The Secretary Treasurer of the Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association says Manitoba is in an enviable position to take advantage of renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy.
The Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association, a non-profit organization established to promote the use and production of renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy in Manitoba, will host its Conference and Annual General Meeting February 10 in Brandon.
Wayne Digby, the association’s Secretary Treasurer, says members believe our long term prosperity and quality of life will depend a lot on using less fossil fuel and would like to see a much more robust use of renewable energy both at the individual level and the rural community level.
We seem to be seeing a growing interest in sustainable energy in geothermal, wind, solar and biomass and there are probably a number of factors that are diving this. Some are looking of course at the economics and for them it makes sense. For others it is the desire to have a smaller overall carbon footprint to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
I think one of the things that’s going to drive it in the future is the recognition that we all have to do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Manitoba is in an enviable position in a way in that we do have very good conditions for solar and wind. We’re one of the leading areas as far as geothermal and we also have pretty good opportunities for biomass renewable energy.
Digby says, within the hog industry there is a lot of interest in anaerobic digestion and a lot of work going on to see if we can make it work under Manitoba conditions and we have hog producers that are using or looking at using solar.
He says there is a lot of interest in the pork industry not only in how do we produce energy but how do we use energy in the most efficient manner.
