Road From Perdition

Although I have never hidden my affiliation to the Green Party on this blog in the past, neither have I made a point of discussing the political side of sustainability here. However, I recently decided to stand for nomination as the Green Party of Ontario’s candidate in the Prince Edward Hastings riding and wanted to share my reasoning here.

I am running because I strongly support the program of the Green Party of Ontario. I joined the GPO four years ago motivated by deep concern about global warming and the environment. It was clear to me that major change was needed to avoid an environmental disaster and, as a business person, I was impressed with the Green Party’s sense of fiscal responsibility and market-driven approach to change.  Although some people may be concerned that the GPO is a “single issue” party, my horizons have been broadened as a result of my association with the Greens, especially in my understanding of the importance of healthy communities and local decision-making.

I am also running because the current government, in its arrogance, has undermined the public’s trust on a whole series of issues including the environment, while creating a more and more centralized model of governance in the province. These alarming developments have convinced me that it’s important to get involved and not just watch from the sidelines.

Finally, I am running because I because I feel confident that I have something to offer. I have more than thirty years of experience in business, ranging from start-ups to my most recent position as vice-president in a multi-billion dollar global company. Since my early retirement last year, I also have the time and energy to devote to mounting a professional, year-long campaign for MPP.

The nomination meeting for the Prince Edward Hastings riding will be held on Wednesday, September 29th, 7-9 PM, at Books & Company, 289 Main Street, Picton, ON. You MUST join the Green Party of Ontario on or before September 15th to be eligible to vote at the meeting. You can join the GPO with a credit card online at https://secure.gpo.ca/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=3

If you live in the Prince Edward Hastings riding, please consider joining and coming to the nomination meeting to support me.

If you live outside Prince Edward Hasting but would like to learn more about the GPO go to http://www.gpo.ca/

Over the last week, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has announced that it will reduce the rate for electrical energy generated from ground-mounted solar panels from 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour to 58.8 cents per kilowatt hour.

The reason, according to Energy and Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid, is that “when the work is done on the ground mount solar, the rate of return is exorbitant.”The reasons cited by the government are, in fact, completely false. Ground mounts are more expensive than roof mounts, and the rate of return for ground mounts is attractive but not exorbitant.

Let me offer my own experience as a proof point. In the last two weeks, I got estimates from a professional solar installer for two alternative systems we were considering, one a ground mount and the other a roof mount.

The compound rate of return for the ground mount is 12% per year, while the roof mount is 13% per year. In other words, the Energy and Infrastructure Minister has it backwards!

So why is the Government going to such lengths to back-pedal on this program? My personal reading of events is that this is entirely political. The centralizing and arrogant approach  which the Liberals have used to implement the Green Energy Act has angered a lot of people, including people who should be natural supports of the Act. The Liberals are worried that their arrogance has handed the Tories an issue for next year’s provincial election, so they are creating phony arguments to enable them to reduce spending and visibility in the area.

After some idle time waiting for suppliers to catch up, our MicroFIT solar project is now entering the final construction stages. Photo shows the racking being installed in June.

Welded steel racking was recommended by the installer, 123 Clean Energy, because of the high winds in the area.

Last week the holes were drilled for the mounting system for our 10 kilowatt solar array. A 10 kilowatt array measures about 12 feet x 70 feet, so the wind loads can be significant. The rack system, constructed of welded steel pipe, needs to be securely mounted.

In our case, the soil is very thin with solid shale just below the surface. The installation engineer chose to have 12 inch hole drilled 4 feet into the rock. The upright pipes which hold the racking system will be held in place in the holes by concrete. (In other situations, it makes sense to pour a concrete slab instead.)

The gray dust in the photo is pulverized shale leftover from the drilling.

Next week: the start of racking installation.