gosolarcanada.ca

A message for my Representatives, Provincial and Federal

To whom it may concern,

Please, as my representative, think of our future generations,

If Pythagoras (circa 580-500 B.C.) had invented nuclear reactors, we would still be babysitting the spent fuel created.

With the amount of money that will be spent on nuclear reactors we could be going forward with green renewable energy. I would rather see my tax dollars going towards creating a green society. One that all Canadians can be proud of. Please take another look at the figures as the information given to you by the AECL and the OPA is wrong. Please look at the model that is being deployed successfully in Germany. Listen to the people who have the correct figures, the ones that are going in the right direction with green energy. Please look past the numbers provided to you by the AECL and the OPA and realize that green energy is viable. The people spear-heading the revolution in Germany say that this is an even more viable answer in Canada due to the vast landscapes, resources and under utilized manufacturing base.

The OPA says they need $60 billion dollars to revamp the power lines before we can move forward. The new reactors priced at close to $30 billion will in the end cost us close to this anyways. Look at Darlington and look at the Maple reactors. After these reactors are built the OPA will be saying they need this money anyway to keep up with the growing demand of electricity in Ontario and Canada. If we upgrade the power lines now we will be taking a more responsible approach to the future of Canada and the growing needs of the energy supply. Why is nuclear still a consideration? Do not let the nuclear industry or the power line operators try to slow this down as this will only hurt Canada, only to save the skin of a few. Let’s look to the future beyond the next four years.

The green revolution is going to happen throughout the world, whether you help or not; it is inevitable. Canada is in a place right now with an under utilized manufacturing base that could be building solar panels and wind turbines for the world. If necessary, give the jobs to the people in the Clarington area who will be losing out on the jobs created by the new reactors. These will be jobs that will last for many, many years, not jobs that will end once the reactors are built. Don't make us have to purchase our green products from abroad only to set us back in the world economy even farther. This is our chance and now it is your chance to make a real difference in Canada for Canadians and for the world.

Note: The cost over runs during the construction of Darlington were in the billions in 1980's dollars. The two recently completed and fully fitted Maple reactors built to replace the aging Chalk River reactor, designed to produce medical isotopes, have been shelved by the Harper Government due to a polarity problem which can only be repaired by replacing the reactors themselves at millions of dollars each.

The other provinces are watching Ontario before making their own decisions on the correct direction, Ontario owes it to Canada and the world to become a leader, going forward with the correct decision for the correct reasons which are not political but what is right for Ontario's future, beyond the next few years.

Please break the cycle. In the next election I will be voting for the party which shows they are for the people and the future of Canada's power supply and not bowing to the pressure of big business.

I will be voting GREEN. Not nuclear.

Signed

An Unhappy Voter

I'm not a scientist but the information presented in this program was disturbing to me. I found myself questioning the Canadian govt's role in this arena, I felt the politics (= who gets the most profit )presented , if truely 100% accurate, reveal yet again the purpose of programs like fifth estate, 60 minutes and so on, that is to try to wake up we common people with no real agenda's, just trying our best to muddle through these days and times of economics and major uncertainty.

I enjoyed the comments by others and will commit to doing my own research on this topic as I see it being significant to an entire list of future concerns.

thank you to fifth estate for at least doing "something" unlike many others, to bring information for major consideration by all those who don't believe in sticking their heads into the sand and leaving all the real work to someone else!

thank you also to all those that took the time to leave a comment for others, like me, to lauch our own independent research from.

We have a 1MW solar installation on our roof. We chose to go with straight net metering due to the costs of adding the second meter and maintaining a generators account with Toronto Hydro. I thought, no one asks you when your fridge is going to pay for itself, so why ask when your solar panels will. Great. They changed us to a smart meter which in effect charged us for the excess electricity we produced until we got it changed and a year later we have not been paid for the nearly 300kw of excess electricity we have produced. It's tremendously frustrating, but more so for the attitude of indifference displayed by Toronto Hydro. We're patiently waiting for them to decide what to do and hope that all will turn out well. There are many of us willing to give it a try, do our part, despite the costs. We just don't also want to be punched in the process.
I truly believe solar panels should be part of the building code. Yeah the sun doesn't shine all the time, but when its 30 degrees outside and all of Ontario turns on air conditioners, you can bet it is sunny. When it's stormy and cloudy, the wind is usually blowing. When cow's poop, co-generation is a go.
There is not one solution, but there are plenty of good ones. Even nuclear has its place. Staying where we're at and doing the same old, same old is not going to solve any problems. New ideas and innovations in the production of, management of, cultivation of and responsibility for energy production are all needed.
We're talking, that's a start.

Many of the Ontario Hydro problems go back to the Power Act of Ontario and political interference:
1. Debt: when a facility is being built Ontario Hydro could not charge customers for this new facility until it was fully commissioned.
Ontario's politicians have and still dictate what Hydro One can charge the customers. That was certainly true with Ont. Hydro. That's where your stranded debt came from.
2. Farmers having to pay for connection. Right or wrong, this is how its been done for decades and this rule applies to large customers (mines) as well as to cottages. As well, when connecting any kind of generator to the system, even on low voltage lines (feeders) requires protection (protective relays)changes in the next transformer or switching station. If we don't like the rules, change the Power Act and fund Hydro One.
Remember, the idea was to supply power at cost and without subsidizing individuals or individual industries.

Thanks

I consider this to be probably the single most important issue facing us now. I live downstream from a leaky, archaic Chalk river nuclear station. The people living in its midst are dealing with diproportionately higher levels of cancers, at far younger ages than the mean. The very idea of promulgating this appallingly dangerous industry, the irrovocable impacts it is having on the health of the local population and the environment, is completely abberrant to me. I would rather retreat to the simplicity of former times and have less energy than support this irresponsible self serving monopole. Renewable energy sources that can be developed by small communities or indivduals obiously undermine the big utility companies interests. How long are people truly willing to put up with that.

Just watched the show "The Gospel of Green" and was compelled to write the following to George Smitherman, Ontario's Energy Minister:

I've just watched the CBC episode of The Fifth Estate, "The Gospel of Green".
I am very concerned about Ontario not acting on renewable energy alternatives from wind instead of nuclear power.
There seems to be a good supply and therefore a legitimate business case for this. I also don't understand why individuals who produce power above their own needs, cannot sell it back to the grid, if they pay for the cost of the hookup.
Mr Smitherman, please make this a priority to pursue in the near future, before it is too late to reap the benefits of this great opportunity, right at our doorstep.
Deborah St Jean

A C Vikis appears to be confusing rules of thumb used by conventional power generators with actual physical laws about what is possible. The result is a defeatist attitude to renewables roll-out, which is about a decade out of date when compared to the European leaders in the technology. (And btw, that renewables already are technically and economically feasible is shown by the rapid worldwide growth in their sales figures, even through the recession.)

On the Danish western grid, wind already provides 25% of the electricity with no real problems, and due to increase when the large offshore windfarms currently being built start production.) Another 10% comes from other renewables, mostly homegrown but including some Norwegian and Swedish hydro.)

The German environment ministry has committed the country to firm renewable electricity targets of 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2030. (They're currently in the 15 to 16% range, a few percentage points ahead of their 2010 target) Anyone who thinks that modern Germany would set such targets without knowing how they can be achieved has no understanding of the German way of doing things...

In reality, there are several techniques for accommodating naturally "intermittent" sources into a grid - but it takes proper planning and a willingness to run a smarter and more decentralised grid. Up to between 20 and 25% penetration, there is not normally even any need for additional storage (the Danes haven't added in any). With a large existing hydro fleet, as is the case in much of Canada, that percentage can be raised somewhat.

To go beyond that percentage, you do need storage technologies (pumped storage, flow cells, advanced batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, compressed air, etc) which turn variable renewables into dispatchable sources, much more flexible than (for example) big coal or nuclear.

And of course the intermittency issue doesn't apply to biomass power, for which Canada has a massive potential.

Some provinces are fortunate enough to already have very high proportions of renewables in the form of hydro. For the rest of us, in provinces without the appropriate topography, wind and various biomass options present some real opportunities, and they will soon be joined by solar photovoltaics, for which costs are rapidly dropping. (Then of course, there's the possibility of tidal power in the Bay of Fundy and maybe off the BC coast, and some geothermal potential in southern Alberta, and wave power possibilities off BC.)

