Dams do destroy great places

May 21, 2010 at 9:13 pm

[ Dams do destroy great places like the one above ]
CBC ‘The Current’ program May 20 AM had Peace Valley farm owners Gwen Johansen and Larry Petersen speaking against the proposed Site C Dam project this morning.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

They did fairly well, yet could have been far more effective. They need to present clean cut ideas that will win over a mass public following. Logical concepts clearly outlined can make all the difference.

Gwen Johansen came closest when points were made about the need to produce power near the places of use like homes business and industry. This saves million$ spent on lines, towers and power stations. It also saves line losses and transformer losses, not to mention wages for staff who maintain all these things. Power lines are prone to weather outages, of course.

http://windenergy7.com/

Walmart, Google, Fedex and other corporations have power production ‘Bloomboxes’ on their grounds for reliable energy supply. No power lines, hence no power outages. Bloomboxes look something like a heat-exchanger only larger.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

Wind power generation can take place on your garage roof and provide power for lights and electronics. The concept of huge remote wind farms with costly power lines, stations , and staff seems silly. You can’t put a site C dam in your back yard, but you CAN install wind generation there easily. One needs the grid for heavy power appliances like clothes dryers, ovens, base board heaters at least until Bloomboxes or the like become available much as home heat exchangers are now. Volkswagon is also working on a home based power supply appliance.

By the way; What is this pressing need for Site ‘C’ anyway? Since we stopped shocking bauxite into aluminium in Kitimat, all that tremendous power has been added to our BC power grid. And it looks as though the huge power dam near Prince Rupert for northern coastal mining is going ahead. California can’t afford to pay us for power we supplied them and are still in arrears. Is Site C an ego boost for Premier Gordon Campbell just before he gets voted out ?

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