It is inspiring to see a young schoolgirl to be so passionate about environmental issues that she finds courage to make a presentation to the city council demanding that changes be made in Vernon to protect our environment.
While I am certainly applauding her effort, I would caution councillors against hasty impulsive actions based on the highly emotional presentation of a 10-year-old girl. The council decisions on environmental issues ought to be based on science and economics, not on emotions.
One of the demands presented was for installations of photovoltaic cells, commonly called solar panels. While use of solar electricity is generally on the increase around the globe, some countries quickly learned that it is not a good solution for everyone.
For solar electricity to be praiseworthy, it must satisfy several strict scientific, environmental and economic criteria. Unfortunately, photovoltaic electricity today fails miserably on each of these points.
From the scientific viewpoint, the photovoltaic cells are still a developing technology. The biggest problem to overcome is their very low efficiency which is typically only around 12 per cent to 15 per cent. The other basic scientific problem is how to store electric energy produced in peak hours.
On the environmental side, it is important to mention that during the solar panels manufacturing process a number of harmful and highly toxic materials are used or generated. Also huge amounts of fossil fuels are used in the manufacture of the cells. In some cases photovoltaic solar panels require more energy for their production than they ever produce during their lifetime.
Also the economy of solar electricity in most areas is very questionable. While it may be quite good in many locations in Mexico, Texas or Arizona, it is not good in Canada. Unfortunately in places like Vernon, this is the biggest deterrent in adopting solar electricity on a meaningful scale. Photovoltaic cells in our latitude generate electricity mostly when it is really not needed – around lunch time on a pleasant summer day.
It generates basically nothing at the time when is most required – during evening and early morning hours and during many full winter days. It is very intermittent and on days when the sun does not shine, the batteries for storing large amounts of electricity are inadequate.
When planning usage of photovoltaic electricity it is necessary to consider not only the initial cost of solar panels and their installation and connection costs, but also to remember that it is a lifetime commitment to subsidize such electricity production. Solar electricity is at least five times more expensive than hydro power. Solar power installations are built only because of massive government subsidies. As soon as government subsidies end, the solar power plants are in the red.
Germany is often used as an example of successful growth in solar power. The way the system works is that owners of solar plants have a long-term contract (20 years) with government which guarantees them a high price of 50 cents for every kwh produced. The production from other sources of power cost much less (typically less than 12 cents per kwh). The difference is paid by German taxpayers; that is why the cost of electricity in Germany is 32 cents per kwh.
We in B.C. typically pay around 8 cents per kwh. I don’t know how any family in Vernon that currently pays a monthly bill of $80 would feel paying $320 instead. The same increase, of course, would apply for the city.
In our province we have an excellent and cheap source of clean renewable electrical energy 24 hours a day, year around and that is our hydro power. It provides for over 90 per cent of our electricity wants. We do not need to experiment with much more expensive and unreliable sources of solar power.
Nathaniel Royko
Vernon
