City going greener

Posted by Magda
The city's water pumping station will run on green power as of next week. The F.M. Woods pumping station, south of York Road by the river, will run on Bullfrog power, of which 20% comes from wind and 80% from "low-impact hydroelectric power."

There's more information on the city's website. I'll try to write something for tomorrow's paper.

Comments

[Harry]

Pardon me, does anyone on City Staff and Council think their way through these things?
Hydro-electric power was the original source of Power in this Province and a lot of other ones too. So now Bullfrog is getting uninformed people to pay a premium for 80% of their "green Bullfrog Invented this year" power. This "green power" is currently over 20% of the power supplied to the grid at the 5 cent and 5.9 cents a KilowattHour. No need to pay the premium suckers.
Boy P.T. Barnum was right - there is a sucker born every minute! Add the City of Guelph to the list!

[Ron Seftel]

Not only does a supporting Bullfrog Power reduce the environmental impact of Guelph's electricity usage, but it also helps Bullfrog Power actively increase the supply of renewable electricity in Ontario with the support of its customers. We accomplish this in several ways:

1. Bullfrog Power is directly increasing the supply of renewable electricity in the province, above and beyond the actions of the government. The power that we are bringing online is incremental to the quota the provincial government has set for renewables on the grid by 2010. Bullfrog Power does this in two ways:

- first, it invests in generators to help them build new renewable generation. For instance, Bullfrog Power has invested equity in Sky Generation, an Ontario wind developer. This has allowed Sky Generation to commission two new wind turbines in the fall of 2006 on the Bruce Peninsula and two more near Lake Huron. In the words of Glen Estill, the principal of Sky Generation, at our launch "Our contract with Bullfrog Power allows us to increase our capacity and bring more green power onto the Ontario grid."

- second, we enter into long-term Power Purchase Agreements with generators for new projects. For instance, in early 2007, in partnership with Schneider Power, Bullfrog announced the commissioning of two new wind turbines on Manitoulin Island. These PPAs give the generators a stable revenue stream and allow them to raise financing that makes new project development viable.

2. Bullfrog is also indirectly increasing the supply of renewables in the province. Renewable power costs more than the prevailing market price for electricity in Ontario. Bullfrog Power pays its suppliers a premium over the price for regular electricity, which provides them a reasonable return on equity, allowing and incenting them and other developers to build more renewable projects.

3. Bullfrog Power educates the public about renewable electricity and the electricity market in general. One of the very significant challenges in moving forward energy policy in the province is the state of awareness about electricity sources and issues. As a retailer, we touch hundreds of thousands of Ontario residents and voters, helping to increase understanding of renewable electricity.

4. We are also in regular communication with government at the municipal, provincial and federal levels to help positively influence the advancement of policies favourable to the renewable industry. These actions will ultimately help increase the supply of renewables in the province.

5. Bullfrog Power gives people a choice of which power to support and where to direct their dollars. In virtually every other product category there are green choices: organic food, efficient vehicles, low-phosphate soaps, etc. Previously, when Ontarians paid their electricity bill, 40% of the money went to nuclear power, another 25% to coal and 10-15% to oil and gas generators. Now with Bullfrog Power, Ontarians can choose to support renewable electricity and direct their dollars there. By providing a practical step that residents can take at home, Bullfrog Power engages citizens in the electricity debate that is otherwise carried out in the halls of Queen's Park.

All of Bullfrog's power is sourced from EcoLogo certified generators. EcoLogo is Environment Canada's certification for excellence in environmental products. EcoLogo-certified low-impact hydro generation currently makes up less than 2% of Ontario's electricity mix and is quite different from conventional hydro facilities, which make up about 20% of Ontario’s electricity mix. In order to achieve EcoLogo certification, low-impact hydro facilities must meet a range of environmental criteria including the protection of indigenous species and habitat, and measures to minimize fish mortality and preserve fish migration patterns. For a detailed examination of the required criteria, visit: http://www.ecologo.org/common/assets/criterias/CCD-003.pdf.

Additionally, we have voluntarily retained Deloitte to conduct an annual audit of our green power sales. Deloitte verifies that we are sourcing as much green power as we have contracted with customers, and that all of the environmental rights associated with the power have been retired on behalf of our customers, which allows our customers to assert that their electricity is emissions-free.

We are thrilled that the City of Guelph, along with more than 6,000 residential customers and roughly 600 businesses from virtually every sector, as well as leading environmental groups including WWF-Canada and Pollution Probe, have made the decision to become "bullfrogpowered" and help us in our efforts to advance the development of clean, renewable power in Canada. We hope this helps address some of your concerns, and please feel free to contact Bullfrog Power at www.bullfrogpower.com for more information.

Ron Seftel
VP Finance
Bullfrog Power

[Harry]

Oh My did I step on the Bullfrogs Long Toes as well as the Citys?
I visited their website, and there is nothing to indicate that they produce the exact amount of Green power that they have produced by Green power.
In fact I would love to see an accounting that shows the amount of power sold that Bullfrog receives dollars for and the amount of green power that was produced, including their claimed "my hydro poer is greener than your hydro power" I would like to see them prove the dollar for dollar relationship, but I doubt we will ever see that. And how much EcoLogic low impact Hydraulic generation is currently installed in Ontario? Face plate rating will suffice thank you, and since you are raving about it, why doesn't your Web site give us the details? What rubbish.
I would also like to have seen their retort signed by an ENGINEER, (I assume they have one) not a Bean Counting VP Finance. And their audit by another bunch of bean-counters - well as Shania sang - "that don't impress me much. It would be much better to see a review conducted by someone completely at arms length. Fat Chance
And since I do not think Bullfrog spends its time monitoring Blogs, let alone the Mercury Blog, which member of City staff or Council brought this to their attention for a long, windy, and lackluster response?
C'mon guys, you can do better than that, especially against a poor uninformed member of the public.

[D C]

I love these little random posts, but the Merc seems to take them down a lot.

[Scott]

DC,
That's because they are spam. They're trying to get people to click on their name, which is actually a hyperlink to their commercial website.

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