Over the past few months, we have looked at a number of different types of alternate energy equipment, from solar panels for producing electricity to towers that hold wind turbines in the sky.
Interesting information to quite a few of us, but what is the practical application for each of us personally?
If you are planning on building a new home on an acreage or farm in the next year or so, alternate energy equipment may be something that you are intending to install.
But what if you live in a city?
You have an older home, the yard is full of old growth trees to the south and you don’t have the budget to make the necessary physical changes to make a solar system viable.
We have talked about compact florescent lights and LED lighting and you might have changed all your bulbs, maybe you have taken advantage of the government programs for adding insulation, and changing out your furnace to a more energy-efficient model.
But all this does not really feel like you’re doing enough.
Let’s think about this.
The province of Alberta was one of the first in Canada to install wind farms.
Unless you are totally detached from any and all media, you must have seen or read something about the wind turbines near Pincher Creek.
Alberta Wind Energy corp., Enmax, TransAlta and Canadian Hydro Developers all have projects in the area and investment in any of these companies will be an investment in green power.
But not all of us have spare money for the stock market.
There is another more affordable way that you can invest in alternate energy and get the green power from a supplier without a large outlay of cash.
This source already has the infrastructure and suppliers in place to replace the electricity you consume from conventional coal fired sources, with power from a wind farm.
Bullfrog Power is a company that provides its customers with power from wind farms in the province that they live in.
British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. all fall within Bullfrogs green power territory.
You can check them out at Bullfrogpower.com.
The way it works is you pay a couple of cents per kilowatt hour extra for the amount of electricity you use, on a yearly average, and Bullfrog Power will put your energy requirements into the grid from their green source suppliers.
The added cost only applies to the power consumption and not to the service charges.
Last I looked, the service charges form the majority of the energy bill and the consumption is the minor portion.
So the overall cost is not a lot, but you have the satisfaction of knowing that your carbon footprint is being reduced and your financial commitment is relatively small.
Now if you are the hands on type and want to produce your own power . . . just keep reading along.
Lorne Oja is an energy consultant, power engineer and a partner in a company that installs solar panels, wind turbines and energy control products in Central Alberta. He built his first off-grid home in 2003 and is in the planning stage for his second. His column appears every second Friday in the Advocate. Contact him at: lorne@solartechnical.ca