Technology

Mike Sterling for Canadian Community News

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It's very interesting to see all the Wind protests in Bruce County. Solar does not seem to bother people because there is little chance of large Solar farms in the Bruce.  There was a US Republican Senatorial protest (hearing) about solar energy recently.

The vast extent of solar is quite remarkable, when seen up close in the US Southwest.

Solar Farm

The clean energy part of the complicated energy equation is really being handled quite well in Ontario.   From the start Canada has been an important player in the world energy industry and even more important as an example in North America.  Natural gas, coal, nuclear power and of course oil are abundant in Canada The energy market does not bother with borders, however as Canada is the largest supplier of US oil needs.

By contrast the US is struggling. No new nuclear plants have been built and aging ones need work.  Coal is hard to beat too with both Canada and the US having vast reserves.  Coal continues to do well in the US as there are hundreds of years of reserves.

How can coal be ignored?  It has a big lobby in Washington.  What Canadians are not so used to is the volume of lobbyists that exist in Washington.  There are over 40,000 of them bumping into each other.  Yes, Canada has there share too, but they are a bit more subtle.

 A couple of weeks ago, the head of the Department of Energy Dr. Steven Chu appeared before the Senate. He is a Nobel Prize winner in Physics for his work in laser cooling that pushes 'cold' near absolute zero.   This is important work and will be the basis of many new technologies.

He testified before the Senate about the Solyndra bankruptcy. Solyndra is a high-tech startup that specialized in solar technology, before going 'belly-up'.

The Senate hearings were fascinating.  They touched on a number of issues that are important to Bruce County and Canada

Solyndra failed.  Why? 

What happened was that the cost of solar panels dropped by 70% in a year! Therefore, the more than $500 billion US investment was lost by Solyndra which was backed by the US tax payer and large private investors.  The debt load was subordinated to the US Government.

Why did this happen with the demand so high for solar panels? Answer, the Chinese see green energy as both vital for them and a way to export product.  They jumped on the opportunity for both themselves and for export

Solar panel production in the US has decreased as a percentage of world production.  From a high of 43% in the mid 1990s to only 7% of the world manufacturing in 2010, the US has been pushed down the list.

Like the Japanese did in the 1970's with semi-conductors, China 'dumped' product on the world market far below their own cost to manufacture.  A classic dumping technique that only governments can do or combat.

The Japanese forced companies in the US out of the semi-conductor business with dumping in the 70's and 80's Intel prospered because they concentrated on processor chips.

Asia got almost the entire memory business with Korea and Taiwan in on the act too. Over time they raised the prices. The strategy is dump below cost, drive out the competition and then raise the price. Same thing with solar and Solyndra  Most of the research was done in North America and Europe.

It was interesting to see Chu testify. After all he is a Nobel winner with a grasp of the facts, with both short term and long term vision.

The Republican Senators had huge books of notes that they referred to, while he had none. They gave him a copy of their big book with yellow tabs on it. He set it aside. The book was compiled by their staff.

The strategy was two-fold.  One part was the effect of lobbyists and the other was raw politics.  They wanted to show President Obama forced the execution of the loan that was begun in the Bush administration down the throats of Chu's agency.  He said no, that was not true.

Some of the Senators were  disdainful.  Others in  Congress downright rude.  For example Morgan Griffith from Virginia said "I hope you have not left your brains at the door?"  That's the way to get some advice from a Nobel Prize winner in Physics.

They grilled him for 5 and 1/2 hours more than twice as much as they questioned British Petroleum's (BP) Tony Hayward about the Gulf Oil Spill.

They soon realized that he was both in command of the facts and very polite and listened well. He took the blame for the bankruptcy saying he did not foresee a 70% drop in price that was not free market driven. 

It was an epic battle.  They had given his agency a subpoena covering over 184,000 documents.  They tried to put many of them in their big book with yellow reminder tabs..

They stumbled around and he gently corrected them and set them on a logical path that they soon found hard to navigate.  They had time sequences all messed up as one would if they had only been briefed by their staff workers.

They deftly switched to ideology, but he presented facts.  They quoted emails and he put them in context and in chronological order, when they lost their way.

They wanted the 'free market' to work and he countered that the market was not free with China's dumping of product below cost to manufacture.  They found it hard to argue that.  Can they defend China against their own Chinese American scholar?  A few looks at the clock took place, if you were watching closely.

Wind in the US Southwest

The idea of the Republicans was to make green energy look as bad as possible because of the oil, gas and coal industry lobby, who support their campaigns. The argument was couched around the questions:

How can the US government  finance new technology?  Isn't that best left to the private sector?

The Republican Senators object to subsidy for green energy ignoring all the subsidy to the coal, oil, gas and nuclear industry in the US.  Most of these $ help support companies that are not based in the US.  In the southwest US there has been a huge increase in wind and solar with the costs coming down more and more. (Dumping at work) This has set off alarms.  Will the technology reduce costs to a point where they are competitive with our lobbyists business interests?  China is betting on the world market.

There is another issue too.  The natural gas industry has been making progress and the Oil Lobby is annoyed.  The gigantic Saudi Oil Lobby with billions to fuel it, can't be happy. The Oil game is changing too with vast reserves found in North and South Dakota and Montana.  Jobs are booming there.  They K-Street Lobbyists in Washington are trying to figure out which horse to back.

Subsidies to international oil companies come in various forms.  There are tax break incentives, but one that is hidden.  It takes about 50 Billion dollars US to keep the oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf.  This is done by the constant attention of US Warships that are  augmented with ships from Canada and some nations in Europe.

In Ontario, the tax payer has invested and continues to invest in nuclear and other 'clean' technologies. Is there a real benefit in making any of them look bad, when we are in a wind belt?  China is betting on wind too.

Former Mayor of Saugeen Shores and County Warden Mark Kraemer used to talk about Bruce County as the future energy capital of the world.  His vision included all forms of energy that could be used in the area and others that could be at least researched. 

He also thought that there could be support industry built up around the energy industry that would morph into good jobs and educational opportunities over a long time period.
 

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Monday, November 28, 2011