Frontenac ResilienceSustainable community and more

Country Know-how is hosting Renewable Energy Information Night, an alternative energy information evening April 27th at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake, 7:30 pm. This is a chance to ask an energy expert all the questions you want about your energy future. Cam Mather, from over near Tamworth, will speak and field questions. Cam is the author of Thriving During Challenging Times: the Energy, Food, and Financial Independence Handbook, and the publisher of The Renewable Energy Handbook. The evening is an opportunity to consider what long term options there might be for providing power to your property, some of them potential strong money earners too.

The three main reasons that people want to move to renewables are cost, (since energy prices are only going to go up), independence (whether a story or cascading failure takes out the grid, you have power), and being part of the necessary world-wide move to reduce our carbon footprint. The options competing for your attention include wind, solar from photo-voltaic panels, and solar power heaters; “systems” can range from a tiny photo-voltaic panel from Canadian Tire that powers your electric fence to a system that powers your whole house. You can mix and match power sources, with some of this and some of that. What you do depends on where you see energy prices going, how much you value doing it yourself, and the resources you have at hand. Efforts you make installing renewable energy are likely to be an ongoing source of pride and satisfaction. Cam enjoys watching the meter that measures the input from his wind turbine almost as much as he enjoys watching movies! Apparently it can get like that!

All systems that reduce your need for electricity will “make” you money eventually, once they’re paid for by savings. The Ontario Government’s MicroFIT program is a potential big earner. The government (actually the Ontario Power Authority) will pay you for producing a small (or micro) amount of power, less than 10 kW, and feeding it into the grid. They’ll pay .82 cents kW/hour – which is a lot since we buy it for under .10 cents kW/hr. They’ll continue to payfor twenty years; the panels will last quite a bit longer. (The OPA will also pay you for wind power, but not nearly as much.) Sounds great, but there is much to consider before putting serious money in a solar power project. The Renewable Energy Information Night is a place to explore your options. It’ll help you decide what you should do first with what you have to invest? (And yes, there are simple things we can do right now, with very little money that will provide short-term savings; those savings amount to money in your pocket. Cam will go into just what the economics are and you’ll come away with a better sense of what you can do. Because with some cost up front, you can permanently reduce your energy bill to one extent of another. You don’t need to be a fortune teller to know prices are only going up.

Although Cam will be the presenter on this evening, Central Frontenac has a first class provider / installer of renewable energy systems in Ron Kortekaas of EcoAlt Energy. I’m a big fan of Ron’s work – and am hoping to to get Ron to present at a Country Know-how workshop soon after Cam, as you might be closer to making a purchase. The Renewable Energy Information Night is to provide you with a fully independent source to question the entire gamut of questions. We might get members of the Wood Gas Club up for a moment or two to tell you how they’re doing with building prototypes for providing gas from specially designed stoves.

Like all Country Know-how workshops the evening is free. It’s 7:30 pm, Tuesday April 27th at Soldier’s Memorial Hall (Oso Hall) in Sharbot Lake.

Wow, people turned out in force for the wood gas workshop, over 40 people (either 41 or 42 besides presenter David Shackleton). You can read about it below. Yes there’s a real interest in alternative energy in Central and North Frontenac!

Here are a few pictures from the workshop on November21 at Oso Hall. Click to make them bigger.

We were originally expecting a half-dozen folks for the workshop on using wood gas. At least 41 showed up for David Shackleton’s interactive workshop and the interest isn’t going away as you’ll see. Readers will remember that wood gas is a cheap (compared to oil), renewable and zero polluting alternative energy that was much used in Europe during WW11 but almost completely abandoned when cheap oil and gas became available again. Like 8-track tapes, wood gas technology faded into history after the war. It’s now the province of a small number of enthusiasts with only a couple in Canada.

Saturday’s Oso Hall crowd shows there’s keen local interest in alternative energy and a concern about practical solutions to energy prices. Attendees, many of them men who work with their hands, demonstrated one of the vital skills in country know-how is alive and well here: the ability to join forces to get something done.

With Logan Murray stepping up to take the manager’s role, about ten people formed a club right there to build a prototype local “gasifier” – a special stove that heats wood enough to release gas that can be used directly in generator’s or motors. That would be a first local gasifier but presumably most of the folks who will construct it will want one of their own. But that’s to be decided by the club. The money and welding equipment for number one have been raised already and a first meeting will be held in January. If other readers want in on the action they can contact Logan Murray now and help choose the date of the first meeting. Who could call? You could be an off-the-grid person looking to run your generator more cheaply, or wanting for their vehicles, or whatever. There’s work involved and the technology behind wood gas is inexact because it’s fallen into disuse, but as David Shackleton described, a gasifier can be built by non-experts with a blueprint and a some attitude, both of which the club has.

This is a ripe time for off-grid energy sources like wood gas and the strong attendance shows that locals recognize it. Frontenac has the potential to develop something here that could be of interest to many others . . . but for now, the first gasifier. To contact Logan Murray and join the Wood Gas Club: tel: 613.335.2599, loganmurray [at] xplornet.com.

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