Five years ago today, amongst the horrendous destruction in northeast Japan caused by an earthquake so strong it knocked our planet off its axis, was a predictably innocuous event that should have been recognized as a non-event. This was, of…
Two cars, and a daily decision: an Ontario parable
You own two cars. One is reliable, starts every time you turn the key and gives excellent performance. The other is a bit problematic. About five times each month, there’s trouble. Either it doesn’t start, or it loses power during…
Nuclear or methane: Ontario at the crossroads, not quite on its knees
As I write this, the outside temperature in Toronto, Ontario’s biggest city, is plus-one. This means that every furnace and space heater in that area is fighting against a temperature difference of around 19° in order to maintain an indoor…
No Twin Peaks in Ontario energy, but lots of inconsistent energy policy
Ontario electricity is the cleanest energy we have. It is much cleaner than the energy we use for transportation. In every one of the 384 hours from December 1 to December 16, each kilowatt-hour of Ontario grid electricity came with…
Meeting Ontario’s summertime heat load with zero-carbon energy means doubling the nuclear fleet
Yes, summertime heat load. You don’t usually think of using bulk artificial heat in the summer, what with outdoor temperatures pushing upward of 30° C. But in Ontario last July, we collectively bought 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas…
New CANDUs in Argentina, Romania: ahead of the Paris climate talks, good news for the planet
Setting aside but in no way diminishing the terrible news out of Paris from the week, I want to talk about some actual good news related to Paris. Specifically, this relates to the upcoming climate talks. Chinese nuclear companies announced…