Renewables, if and when they become technically and economically feasible, are part of the solution to our energy problem and not the solution; a small part indeed, 15-20% at most. It's a pity that an otherwise respectable program like the Fifth Estate chose to deal with such a serious topic, so poorly prepared. I highly recommend to Mr. McKeown the September 2006 issue of Scientific American. Unfortunately, the energy articles in the latter have been written by experts rather than politicians or journalists!

In reading the comments I see that there should have been more small sector solutions given for the green shift although nuclear may not give off ghgs on energy production it does more in spent rods and in raising temp of cooling water that flows back into the lake as in kincardin the Bruce plant raises the water temp by 3 degrees which releases the captured CO2 inside. The car was a good start in showing small business meeting the challenges there is also a small startup Vortex Power in Lloydminster that has created a solar polymer that can be sprayed on at a fraction the cost of PVCs and furnace that can power the home at less than the cost of a conventional furnace allowing for surplus energy to flow back into the grid which if a town of 30 thousand each had one there would be 10 megawats flowing back into the grid all renewable emission free and available within months with little to no cost to taxpayers except for some green tax incentive. There is also the waste facility outside Calgary her that has been using waste material that isn't recycled for energy production creating a net zero balance manufacturer.

Oh fergawdsake, the mental numbness of the detractors to renewable energy is overwhelming [there are several of those type of comments here]. Who GAVE you those opinions?

Wind and solar power are like a GIFT to ordinary people, but the major corporate energy sector has managed to stifle interest in it - but it is all lies!!

To have Canadians all paying into a single corporate entity for something we all use every day is a big advantage to the energy corporations. We can become the power producers - why do you want to send your money to the big corporate creature?

And finally - WHERE IS MY ELECTRIC CAR? It is beyond my imagination why "the detractors to green" want to keep paying for gasoline and continue unhealthy amounts of emissions. I refuse to buy a new car until I am allowed to drive an electric one [who is with me on this?]

I was surprised to see how badly OPA is being run.

It makes sense have the suburbs power the city. A decentralized power system is better anyways. In the event of a war the military takes out the power stations. What is the military going to do bomb every house? Not that we are likely to be in a war, but it is also good for disasters.

I would have liked to have seen a blurb about ground source heating. You can even make a power station like they did in Australia. It just depends on how deep you go.

I don't usually watch the fifth estate because I find the coverage of issues too often proselytizing -- tilting towards windmills and solar panels in this case. I caught it in a rerun on CBC Newsworld May 17, 2009. After reading the comments posted, I wondered about the dictionary definition of documentary. My old Webster's gives: "... 2. designating or of a motion picture, television program, etc. that dramatically shows or analyzes news events, social conditions, etc., with little or no fictionalization."

drama -- definitely
shows -- yes, there were many pictures
analyzes -- not at all with any competence that I could find
fictionalization -- alas yes, in my view.

These green delusions seem to resonate with many people. Perhaps the producers of the show are promoting their personal philosophy. Alternatively, they may just be stirring things up to synthesize excitement.

Thorough, competent engineering and business analyses are soporific compared to this farcical treatment of a serious and complex issue.

Unfortunately the CBC is not embarrassed at having produced such shoddy work and keeps recycling it.

By the way, methane doesn't smell. The manure odor described by the lady farmer is usually associated with sulphurous compounds. I fear they went up the stack.

Thank you so much for this segment on renewables! I am a door to door fundraiser for Greenpeace and this documentary will help me and my fellow canvassers bring concrete examples of how renewables are possible and how the worlds biggest industrial project in Alberta is not necessary.

Thank you! Finally! Thank you! (Watched it twice so far!) Wind, solar, biogas...hurray! There is a wind turbine manufacturer in Kelowna, BC, and apparently at least one pv cell manufacturer (other than Arise) in Canada as well. The idea of municipalities offering "net-flow metering" could have been included perhaps, as a possible solution to the OPA hindrance(and similar/potential resistance by other provincial power entities). If our federal and provincial governments had provided subsidies to homeowners for Canadian-made renewable energy systems, and municipalities offered "net-flow metering", then perhaps fewer Maritimers would have been shivering in the dark when the blizzard hit (because the subsidized homeowners could have stored enough back-up power to last for 3 to 7 days and would have had plenty of time to clear the snow off their solar cells/turbines before their power ran out). Perhaps you could replay this inspiring documentary when electricity is restored in the Maritimes?

Between 1990 to 2003 renewable energy of electrical generation fuel mix grew from 3% to almost 9%. Electrical consumption grew by 5% and CO2 emissions declined by 13%. If you thought renewables attributed to this decline you would be wrong. The decommissioning of old, inefficient coal fired from the former East Germany and the replacement with much more efficient gas turbine units are responsible.
It takes wind power 10 times the steel and 5 times the concrete for every installed unit of energy than nuclear. Just 19 nuke stations produce 33% Germany's electrical needs with only 17,000mw installed capacity. Wind turbines capacity is over 20,000mw but only produces 3% of their electrical needs.
Nuclear energy is by far the mightiest tool in combating global warming.

its so refreshing to see such a great documentary about a relevant topic that often gets ignored. bravo and well done.

(My earlier attempt to post this evidently didn't work. I may now add something at the end.)
Your guess concerning Hermann Scheer, that ”it's likely you've never heard his name”, did not hold in my case. I became aware of his solar efforts about the mid 90s, more than 3 decades after I, and colleagues at a major federal research lab in California, had got seriously busy on a solar power project; ostensibly highly encouraged, in practice made impossible surreptitiously by what Senator Al Gore termed the “powerful” and “determined” nature of the opposition that surprised him; from the same interest groups that Scheer now called the most powerful in the world.

Before I met him, when he invited me to a Bonn conference of Eurosolar, the solar promoting organization he founded and headed, I had discovered his book on solar strategies. While your show, “The Gospel of Green” looks very important and timely, it does not transmit the depth and scope of thought and practical vision revealed in the book. Nor could it expect to do that, if the emphasis was so thoroughly on what lessons Ontario could learn from the Scheer induced experience in German solar source development since then. If you could get Dr. Scheer for another program, in a setting relaxed enough to minimize language problems (I think he still largely translates from his very literate German, not easy to translate), possibly as part of a panel, you could do something really significant for our energy discourse.

In view of a solid immunity to hero worship, it should not be surprising that I don't agree with all that Dr Scheer has to say, thus can't expect it of others. Among the things at least mentioned in the show, I view as the most urgent to discuss his rejection of the fuzzily defined Lovins “energy efficiency” as a substitute for a serious transition to a society/economy based on our continuous, endless energy income. Now that we are learning on which side Lovins' bread is buttered, it is time to reduce waste without claiming that it can yield (sustainable) “Negawatts”; unless you continue the waste. From what I see in British Columbia, this bull has been taught to students who graduated and now occupy posts where they oppose clean, sustainable energy projects.

Another point made by Scheer, that photovoltaic (PV) is the most important solar technology for humankind, looks less clear to me, especially if he means the flat plate PV that makes sense in Germany. In many sunnier places, where local energy could get billions on the way out of poverty, including starvation, there should be better ways than possible in Germany (or Ontario); things like concentrated, especially line focus, PV or thermal solar power ; and a combination with indirect solar methods will tend to help. I am confident that Scheer is not indifferent to those needs. It also includes people in NAFTAland, probably including parts of Canada; if only so people to the south won't have to ruin much of northern Alberta.

To call Scheer Europe's Al Gore doesn't look like a compliment to me. Why can't Gore make clear whether he really wants nuclear power. From Scheer we can expect straight talk.

Conservation alone can help to keep us from having to build any new coal or nuclear power plants. There is no such thing as clean coal or safe/cheap nuclear power. Climate Change, often called Global warming, is a fact. The total costs of nuclear or coal are prohibitive compared to wind energy or even solar voltaic.

On the other hand the people screaming the loudest against the cleaner safer and less expensive alternatives would seem the most likely to be paid operatives of the very industries they are defending that have the most money from our governments and our people.

Thank you for airing this program, there is however one piece of the puzzle which your program omitted; who is the OPA's management?

John Beck, Director and Chair (OPA) and, CEO of AECON Group. AECON has been the contractor on 13 projects for Nuclear and Hydro Electric Plants over the last few decades. It is in AECON's best interests to continue pushing non-renewable resource based projects.

Charles Bayless, Director, Former CEO of Illinova and Illinois Power, nuclear based, "which invests in, develops and operates independent power projects worldwide; and Illinova Energy Partners, which markets energy and energy-related services in the United States and Canada."

