively inexpensive.

- There should also be mechanisms for existing homes & rental units to make long term investments to lower energy consumption &, where possible, install renewable sources.

- Larger projects could be manages at a small municipal level where the smart grid would be maintained at a local level without requiring province-wide grid upgrades.

- Finally, the government should be investing in R&D to develop a HYDROGEN INFRASTRUCTURE. The issue with electricity from renewable sources such as solar & wind is the need for storage to address the fact energy production is reliant on the availability of sun & wind. Batteries are expensive, recharging is time-consuming and they require rare earth minerals that present a waste product problem. Hydrogen derived from renewable resources is the perfect storage technology ideally suited for powering vehicles (personal, transport & farm) and providing for the heating requirements for Canadian homes & businesses. Think of gas stations on major highways producing their own fuel and cars & trucks being able to refill the tank in minutes. Let's make Hydrogen R&D our focus so that we can export our knowledge & technology in a future economy.

Every November on Remembrance Day we honour the brave soldiers who fought in the wars to confront countries who would have dominated the world and threatened the future of our country. Let's make similar sacrifices today so that future generations will look back to our time and give thanks for the sacrifices we made to insure that they could continue to live on a healthy, sustaining planet Earth.

[Original Comment ID: 206438]