PUBLIC MARKS from multilinko with tags canada & energy

Canada’s mixture of un-ambitious standards, voluntary programs and lack of effective incentives, has left us lagging behind many jurisdictions. Other countries have combined significantly higher energy performance standards with targeted incentives to improve energy efficiency and control greenhouse gas emissions.

Some two dozen power plants are scheduled to be built or refurbished during the next five years in Canada, China, several European Union countries, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and South Africa. In the US and the UK, governmental preparations are under way that may lead to 15 new reactor orders by 2007.

Ontario's government awarded C$2 billion ($1.7 billion) in contracts to build wind and hydro power projects on Monday in an effort to have 10 percent of electricity in Canada's biggest market generated by renewable sources. Ontario Energy Minister Donna Cansfield said she had granted awards for eight wind facilities and one hydroelectric development, which will supply a total of 975 megawatts, enough to power more than 250,000 homes. The awards come in response to a request for proposals for 1,000 MW, issued in April 2004.

Ontario’s electricity smart meters could jump-start plans for a sprawling meshed IP network that will connect the entire province wirelessly, initially by Wi-Fi and, as the technology becomes more widely embraced, ultimately by Wi-Max. Lawrence Surtees, director of telecom and Internet research and a principal analyst at IDC Canada, believes every indication points to a sophisticated, nomadic wireless Ontario broadband network within five years. “There’s a huge, crowded field of interested parties out there. We’re seeing spectrums of (Wi-Max) bandwidth being snapped up by Rogers Wireless, Telus, Bell, SaskTel and Primus. In Canada we’re looking at potentially five national blocks of frequency,” said Surtees. With Intel predicting Wi-Max ubiquity by 2007-08, and mass commercial availability by the end of 2006, Ontario’s timeline for a smart meter network by 2010 is not unrealistic, says Surtees. “Clearly, Ontario Energy is looking at Wi-Max for the province’s smart meters,” he said. The Ontario Energy Board was issued a request for proposal by the Ministry of Energy to implement smart meters. When asked about the Board’s plan Ted Gruetzner, a spokesman for the Ministry, would give no details but said an announcement was due this month. In the meantime, pilot programmes have sprung up throughout the province, with FibreWired Hamilton deploying a hybrid of Wi-Fi and Wi-Max to support the Hamilton-Wentworth region.