It is improbable that the OPA can make any impartial and forward thinking decisions. At this juncture the OPA is as irresponsible in its decision making processes as the auto industry was 10, 15 and 20 years ago.

Canada creates over 3 times as much renewable energy as Germany. Canada 350 TWh Germany 100 TWh

Who are the ones that are behind? Not us, so maybe this is why Germany is doing so much. They are trying to catch up with us, the world leader in renewable energy. Yet this program makes it seem to be the other way around.

In Principal this was a good presentation however it lacked specific overall technical details. The emotional green content overwhelmed the presentation and the technical reality content was nearly zero. I know that the CBC can do better. Reality: Conventional Power Plants like Hydraulic, Coal, Oil, Gas, Nuclear form the foundation of a reliable Electric Grid system. You can never replace these conventional stations with intermittant green power stations such as Wind, Solar. Wind and Solar are intermittant power sources and can be counted only as supplement power. When running,the conventional sources can be trimmed back but must always be there to kick in when the intermittant sources go down. There is presently only a minimal wind turbine manufacturing facility in Canada, therefor the much advertised job creation argument is mute, but certainly has potential if we develop the manufacturing facilities here.

Why will you not print comment other than those that praise your program (except for 1)

Deceitful manipulation of public opinion? Why such a closed mind? "Gospel" is right. People in charge of this program act like fundamentalist religious zealots who think it's heretical to discuss the facts.

Play it Again and again and again!
This report was very powerful and truthful. Powerful -the real economic loss of a renewable energy "industry" in Canada AND Truthful - our government not "getting it" and our children pay the consequences.
Please re run this episode before December 2009 - The KYOTOplus campaign.

We have been living offgrid for 15 years now with all the comforts most people have and I can tell you it is possible. To be honest however we do live in another world as we do use every trick in the book to conserve energy to make our power system work. The same should be done in our province as well. We need to work with what we have before building costly and dangerous power plants. Yes renewable energy is costly and has it's downsides, but in comparison to most conventional sources as well as nuclear it is by far the best deal. We could entice home owners to produce their own power. The result would be that the families would have an electricity supply that would be immune from outages, blackouts and increased future costs. This would also save the utillity from increasing the capacity on the already overburdened grid. I do believe the only reason this is not promoted is governments don't like to give money to individual citizens that pay the bulk of the taxes. They would rather give it to large corporations and businesses that don't. The resistance to encourage everyone to make their own power makes very obvious that no matter what the government and OPG says, they don't want the little guy into the energy club.
In my small renewable energy business I discourage people from investing in systems that sell back to the grid in favour of stand alone offgrid systems as being hooked into the grid is not a smart investment. The average Joe should enjoy the same level of support and subsidies as the big guys and we all would benifit rather than just a few.

I watched this program and found it so hard to believe that there is anyone in Canada, from ordinary citizens to politicians to business owners to farmers, who cannot see the validity in what Germany is doing. All I kept thinking is that this is a no-brainer! Why wouldn't Canada get on board with this NOW? I understand that there may be short-term pain but in the face of a global economic crisis and an environmental melt-down to do nothing is absolute insanity. What are we waiting for? Why are we letting the government tell us that we can't do this? Why are we waiting for them to tell us that we can as opposed to insisting that they allow us to do it? When are Canadians going to band together to get things accomplished rather than letting the "policy makers" dictate to us? It astounds me that for as smart as we are that we are allowing this to go unchallenged.
My heart goes out to the farmer featured in the broadcast who has spent over a million dollars of his own money only to be told "NO" time and time again. The time for change is NOW. We must insist. For our livelihoods, our children's future and the planet.
Thank you CBC for airing this program. I hope it motivates Canadians to stand up and demand that we follow suit!

It's great to see what is going on in Germany, such a progressive country.

But the overall message of this documentary has a hidden discouragement. Looking at all the examples of Canadians being unsupported by the gov't does not motivate people to get up and do it! It just points out how lame Canada is when I know we have successes that we can build on.

When Smitherman says that electricity cost 6 cents per kWh he is a typical lying politician. When I calculate how much I pay for electricity, that is kWh read on my meter, and the total cost I pay Hydro One for that quantity of energy (plus taxes etc.), it works out to about 15 cents per kWh.
I also get angry every time I see my meter reading multiplied by 1.09 to account for the power lost in the line to my home. This is a cost of doing business that should be included in delivery costs.
John S.

What a breath of fresh air Fifth Estate! This is the type of coverage that clean, renewable energy needs. Now, if only the Ontario government can make a strong move away from the cronyism at Ontario Power Generation, this province will build itself a stable, secure power grid for our future generations. Germany is setting an unprecedented example!
Here are some numbers for you naysayers: If Canada's nuclear reactors were all operating at 100% (which they never do, as a result of maintenance), they would produce 15,000 MW of power. Germany has built over 20,000 MW of renewable power IN THE LAST 8 YEARS!
Ditch the hazardous waste, dangerous reactors and dirty coal! Let's go for renewables!

The argument that the current technologies are not providing enough output so therefore they are not viable- remains the same tired scapegoat for continued stagnation and missed opportunity. Once the technologies are given the resources and environment to move forward they will, with time - thrive. Competition for the all important frontrunners in the marketplace will follow with hopefully better, more efficient improvements. They simply need a receptive and progressive starting point. Remember computers in the 1970's, cell phones in the 80's - clumsy and inefficient then. Now we have billion dollar industries along with new vocabularies that have propelled us ahead because of the onset of these once backward innovations. The process of efficient energy production is taking place right now. It will take vision, risk and patience - but it will happen.
Our decision lies in whether we will stand at the front of line or take our place at the back along with the other dinosaurs.

Germany is making a great investment and if they continue in the current trend, they will be able to rely on sustainable energy 100% - that's so awesome!

Nuclear energy is a totally irresponsible energy source, I would not even consider an option in this day and age. Nuclear was first embraced by society in a very different time, a time when people believed we could take a pill to fix an illness. The technologies today are infantile and by no way live up to the expectations we once had for nuclear. One valve is all it took for a Canadian designed reactor to go. It's so dangerous insurance companies reject nuclear so the burden goes to the government. And the waste issues - 10,000 years of waste management, this planet hasn't even had a government that could last that long -, there are dangerous mining issues and uranium has a finite quantity. Weapons, human health, water, human and environmental health... How do you filter radioactive water from water?

I know that cradle to grave solar and wind isn't the prettiest, but with nuclear (and coal) it's ugly.

Perhaps the interviewer should have asked the fellow from Germany about the 26 new coal fired plants planned and already being built in Germany. He tells us about Germany being so green and to be powered by renewable resources...100%, but news says things to the contrary and informs us of the 26 coal fired plants that they are building. This is very confusing.

Good show. There are lots of options mentioned here and I think each would have their area of workability. I was impressed by the answer as to whether the Nuclear development involved job creation and the answer being no. My first thought was that this view certainly shows the depth of thinking with these dinosaurs. I felt bad for our country in that we're showing how backward we are.
And the Ontario Energy Minister telling that farmer to "keep the faith". Right. Any normal person seeing this (without lobbyists hanging on your coat tails) should be outraged at the incompetence shown. Total imcomptence.

Great program! Great postings!

I will eco the comment about not the bail out the auto industry without cause. Perhaps the loan could be use as an incentive for auto maker to produce greener vechicles. Or even better, change to manufacture wind turbines

The environment is an intricate system. There are so many arguments out there. We need more programs like this to fully comprehend the issue.

Thanks

Interesting program but sadly lacking in reality. How do electric cars work in average winter weather? Where will all of the electric power come from to charge the batteries during summer when the grid is maxed out with A/C load?
Ontario is a modern industrial state which requires a huge and reliable base load electrical system if it's car plants, steel mills, mines, as well as the large cities are to function. Wind and solar can only supply a small amount of the power needed. What is needed is a decision on a new nuclear plant which will take ten years to get in service. Sadly our politicians cannot make long term decisions. The outlook is dim.

I am a supporter of renewable energy, however, I believe we need the nuclear energy for some time until the renewable energy production and technologies become established. Maybe for another 20 years or so. But it would be a reckless move to put all eggs in one basket (renewable basket). Germany has huge problems with its "green revolution". The unemployment rate in this country is to the roof and people are suffering from economic situation. I lived in Germany for a long time. I am familiar with the problems over there.

What can we do to force our government(s) to act responsibly and do the right thing. The last election was taken over by the economic issues and all of the enviornmental issues were taken off the table. The show you put on was excellent, but it got my blood boiling. You clearly showed citizens trying to do the right thing and getting stonewalled by red tape and bureaucracy.

