Sunday, March 07, 2010

Quebec shale, Ontario wind, and BC hydrogen

Shale was recently found in Quebec which could quickly change it's "have not" status as a province. Good timing too, because Ontario is investing heavily in wind power.

(side note) Wind power actually means an added demand for natural gas. How? Wind is intermittent, and only blows when it wants to (that blows!). So to get power when people need it, they install (and are installing quite a few... like this one) other sources of power which are more reliable, and can be turned on whenever (this cancels out nuclear which takes days to turn on to full power). Combined-cycle natural gas has been chosen for a few locations in the GTA, because it has a lower carbon footprint than coal, and is faster to build and more reliable than nuclear.
In short: Quebec is gonna supply Ontario's natural gas (and Ontario will be paying for it).

Also - Vancouver is becoming the hydrogen center in Canada. It turns they're releasing hydrogen at electrochemical plants, and shipping hydrogen from Quebec to serve hydrogen powered buses. They're using their brains now and using the local hydrogen.

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