Hi Everyone,
First off I’d like to introduce myself! My name is Christine, I’m a teacher candidate from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the Univsersity of Toronto. I’m going to be working on the Tread Lightly program for the next little while, and posting any interesting green news I find here for you.
So some good news has come to Ontarians lately with regard to green energy: related to the Green Energy act started by the McGunity Government, 126 schools across Ontario are going to fitted renewable energy units to help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and support green energy in Ontario for Fall 2011! Exciting news, I know. There are a total of 135 projects being worked on for the 126 schools, meaning some are doubling up and using not only 1 renewable energy source but 2 or 3. The technologies included in these projects are:
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small-scale wind projects
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solar photovoltaic
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solar thermal for heating (air or water)
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geothermal systems for heating and cooling.
Not only is this good news for our environment, but for our wallets too. In 2009-10, Ontario schools spent nearly $400 million on utility bills! It will be interesting to get the utility bill for the 2011-12 upcoming year after the renewable energy units are installed. And I’m not stopping the good news there either, the schools with solar panels and wind turbines can sell their electricity back to the grid through the Ontario MicroFIT Program, a part of the Ontario Green Energy Act. The MicroFIT Program is one where small business owners, homeowners, farmers and schools can generate revenue based on the amount of clean energy they produce for the grid for at least 20 years.
What about in your areas? Are there any similar initiatives being planned or already implemented?
For more info check out: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/capital.html
and http://microfit.powerauthority.on.ca/