Well .......... now I am really upset ........ this whole thing is a no-brainer. The government of Ontario and Canada better look at this and realize that this new industry creates jobs and reduces costs. What a great combination ..... I doubt that governments will act unless we get really mad.

QUESTION ......... where on this earth could we ever find a company that produces solar panels?? HA HA HA !!!!!!!

Where are the nation builders? Asleep at the trough I suppose. I'm no genius but I can see the connection between the failing economy and the lack of vision of our political leaders. "...Toronto needs a transportation system to access the waterfront... to connect to the airport... the Islands... an attraction... something to put us on the map" (Goldhawk Live program). Maybe we need to get Stelco, (while we still own it) busy making some towers and track to put along the waterfront,(a great location for wind generation) and perhaps Bombardier would be kind enough to design some quiet mag-lift monorail cars for it. A system like that could generate its own power and provide transportation from Niagara Falls to Kingston! Put a track up the Don Valley, from Marie Curtis park up the Etobicoke Valley to the airport, through Ontario Place and the Island Airport. Through Union Station. The whole thing is on Towers. How much real estate is that. It's free over the lake. Ontario Place sits on pipes! What parking problem? The lakefront has costantly been filled for Public use with parking lots. We would just be adding a "modern" transportation system overhead to a system of underutilized parks already there that we can't get to on the Gardiner joke. Kingston to Niagara Falls in less than an hour! Shopping and lunch in Toronto. We need to stop dragging our knuckles and working in the mud. I would like to be on Dragons Den and see if anyone there would at least finance a feasability study perhaps to put their name on a system that would put Toronto in the books big time forever and solve the car/energy/transportation problems we need to address while at the same time creating a lot of serious long term jobs.

Where are the nation builders? Asleep at the trough I suppose. I'm no genius but I can see the connection between the failing economy and the lack of vision of our political leaders. "...Toronto needs a transportation system to access the waterfront... to connect to the airport... the Islands... an attraction... something to put us on the map" (Goldhawk Live program). Maybe we need to get Stelco, (while we still own it) busy making some towers and track to put along the waterfront,(a great location for wind generation) and perhaps Bombardier would be kind enough to design some quiet mag-lift monorail cars for it. A system like that could generate its own power and provide transportation from Niagara Falls to Kingston! Put a track up the Don Valley, from Marie Curtis park up the Etobicoke Valley to the airport, through Ontario Place and the Island Airport. Through Union Station. The whole thing is on Towers. How much real estate is that. It's free over the lake. Ontario Place sits on pipes! What parking problem? The lakefront has costantly been filled for Public use with parking lots. We would just be adding a "modern" transportation system overhead to a system of underutilized parks already there that we can't get to on the Gardiner joke. Kingston to Niagara Falls in less than an hour! Shopping and lunch in Toronto. We need to stop dragging our knuckles and working in the mud. I would like to be on Dragons Den and see if anyone there would at least finance a feasability study perhaps to put their name on a system that would put Toronto in the books big time forever and solve the car/energy/transportation problems we need to address while at the same time creating a lot of serious long term jobs.

I very much enjoyed the program. It was certainly thought provoking and well done. However, I am left curious about several things. The commentary seems to lack sufficient input from the Ontario government. It is easy to bash bureaucracy but the reality is that Canada is recognized as having some of the best business friendly government support systems in the world. Without a thorough understanding of the thought behind the government?s decisions, it is easy to agree with the criticism. I suspect that the government?s analysis is significantly stronger than presented in this documentary. The past CEO of the Ontario Power Corporation and the elected ministers (relative amateurs by nature) are not the people to talk to ? rather you should interview the people who advise them: the staffers who are the experts.

Second, I noted with surprise (along with many of the commenters here) that electricity prices are so vastly different between Germany and Canada. This alone is a strong disincentive to development of green energy and seems to explain in one sentence why green programs have not worked as well here. You mentioned briefly that not all the costs have been added in the Canadian price but I didn?t get the sense that these costs helped significantly to level the prices. I would have been more interested to see you explore this issue with charts and graphs which you used to highlight less important points.

Fascinating documentary, and I am someone who is very interested in finding an alternative to our dependence on oil. But as I've found in other documentaries that focused on electric cars as part of the solution, a large part of the picture wasn't discussed.

Its true that electric cars produce almost no emissions or toxins during their normal operation lifecycle, very little attention is paid to the components of electric cars, namely batteries. Lots of batteries. Lots of high tech, powerful batteries. Battery production, no matter how you do it, is still a VERY toxic business, and battery recycling is one of the key environmental issues we have in today's world of disposable batteries for consumer electronics. The batteries needed for the electric car in the future make the our current battery use look tiny in comparison.

It's hard to get accurate numbers, but there are hundreds of millions of cars in the US alone, and tens of millions in Canada ... while individual electric cars may not seem like a serious issue, every single one contains multiple high tech batteries that will need to be produced, and recycled as they get less effective (think how quickly your laptop, or cell phone battery starts to lose life). When you start multiplying that over tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions or vehicles as the world shifts to electric, and its strikes me the world is in for a huge toxic mess of battery disposal.

New technology is great, and its important that we move away from oil dependence. But electric cars may very introduce another environmental nightmare as they solve the old one. I've not done the research on how the production or recycling of batteries for potentially billions of electric vehicles will be handled ... I don't really have the expertise for that. But it seems pretty clear, looking in from the outside, that batteries aren't environmentally friendly things, on the whole, and before we jump into electric cars with both feet, we might want to be sure we understand the implications of disposing of billions of used batteries from old electric vehicles.

Wake up Canada! We have all the resources to become a world leader in renewable energy since our wind, solar and tidal resources are are vast. I was taught as a teenager that all non-renewable resources have a life span, that young people could change the future. Here we are, some 35 years later, and what have we done? We have lost yet another business to another country because we are too afraid to change. Yes there would be some re-training involved, but the employment we could provide would compensate for the jobs lost here in B.C. in forestry, mining and fishing, and elsewhere in other sectors. We could and should take on responsibility as leaders in trying to save the environment.

Thank's for airing this show I've been interested in doing my own wind turbine for my own use at home.
Allthough your show was informative I wish you could have given more info for contacting the companies you
discused.
As for some of the comments on having to build other back-up power supplies when there is no wind or sunlight,we allready have the power station's and power grids ,but we would not have to rely on them as much.
It would aleast be a start in ruducing the amount use and amount of polutant's given off until better solutions can be made.

While wind power does have some inherent flaws, namely wind speed requirements, it is still an important step in ridding us of our dependance on polluting fuels. The technology needs a chance to grow before it can overcome the technical problems it presents and governments are slowing the process.

If anything was wrong with this episode, it's that it did not touch on more powerful energy alternatives. Tidal power, wave power, and especially geothermal power have amazing potential, even though the technology behind them is new.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology did a report stating that the total extractable energy from geothermal systems was currently 200 zettajoules. The world's current total energy consumption is 0.5 zettajoules. And there is the potential to increase extractable energy to over 2,000 ZJ with technology improvements. That is enough to power the world for thousands of years.

That being said, geothermal energy has it's problems. However, without the chance to grow, how can the technology be refined?

I watched this segment and I agree- Canada needs to show that it can follow in Germany's footsteps and not be so protective of the nuclear industry!!

If Canada would bring on-line more renewable energy sources, it would not be so dependent on fossil fuels any longer. And it would bring more jobs to Canada in the technology sector. Just look at germany, they did it, so why not us too???

Sadly, ?The Gospel of Green? said more about ?The 5th Estate? than the options for our energy future. Hopes for fair journalism were trounced as the opening credits rolled. The over-riding theme of a conspiracy to prevent ?the underdog? promoting ?green options? to save the world became clear. We would hear the ?Good News? from a new prophet (oh, please, just call it a religion so the worship can get underway!)

Germany, became the model to follow, guided by Dr. Scheer. Might Dr. Scheer have a slight conflict of interest when he encourages renewables since he is President of EUROSolar, and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy? Might the fact that German renewable installations have fallen since 2001 suggest that the need to sell to others to keep their jobs might be a factor? Buy NOW we heard, don?t bother to assess the full picture. Why did visions of a door-to-door salesman come to mind?

