Oakville Beaver - Wednesday, March 12, 2003
By Howard Mozel
OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF
Talk is cheap when it comes to the environment so Oakville Hydro Energy Services Inc. (OHESI) is encouraging residents to make a "Green Light Pact" to actually make a difference.
This pilot program (OHESI is the first) offers everyone in Ontario the opportunity to contribute to a cleaner environment by helping pay for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources instead of from fossil fuel burning power plants, which harm the environment.
It works this way: for every $60 (plus tax) full Green Light Pact sold, OHESI will arrange to have electricity generated from environmentally-friendly EcoLogo certified renewable energy sources.
This, says Oakville Hydro Corporation President and CEO Alex Bystrin, offers individuals the option to personally decide that specific amounts of electricity will be produced from renewable energy sources and injected into Ontario's electricity grid.
"The Green Light Pacts can be purchased by anyone in Ontario who wants to do something good for the environment, regardless of whether they are a hydro customer or not," said Bystrin.
A full Green Light Pact and is equivalent to 660 kilowatt-hours of green power being produced and injected into the Ontario electricity grid, helping to reduce the need to generate that amount of electricity by conventional means.
This is comparable to three weeks of electricity used by a typical home, and benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Half Green Light Pacts are also available at $30 each plus tax, resulting in 330 kilowatt-hours of green power being generated.
Green power refers to low environmental impact electricity generated from renewable energy sources and technologies, such as low-impact hydro, wind power, biomass (burning organic material), landfill gas recovery and solar facilities. Using only EcoLogo certified or equivalent generation facilities helps ensure that environmentally friendly Green Power meets or exceeds the strictest industry and government performance standards.
"As a corporation, it's a good thing to do," said Bystrin, adding that the program will both reduce greenhouse emissions and make money for Oakville Hydro at the same time. "If you're in a position to do something environmentally sound, you do it."
This program is totally separate from customers current electricity arrangements, supplier and payments and will not result in any changes to electricity bills. Participants don't even have to be receiving a hydro bill to purchase a Green Light Pact. The only commitment is an annual payment directly to OHESI.
In Canada, the federal government's Environmental Choice Program sets out requirements of generators for EcoLogo certified, and equivalent, generation plants. This initiative was established to encourage the supply of, and demand for, products and services that reduce the stress on the environment.
All sources of energy have some environmental impact, explained Bystrin, it's just that green power is less damaging. It is, however, more expensive. This is because many renewable sources are intermittent, such as solar and wind. Much of the renewable energy is also based on new technology and the facilities are more expensive to build. Increased demand and changes in technology will help make green power less expensive to generate in the future.
To assure subscribers that green power is in fact being generated and injected into the electricity grid, results and the electricity supply mix will be posted on Oakville Hydro's Web site. At the end of each calendar year each green power generator will supply OHESI with the total number of kilowatt hours injected into the system on Oakville Hydro's behalf.
Ontario's electricity system cannot direct power to a given location since all electricity produced goes into the Ontario electricity grid. By purchasing a Green Light Pact, green power is produced and injected into the grid helping to displace conventionally-generated electricity. The electricity consumers use comes from this grid.
Bystrin employed the analogy of using the $60 toward an extra water filtration system that adds small amounts of cleaner water to the system which, of course, cannot be directed to specific homes.
Even after this explanation, green power generation may remain rather esoteric to some people but Oakville Hydro has a more concrete - albeit long-term - goal for the money raised by the Green Light Pacts. According to Bystrin, OHESI is planning to build a landfill gas recovery power plant at Halton Region's Waste Management Site on Hwy. 25 in Milton, hopefully by summer 2004. If enough pacts are purchased, OHESI will divert this income stream to building the plant.
Largely methane, the vapour produced by decomposition which is currently vented to the atmosphere is a potent greenhouse gas as combustible as natural gas. Properly collected and burned, the system works toward a cleaner environment in two ways. First, it corrals gas going into the atmosphere anyway and second, it will reduce the town's reliance - as many as 3,000 Oakville households - on dirtier forms of energy production.
"This is old technology," says Bystrin. "It's quite achievable. And the nice thing about the plant is that the fuel is free."
Even if the $2-million to $3-million facility is never built, says Bystrin, valuable green power will still have been injected into the grid, thanks to the pacts.
The only part of the Green Light Pact campaign that worries Bystrin is the possibility of door-to-door and telemarketing solicitation by less-than-scrupulous people purporting to sell legitimate green power alternatives. Oakville Hydro will employ no such tactics, he says, and encourages anyone with questions to call 905-825-6370, visit www.oakvillehydro.com or email green@oakvillehydroenergy.com .
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