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passivhaus

I wrote a piece for the local paper in QC 🇨🇦 that was published this week.

"Premiers haven't grasped that decarbonization is not optional"

Text in image is in alternative text.
#passivhaus

Say what you will about the tenets of China’s government; at least they believe in a science-informed industrial policy. When it was apparent a couple of decades ago that western governments had to quickly and completely transform their energy systems, Canada’s government of the day effectively chose nihilism instead of seizing the opportunity of being at the forefront of a profound industrial and economic transformation.
That laissez-faire capitalism is failing to rapidly decarbonize Canada’s energy system is not a surprise — it inherently favours the incumbent: the petroleum industry.

Without clear, consistent and supportive direction to industry from previous governments, Canada missed out on mastering technologies that are electrifying everything, everywhere: wind turbines; solar photovoltaics; battery storage, and EVs. That Chinese companies are the global leaders in industries essential to the energy transition is not a surprise. Supportive industrial policy and relentless competition within China means companies there have done a lot of learning by doing. With all those opportunities to iterate new processes, the costs of high quality Chinese solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and EVs have dropped dramatically.

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Edited 1y ago

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Wrote a piece about the resignation of Quebec's super minister of energy, and about the former minister's aspersions upon Quebec's households for 'wasting' electricity, and about why the blame for Quebec's peak winter electricity demand should be assigned to the provincial government and not it's citizens.

Worth a read if you live in New England or New York, because Hydro Quebec has committed ~10% (afaict) of it's electricity capacity for export.

#qcpol #energytransition #passivhaus

Image of the Valley Voices column in the September 18, 2024, copy of the Low Down (lowdownonline.com).

The column was titled "Failure To Govern".

The first three paragraphs of the text, the rest of the text to follow in thread:

Pierre Fitzgibbon, Premier Legault’s super minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, has resigned. He indicated his passion for politics has left him. His passion for Bill 69, which would rewire Quebec’s energy system, is far more likely the cause of the éminence grise’s departure.
Quebec households are supplied with the cheapest electricity in North America. It can be said that electricity in Quebec is so cheap that it leads consumers to be wasteful. Indeed, there is a huge opportunity to use electricity more effectively in Quebec — for instance heating homes with electric heat pumps.
In an article in The Logic shortly after Fitzgibbon tabled Bill 69 this past June, journalist Martin Patriquin recounted a road trip in the Saguenay he took with the ‘super minister’ the summer prior. An excerpt from his first paragraph deserves consideration: “As we drove, the province’s innovation minister told me how nearly a quarter century of inexpensive kilowatts had turned Quebecers into wastrels. People who use (woefully inefficient) baseboard heaters? Bolsheviks addicted to nationalized electricity, Fitzgibbon said, before riffing on the supposedly limited mental capacities of those who heat solely with electricity.”

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Edited 285d ago

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