And, Germany as a model? Was there mention that electricity in Germany (in 2007) was derived 66% from burning combustibles producing carbon dioxide, with 22.3% from nuclear and 11.4% from renewables (6.6% wind, 3.5% hydro, and 0.5% solar photovoltaic)? Not like Ontario where our electricity came 52% from nuclear, 21% from hydro, 0.6% from wind, and about 27% from burning combustibles. Did the article mention that Germany produces over twice as much of its electricity from combustion than Ontario does? Nope.

Remember the slide that shows Germany produced 87.5 TWh from renewables in 2007 (including 19.5 from burning biomass) and the suggestion that if Ontario could do the same, we could eliminate nuclear which produced 80.5 GWh in the same period? Let?s look a bit deeper. Germany had 22,247 MW of wind turbines in 2007, which produced 39.5 TWh, at a capacity factor of about 20%. Ontario had about half as much nuclear capacity, 11,500 MW, but it produced over twice as much electricity, at a capacity factor over 80%. Did we hear this? No, we heard that wind would save us. Did we hear about the times when the output from all these 22,247 MW of German wind turbines was under 250 MW for hours at a time? Or did we hear of all the periods in January, February, June, July, and August when Ontario?s widely spaced wind turbines had output less than 5% of their rating for 36 hours at a time?

Did we hear what Dr. Jan Carr said in his interview (which you did not include on the air) about electricity ?a product which ? which is very, very expensive to store. Virtually impossible to store.? So if we were getting our 80.5 GWh from wind turbines, it would mean we would need about 50 MW of wind turbines, and some nights we?d have about 3 times more electricity than we needed, but the next days, we?d have no power. Did the 5th Estate discuss this tiny issue?

We shall know the truth, and the truth will set us free. Let?s show the whole truth please.

William Palmer

I thank the CBC for airing this documentary. I understand that complexity involved in changing from gas and oil to electric, however, as indicated in the story, more jobs were created and opportunities were grown as a result. If the "good old boys" of today's economic world could open their minds to the future and start thinking out of the box, I believe the future and the economy could strengthen.
I live in Kelowna were our economic development corporation attracted call centers to our city after our major employer -Western Star Trucks - shut down. Call Centers offered low paying jobs that did not survive here - our educated work force deserves better. With the downturn in construction, the EDC are once again searching for a source of industry that can support our working population in one of the most expensive places to live in Canada. We need industry to put people back to work.

Can Canada ever become a leader? Investment in green technology opens new markets of prosperity.

Great documentary CBC! I have felt that way for many many years and finally someone has the backbone on the media to criticize the way that governments look only as far ahead as their current mandate! They look no better than a automobile industry who could not change their plans farther than a 1/2 a decade. How many patents, copyrights, even cures, have been bought out by the large oil,automotive, and pharmicutical corporations in order to keep the public blindfolded, and, them still keeping their "status-quo" in income? I feel for the people you talked to during the presentation who spent all their money to be self-sufficient and the b.s. given them by Hydro and the government for them to sell it back. Big corporations are needing to listen "yesterday" to your information!
Good things don't always come because they're costly and big!
Again, Great documentary!

I am witnessing 3 new homes being build in the center of Toronto with no insulation on the outside of the wooden frame. We have known about thermal bridging where cold and hot temperatures are conducted through the 2 x 6s for years. The solution is a layer of styrfoam insulation on the outside of the frame. These home will continue to be inefficient for the next 50 years. What ecological accounting standards were our political leaders using to permit such wasteful building code. We are wintessing the impact of massive financial accountign fraud. If you think this is bad wait until the failure of dealing with ecological accounting hit.

For those who are quoting various and sundry competing competing numbers regarding the prices of different electricity production I would recommend George Monbiot's book: "Heat: How To Stop The Planet From Burning" Not only are the costs of energy and storage problems covered but so are several other areas of the economy which produce excess CO2 {and equivalent} waste.
I would like also to add that it is interesting that many people are just hearing about these issues because of a television documentary. As someone who's lived completely without a television since my children were toddlers in 1996 (I wanted them to grow up literate), I've read about this, and many other issues affecting Global Warming in great depth and from authors of varying persuasions. The Global Warming deniers are still out these - especially in Parliament. Large energy systems cannot usually be developed without government cooperation or incentives. As a result we are in deep trouble in Canada. We are justly seen as carbon squanderers by many of the world's environmental authors. Tim Flannery (Australia) devoted the whole introduction of his latest book to our undesirable record.
The Alberta oil, or tar, sands projects by themselves can keep us from ever becoming a green state. Yet we have a Federal and a Provincial government who wantonly continue to expand the extraction of bitumen, poisoning the Mackenzie River watershed, and have no realistic plan for remediation of all the toxic waste ponds left by the process. If any of this interests you, please read Andrew Nikiforuk's inexpensive paperback: "Tar Sands, Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent."

I just wanted to say thank you to the Fifth Estate for your hard work in preparing such an insightful episode. It's unfortunate our government has not opened it's eyes to the future of energy generation and transmission. Change is always difficult for people embrace and hopefully if people feel strongly enough about this then change will occur. It would have been great if you could have included some ways to help create the change I know Canada needs. Overall great job.

Industrial wind turbines are forever changing our rural landscape and NOT for the better. They are ineffective as a viable power source and taxpayers and electrcity users are paying dearly to subsidize wind companies to push on with their construction. They have DEVASTATING affects on the natural and social environment for very little in return. Government, in wanting to 'appear' green, is pushing hard to keep the myth alive that these things will save our planet. If you are the leading investigative journalists of Canada then our country is in trouble. It doesn't take much research to find out the frightening truth about turbines.

I thought the program created the right kind of reaction... for us the people to do something. There are pluses and minuses to every solution, but this solution is home grown as they have created jobs when there were none, new manufacturing facilities were built, and because of their new green economy, Germany is providing green technology to the world. Canada could and can do this, and I hope that everyone who writes a comment here writes a letter to their political leaders and reminds them that there are alternative industries to gas, oil, and automotive manufacturing. I know I am, and I hope you will write them too.

We as a province we have to stop any possibility of any new nuclear power plants from being built. Sure,use some resources for maintaining the existing plants but use the rest to jump on board the green solution. We can't allow the Power Monopolies to dictate our countries future. There's no way around it, it's eventually going to be a must!I see no real reason for anymore delays for Renewable Energy. As for pessimistic Lynne,You have to remember,this is a relatively new idea and with that comes obstacles.As the old saying goes "If we can put a man on the moon..."I think it's worth the risk. Not to mention job creation and OH YEAH THE ENVIRONMENT.

what the shame on Harper goverment, Ontario goverment, with all jobs dissapearing in Ontario they allow Ontario business to open factory in GERMANY !!!!!!
Of course goverment must subsidy green technology, of course they should make power company pay premium for green generated el. power. What strange about it?
What is wrong with paying solar owner 3-5 times of going rate for electricity. He didn`t installed that panel for himself only,
Thousends like him and maybe you would NOT need another nuclear plant??
What alternative, nuclear?
Great lakes - hudge source of wind power.
Noise from turbines, how about Chernobyl potential kilometers from residences? What to do with nucler waste?
Please, anybody remember name of Canadian company which moved to Germany?
MC

Thank you for the informative program. I hope that more are to follow from the CBC and other media outlets. I can?t believe that governments in Canada, especially Ontario, could be impeding the progress of people and companies who are try to develop innovative ways to create and save electricity. What a shame that their efforts are opposed instead of being encouraged while we discuss bailouts for the big three who been so opposed to green technology. They all had hybrids in development due to a Clinton era program (PNGV) and quickly scrapped them in favour of 31 flavours of SUV once the program ended at their request. They also were united in opposing fuel efficiency standards and electric vehicles. Meanwhile, in most of Canada, you can?t drive an electric car from a Canadian company. It?s time for Canadians who care about this issue to contact their MPs and their MPPs or MLAs and demand that those creating new green opportunities and jobs be given as much help as those wanting to save jobs.

Hopefully your discerning viewers will realize that Mr. Scheer?s ?drooling? was related to the economic and political benefits he and his government stand to gain, not to any benefits for Canadian energy and society. Mr. Scheer is an economist with a mandate to develop Germany?s economy, which he will do through marketing green energy technologies and products to countries like ours.

?Caveat emptor? ? Let the buyer beware!

The fact that the technologies used in Europe for a number of years have never facilitated the closure of any coal or fossil-fuel facilities should be a lesson for us. Instead we are being blindly led along a path where environmental ?icons? are being erected throughout our beautiful countryside, with no regard to the TRUE potential, the TRUE benefits, and the REAL effects on our health, communities and farmers.

