Rethinking Lifestyle

I have just returned from a trip to England to see family and friends. It was a short visit, and we did a fair bit of travelling around, but it gave me food for thought.

Since I was last in England a number of things have changed including the price of gas. However, like here in Manitoba it doesn’t make people drive less or slower to economize. We had a small car with just a 1.2 litre engine, which was fine for our purposes and we got 50mpg which was quite satisfactory. We also took the train one day, enjoying the scenery and no pressure to find parking for a very reasonable fee. Passenger trains are definitely something that Manitobans are missing out on.

As we travelled across the country, we noticed a growth in the use of solar panels. These included panels for hot water, and electricity generation, and there were streets where nearly every home with a south facing roof had panels. We also saw solar ‘farms’ – fields filled with an array of solar panels.

These solar farms are less contentious in the countryside than wind farms. I quite like the slow sweep of the arms of the turbines, which seem to me like children doing cartwheels across the countryside. Solar farms have become so popular in some parts of the country that the grid cannot take the power generated by them any more, limiting further growth.

Why the upsurge in solar? Well, one of the reasons is companies offering FREE electricity to those who install their panels. This is very attractive when electricity costs 16pence per KWh (about 25c per KWh). The panels generate electricity which powers the house and any excess goes into the generation grid. The company installing the panels recovers its costs by collecting the generation tariff paid by the power companies for solar generation. Householders are saving 37% on their electricity bills on average.

The advantage of these schemes over other ‘green’ options such as wind or hydro is that they are low impact, have low installation costs, and can be installed close to where the power is needed. A wind farm has a large visual impact on the landscape often over a wide area, and people don’t like them to be placed near where they live. Hydro schemes require land to be flooded which has an obvious impact. And the impact of the infrastructure to construct and service the dam, including the roads, the generating station and the pylons is huge. The debate over whether the price we pay for electricity pays for the infrastructure and the impacts adequately could occupy a whole column itself!

Could solar work here in Manitoba? Yes, absolutely! We have plenty of sun even in winter. But a major factor inhibiting its use here is the cost of installation and the low payback for the power generated. This means that it takes too long for a householder to recover his investment. Solar water heating is probably more cost effective currently and it’s an option I plan to explore further through the Manitoba ‘Pay as you save’ scheme.