Individual small-scale projects with reliable outcomes and agricultural benefits (e.g. biogas) are being pushed aside by the large national and multinational corporations (whose political influence and involvement with government should be investigated). This is all coming at a cost of industrialization and ruin of rural Ontario, not to mention huge costs to every taxpayer and electricity consumer...

I would like to see your show provide coverage of communities torn apart or vacated, and health effects as a follow up episode. We should insist on coverage of reality as well as green energy ?evangelism?. The only way green energy technologies will truly benefit our society will be when they do not threaten our health, our communities and our livelihoods.

Let?s ensure we become truly informed.

Dear Fifth Estate

I watched your report on the “Gospel of Green� dated Nov. 12/08 and can see that the CBC , like so many others, has allowed their critical thinking skills to be green-washed by the marketing skills of those whose primary interest is making money. You entitled the program perfectly because this is exactly what is happening to the general public who want so dearly, to do something to relieve their guilt for being “oil junkies� as you called it.

The program claims that Ontario's resistance to renewables is based on old precepts and existing thinking and those who oppose the push towards green are simply too comfortable with the old ways. If your producers had done their homework, they would have found in the case of Wind development, the single most visible solution everyone seems to latch onto, a scam of the highest order. Not one scientifically based document can show that wind energy is capable of doing what it claims to do. In other words it does not remove greenhouse emissions to any significant amounts, it only adds a pittance of energy (at best 5% of Ontario's needs with the planned 5000MW) and it's not environmentally safe.

Your report also mislead the public by equating our thirst for oil on our need to produce electricity. Only 3% of Ontario electrical generation comes from the burning of oil. 16% comes from coal, and 6% from natural gas generation. In fact in the case of wind, the introduction of this renewable has the very real capacity to increase our need for fossil-fuel generation. Eon Netz who manages a large proportion of Germany's electricity has identified in recent reports, that wind energy requires 90% fossil-fuel back up in order to handle wind's intermittent nature. With hydro and nuclear, Ontario is already 70% emission free.

You then focus on small generation of renewables by farmers in Germany and in Canada. Not once did you indicate why the Swiss farmer in Ontario, is having difficulty hooking up his manure digester to the grid. In my area, because of the push by wind developers, they have taken up all of the transmission capacity available and in turn have caused a local landfill methane program to be “red lined�. (i.e. Cannot get permission from Ontario Hydro to hook up to the grid). You also mention the suspension of OPA's RESOP program. This is completely untrue. OPA has simply stopped the piece mealing that larger companies were doing with their larger projects over 10MW's. In doing so, projects over 10MW could qualify for the higher rates of electricity (11 cents/kwh). This is nothing short of an abuse of taxpayers dollars. Because of this gold rush mentality, smaller developers were pushed aside such as in the case of my local landfill with their methane generation program. The intention of this program was for smaller community based programs, not the large Industrial Wind installations, that is happening right now across Ontario. This push by wind has maxed-out the program in 1 year rather than the 10 yrs originally foreseen. The alarming part of this is the fact that Ontario seems quite ready to accept this kind of development without so much as an understanding of the effects these behemoths will have on our health, our land and our communities. Unfortunately, your program did not help to tame this zeal. If you had investigated both sides of the story, you would have discovered that communities right now in Ontario are suffering from stray voltage and noise pollution and reduced property values because of wind developments, and there is nothing these people can do except move away from their homes.

Your program should have also made a clearer distinction between Industrial scale developments and the smaller community based projects which are getting out competed and out manoeuvred by these big conglomerates (mostly oil companies by the way such as Suncor, Enbridge, Epcor, Acciona, ). The small, community focused projects makes sense because it focuses on not only renewable energy, but often the handling of waste problems such as manure and provides direct benefit to the local community. Industrial developments generally are lining the pockets of off-shore companies with Ontario tax-payer dollars.

Another point raised was in regards to Germany's renewable energy generation at 15% and Mr. Scheer's vision that in 25 years they can be at 100%. This information completely disregards the reality of what is happening in Germany which needs to back up 90% of wind generation with fossil fuel electrical generation. In fact Germany is presently building 24 new coal generation plants because they do not want to use the politically charged Nuclear. Right here in Canada, Alberta announced last year the construction of a natural gas generator because they allowed a large influx of wind onto their system. How is this suppose to help the environment?
In the case of wind development, we will more than likely increase atmospheric C02 since these fossil fuel generators will be sitting in spinning reserves waiting for erratic wind to stop. This causes our fossil fuels to be used in a very inefficient manner and since we have at best 7 years of known natural gas reserves right now, it's hard to believe that this is a good course of action our govt is taking. This supply is furthered endangered especially since the Ontario Energy Board has taken the route to convert many of our coal fired plants to natural gas. If your producers had investigated further, you would have found out that hydro and nuclear cannot meet winds intermittent nature, so many in the wind industry, forget to relate this fact. These form a part of the base load and are not capable, with any amount of speed needed , of responding to wind's sporadic generation.

Of course there is always the cost factor of being environmental conscious. If you're producers had checked into this, they would have found that Germany and Denmark, (two countries with the highest wind penetration) have the highest electrical energy prices in the world. Sustainable also means being able to afford our environmental initiatives.

As for trying to blame former CEO Jan Carr for not creating green jobs, this missed the mark completely. OPA's mandate is to manage the contracts with generating companies in order to provide a “sustainable, competitive and reliable electrical system for the benefit of Ontario consumers�. That question should have been directed to Minister Smitherman. You should also be aware that in the case of wind development, proponents again mislead us with the number of jobs wind projects will create. Most projects will hire temporarily 60 to 100 workers for approx. 3 to 6 months. 4 to 8 of these jobs will long term ones in maintenance but usually with a firm not locally available.

I could continue with several other deficiencies in your report but would need to continue at length. I'll close by requesting from your producers, a revisit of this issue in order to make us all question the value of what we are doing especially when it comes to Industrial Wind development.

Great show.
Our smart Premier in BC has a better solution to all this emission and fuel problem. A simple 3 letter word :
T-A-X.
Hope he watched the show.

I recently bought a single-story, one-bedroom house on a slab in Victoria, BC with the idea of giving it an extreme makeover and either renting or selling it. It has a shed roof, which I am intending to turn into a salt-box (like the Early American Colonial houses of the NE US). I just watched the program about Germany's introduction of alternative energy, and I think it might be possible to cover the salt-box roof with Arise's solar panels instead of conventional shingles, providing energy for the house and perhaps also some to sell to the grid.

I was also interested in the electric car that could act as a backup generator for the house. (Recent problems with the trunk lines caused a power outage on lower Vancouver Island, and the problem could not be found, so it is likely to recur.)

I am very interested in combining these ideas (perhaps with others) and using this house as an experiment on what can work in an urban environment. Can anyone help me get into contact with companies, individuals or provincial agencies that might be able to help me with this?

Great story!!! I just want to find out more about some basic ways our house could become solar green. What would the costs be and where does one even start. If some of these basic questions could be easly avalible I think we can start changing to the green movement one house hold at a time. I am aware that new home in the Califonia are starting to be build with solar panles on the roof. I would like to hear more of these stories where each house hold could take on simliar projects without waiting for government.

Adjacent to the Pickering nuclear plant is a 1.8 megawatt wind turbine. Pickering currently has six 540 megawatt generating units in operation. Assuming a continuous output of 100%, it would take 300 of those 1.8 Mw wind turbines to replace one of Pickerings units - 1,800 to replace all six units.

However, the average output of wind turbines over time is something like 10%. So in order to ensure that we could generate 3,000 Mw all the time, which is what we would need to do if we were to completely replace Pickering with wind power, we would need 18,000 wind turbines. At a cost of one million dollars each (and I daresay they cost a lot more than that), the total cost would be eighteen billion dollars. Thats five billion more than Darlington cost, including all the cost overruns and Darlington produces 3600 Mw, 600 Mw more than Pickering, for the grid.

Where the future really lies is in nuclear plus hydrogen. Nuclear and hydrogen are an ideal fit. At night, as the electrical demand dips, hydrogen producing plants could kick in thus keeping the overall electrical load more or less constant. As the non-hydrogen producing electrical load increases, hydrogen production would scale back accordingly. Hydrogen, even if it's burned in conventional internal combustion engines, produces no carbon emissions whatsoever, only some nitrogen oxides. Even the nitrogen oxides are eliminated if a fuel cell is used, leaving water vapour and heat as the only effluents...

As the Earth runs out of oil and it becomes too expensive for the average person (I recommend Kenneth Deffeyes excellent book titled "After Oil, The view From Hubberts Peak", or something similar (I gave it to a friend after I read it)), look for the hydrogen economy to take off. It's inevitable.

Thanks for your Documentary it was spot on. I would love to see a sense of urgency by the Citizens, Industry and Government to really launch Canada toward energy independence. Maybe some of the tax breaks and government incentives need to be taken away from those business that are not making efforts to produce green energy, and given to those start ups who could and would given the chance. I would love to power my house, and run my car, all while making a few bucks on the side. Sign me up. I say start the green revolution its about time. Looking forward to more Docs like this one.

What is wrong with our government! Don't they get it? What planet do they think they live on? With car manufacturing companies shutting down plants and taking away jobs from thousands, why isn't there no discussion of converting those plants to manufacture electric cars? Oh ya, Canada's own regulations prevent us from driving them! What part of what Hermann Scheer has achieved isn't getting through to our elected officials? There should be solar panels covering all of our homes and buildings. There should be windfarm's everywhere possible. Hermann Scheer has the right of it. Not only is Germany living greener, but their economy is improving immensly. What more proof does our government need? In my opinion our Government, with regards to the state of the planet we live on, is absolutely pathetic.

Unbelievable and unacceptable are a couple of adjectives that came to mind as I watched the program regarding Herman Sheer. Nuclear plants produce waste that can last generations! What waste does a wind turbine or solar panels leave? Only what it takes to produce them in a plant. But if Ontario would go far enough, that plant would the same type of renewable energy to produce the turbine or panel. It's called the snowball effect!
As a consumer and a Candaian, I would hope that any step my government takes, of whom I pay to work for me, would put my money and my children's future before any special interest group. ie: Nuclear. Wake up Canada. Do you want your children living with Nuclear waste that has no where to go? Or is the wast product from coal buring plants better?
Secondly, if a Canadian wants to make an effort and is willing to foot the bill, why would Ontario Energy make it impossible for the consumer to pay into his own consumption. Bureaucracy, that's it!
As an Ontarion, I can't understand our step backwards in the energy crisis. I would like to bring Herman Scheer here to work Ontario, like her worked Germany. Add in Al Gore. I have personally heard Mr. Gore speak on the problem of the energy crisis and was very motivated and moved by him.
Lets join these two very intelligent men, and move Ontario into the next generation of energy consumption and prodcution. Bye Bye Coal & Nuclear.

Subsidizing green technologies is no solution to our energy needs. If projects are not economic they should not be supported by taxpayers. Henry Hazlitt in his ?Economics In One Lesson? book last revised in 1978 explains the madness of these schemes. The press has never understood simple economics and continually promotes these wasteful projects.

Have destroyed our home and set it ablaze,
and fast approaching are the end of days.
The grass in brown and the snow is black,
it is easy to see things are out of whack.
With the dirty air and the waters drying,
and so many empty stomachs sighing.
Animals gone and never to return,
and natures tough lessons get harder to learn.
We just don't get it we abuse so much,
and with reality we have lost touch.
Really foolish in deed to ruin our place,
knowing full well its now extiction we face.
With so much greed and quest for power,
even in this, the earths last hour.
It is just a matter of time for destruction looms,
because more and more the human flame consumes.
We are indeed the worlds worst disease,
for we take and we take and do as we please.
We have been unchecked for much to long,
and now the earth plays our last swan song.

Terrific show. I could only watch about half the program as I began looking for things to throw at my television set. I certainly feel for those Ontario folks that have been given the shaft. It is nice though, to see something positive being done by government (albeit halfway around the world) to try to right the ship. I find it rather saddening that so many Canadians think "if only our governments understood, they would have the same foresight." They understand perfectly well, but could care less. They are bought and paid for, and their foresight extends only as far as personal gain. The definition of insanity? Voting Conservative and Liberal over and over again and expecting a different outcome. That said, I think the time is coming soon when we'll all join in the green shift, despite our so-called 'leaders'.

Thank you, thank you, thank you CBC for airing information we would never hear about otherwise. I have hope for our children's future knowing that people like Hermann Scheer and Obama are out there now. I took Environmental Studies as electives at University and heard about so many solutions, so many grass roots groups with so many great ideas...but those ideas were not on the 'economic' table, which is the only one the government seems to have anything to do with, so I didn't hear about them outside of university.

first, we are not planning to build additional nuclear power stations. There is no public support in Germany for such plans. We will shut down the last power station in 2023. At that time we will be producing more than 25% of our electricity needs by renewable sources. We are the greenest country at least in Europe in terms of puplic awareness and governmnet committment. The German Green Party is a strong political force and has been in a coalition government when the "green" legislation was adopted.

second, the german taxpayer is paying more than 2 bln euros for the disposal of nuclear waste at the former underground mine morsleben in East Germany because the disposal area is endangered by water inflow... pretty scary what is going on there. The German puplic has been lied upon these developments for years by the operator.

third, 250.000 Jobs have been created by the Renewable Sector in the last few years. The German Nuclear Industry acounts for only 40.000 jobs, which today is matched by the German Photovoltaic Industry alone!
The worlds largest solar cell maker measured by output is Germany based Q-Cells....

So come on Canada, get on board! It`s time for change! ;)

I have to say I was impressed by the story ? The Gospel of Green. It was refreshing to see how solar and wind energy could be implemented in real world terms. Yes, obviously subsidies were involved, but from a long term prospective I believe that the direction that Germany has taken will be followed by other countries. Eventually, even Canada will follow Europe. I feel that at this time, our views are too influenced by our fossil fuel addicted neighbours to the south.

Living in Prince George BC, I know that most of my neighbours dream of ?getting off of the grid?. Unfortunately, to do so costs big dollars. I myself would do so in a minute, even if the pay back was over ten years. Selling power back to the grid would certainly be a bonus.

I believe the Fifth Estate needs to follow up on this story, say in a year from now. I look forward to learning more about Germany?s initiatives.

Keep up the good work!

Congratulations on a fine piece of reporting. The need to inform the public of the impact of global warming and peak oil in a time of financial change is the responsibility of a free press.

We are heading into a perfect storm that makes these issues interrelated - need to address climate change, financial change and the need to develop the energy network of the future. The German transition was realized by passing tariff laws that empowered local communities and citizens to be directly involved in making the changes which you illustrated. There is a role to be played by both the government and the individual. Canada needs to be a leader in both educating public as to need and developing an environment where innovation in a green future is nourished.

I hope that we all rise to the challenges necessary in the next decade. If not, I fear we will become a second tier society wedded to an outdated fossil fuel economy.

Finally! Thank you, CBC, for the kind of programming we've been waiting for all this time!

The sorry tale of missed opportunities by Canadians to now be in Germany's enviable position, the history of the control the oil industry has over the government, and the lack of vision of all levels of government in this country is so pathetic!

Now, only the public can force this inevitable GREEN SHIFT!!!

...maybe we should get on with it?

Excellent show. Hydro One should be ashamed of themselves.

Terrific show that angered me throughout. The Canadian government (past and present) is so under the influence of lobbyists from big corporations/industry that, again, creative and innovative ideas that run counter to current business interests are stymied and shunned. Our governments have such little vision and guts to lead the way...our country fails again.

The Gospel of Green is an excellent program. I hope that all Canadians and especially Ontarians will watch it. One of my questions after watching it is,” Why was it aired after the federal election?” I would have thought that it would have been relevant for people to view prior to choosing the next government. What powers were involved in holding its debut back? I'm sorry but my gut says conspiracy....Those who have money to loose when the change over to greener power happens and the Gospel of Green takes hold.

I was very upset that people couldn't understand what Stephan Dion was trying to do for this country. Just because he was unable to deliver the message in a way that people could understand, doesn’t mean we should stop trying.

We need a new messenger, but his message was correct. Why were more experts not stepping up to the plate and publicly supporting what he was trying to do? I said from the beginning that the conservative party knew him to be a real threat with his newer ideas and that is why they felt the need to attack him as soon as he was voted in as leader. Harpers message of Green shift …green shaft, trying to distract our focus from the positive points of the plan and just make people feel it was a tax not a new way of life and thinking. You can see by your program what Germany is achieving with the help of one of our fellow Canadians. They say we have more potential here in Canada and especially in Ontario, with all our natural resources of wind, solar, and water still to be developed.

I called my 91 year old father in Quebec and told him to watch it on Satalite at 10 PM. Then I called my son and nephew in Ottawa and told both of them it was a "must see" program. Both are at University and it is more their future that is at stake here.

With the recent problems with our economy, I truly feel that this is the saving direction for us to take, to be a leading power and green force.

Many good points were raised in this program. I had a sad feeling here, like after I watched the film about the Avro Arrow... We will lose our best minds again. Past failures were highlighted, and road blocks shown that face the people who are trying to take a greener path. Canada must get her head out of the sand. We as Canadians must think about our future and understand what is best for the environment, will also be best for our economy. Understand the bigger picture, pay now or pay more later, by not acting now.

We need a strong and innovative leader at the head of our country, not someone who is leading and doing the same old thing. Who is out there who can inspire us to seize our future and get the youth excited about the possibilities? Canada is missing the boat. There is lots of money to be made with Green economic technologies and better, more secure life style to be achieved for all of us in Canada. If we can just open our minds and don’t let the Gas/Oil companies, Power companies etc. hold us back .

Canada should encourage ,support, reward those who use and develop energy strategies that will help make us more independent for our future.

Lynne DiCocco's comments are absolutely spot on.
If something looks too good to be true it usually is.
The people of California think this saying is true and last week they voted 65% against adding more renewable energy to their grid.Need I say more?

Excuse me but I think the fifth estate needs to take off it's rose-colored glasses and really look at the environmental destruction wind facilities cause.

Please understand - NO COAL PLANT IN THE WORLD HAS EVER BEEN RETIRED DUE TO WIND INVESTMENT. Why? Because wind in unreliable and inefficient and therefore the fossil fuel plants must run anyway. In fact, Germany is building 26 new ones as we speak.

Fifth Estate did not do their homework on this one. This type of glossed over propoganda will NOT lead to viable solutions.

Wind power is not the answer to our energy problems. It just can not produce enough power to meet our needs. If you start running cars on electricity instead of gasoline you will be even further behind. Enmax invested $100 million into wind energy, built 57 huge wind turbines to generate 75 megawatts. Transalta invested $900 million to build one turbine (which uses far less land than 57 turbines) to generate 450 megawatts. So do the math.
To think wind could supply a significant amount of our energy needs (without electric cars driving up demand for electricity) is just ridiculous.
Let's have an honest discussion. Don't feed people fairy tales.

@Lynne
I'm not sure that the point of the episode was to pit Nuclear vs Renewable. In my opinion, it was rather to highlight the unbelievable inefficiencies and bureaucratic red-tape that has occurred in Ontario and Canada with regards to the implementation of renewable energy and green/sustainable technology.

Regardless of you stance on the nuclear issue I'm sure you can feel sympathy (or rage) when stories such the ZENN car, or Arise Technologies, or Trillium Power or that Dairy farmer get brought up.

How can our gov't not put 2 and 2 together. We're bleeding manufacturing jobs in Ontario and here's a perfect opportunity to regain those jobs through the development, research, manufacturing and installation of green technology. And yet our government, not only doesn't recognize this, but actively makes it harder to do so.

Why?

And the propaganda continues. Why is there no mention of the fact that Germany is building 26 new coal plants.
Fact-90% of wind energy needs conventional backup.
Fact-Germany only uses a small fraction of the wind
energy they produce.
Fact-manufacturing wind turbine components has become a huge Industry in Germany and they have to try and sell it to the rest of the world whether it's viable or not, and it's not.
Fact-the electrical grid can only function properly when power can be produced on demand not "if" the wind blows or the sun decides to shine.
We need to develop renewables that are sustainable and reliable. Wind turbines are extremely expensive toys.

This was a well-crafted story. Unfortunately, it glossed over a number of issues and ignored many others. For instance, it didn't mention the grid stability implications of intermittent generators like wind and solar. Backup power requirements were not discussed. The difference between "installed capacity" and "available capacity" was not described. There were almost no hard figures provided at all, at least with regards to wind and solar. In particular, was the percentage of Germany's energy demand supplied by wind or solar ever mentioned? Were electricity imports from French nuclear plants described? No, on both counts. On the other hand, as a previous commenter pointed out, all kinds of numbers were trotted out against nuclear. That was the problem... the numbers were all against. The costs of nuclear were mentioned without discussing any of the economic value that it has created. Improvements in the performance of Canada's nuclear plants over the past several years was not mentioned. I'm sorry, but your story was a greenwash. It had the right title, though... "The Gospel of Green" correctly identifies the quasi-religious nature of the green movement, i.e. its lack of regard for facts in the face of dogma.

Look it up. Germany wind generation is only 6.4%,solar 0.5% of its total.Their major generation is Coal 46.8% Ours 20.3%. Germany has only 3.2% Hydro Electric, while we have 24.5% .The report portrayed solar and wind made up the majority of their generation.Not True.Lets try and have balanced reporting CBC.

The Fifth Estate claims it is Canada's premiere investigative journalism series, but all I saw was the
Herman Scheer Show - and no investigative journalism.
It was a very one sided show and aimed at a naive and gullible populous who no nothing about our electrical grid and what is required to supply reliable, affordable electricity to our homes.
As an earlier comment stated Germany at last count has 26 coal fired stations in various stages of developement and is considering more nuclear stations.Even Mr Smitherman stated that Germany's consumer electricity costs are four times higher than in Ontario.
People may be interested to know that last week the people of California, the "mecca" of renewable green energy voted 65% against adding more renewables to their grid. Could it be that those people simply can no longer afford to subsidise these expensive,unreliable power sources.Similar in the UK where there is now a new "class" of people called "energy poor".
Already here in Ontario our electricity bills rose slightly on Nov 1st to cover the cost of renewables and conservation inititives and no doubt more to come.
Wake up people and get real we have no other choice than to go nuclear -the Ontario Government knows this but attempts to appear trying to do otherwise by decimating large areas of Southern Ontario with expensive, unreliable and inefficient wind turbines.
This Government has never shown any concern for the
health and welfare of rural citizens before ,why would they now?

Thank you for this informative documentary. I hope you will send a CD of it to every MP and MPP and Premier in Canada, the Prime Minister and President-elect Obama, who seems willing to pursue alternative energy sources. Maybe they would learn something. Then have your producers follow-up 6 months later to determine their views and actions taken to at least question the existing policies. I intend to send this website to my MPP and MP and tell them if they want my vote next time, they need to pay attention and move in this direction. I am very disappointed in the Ontario government for dragging its feet on supporting and encouraging those individual Canadians who have taken the risk and invested thousands of dollars of their own money to develop a renewable source of energy in their communities. Pursuing this course would open up a whole new industry which would create jobs, strengthen the economy and ease the burden and anxiety being felt by those most affected by the downturn in the automotive industry.
Keep up the good work. I enjoy all of your documentaries and I always learn something new.

Great episode. That`s what I want to watch on TV, programs that address the real problems deeper. Regarding some of the criticisms that some commentators wrote here, I can say that despite some considerable issues with some green technologies, Germans are THINKING and doing something, rather than blocking any innovative initiatives like Canadian governments often do. You have to start somehow, right. Germans act and learn. And yes, the costs of green electricity is much higher now, but the polluting ways to produce the conventional one do not take into account the full costs for the damage done to the environment. Canada is a big territory, I`m sure has plenty of opportunities to catch up and even pass Germany in these technologies, but the problem is Canada`s non-renewable resource industry is so big and Canada`s economy is so dependent on it that the transition is bound to be difficult. Of course those who are making money from tar sands, coal and gas and mining don`t want to lose their profits. But the common good of our environment and at the same time people`s health have to take the top priority.

Thank you for a well researched and reported program.

Dr.Hermann Scheer is known by many Canadian's and in particular those of us living in Ontario.

Dr.Scheer argues that the reason why many still think renewable energy cannot replace fossil and nuclear power is because those working in these industries have made efforts to propagate this very notion.

Furthermore, a largely unsuspecting public seldom differentiates between a vested interest and an independent expert. Scientists, industrialists, and even ex politicans, dependent on nuclear and fossil fuel industries for their livelihoods, shun evidence that suggests a total shift to renewable energy is possible.

If your viewers wish to further their knowledge note Dr.Hermann Scheer will be a presenter at the Toronto meeting DECADE for a renewable planet.This is the first renewables event for a global audience. It is scheduled May 28,2009-May 31,2009 this open minded scientist and health care professional will plan to attend. I prefer a future without annual releases of Tritum in lake Ontario drinking water, and Carbon 14 as well as other man made radionuclides, in the air Ontarians now breath.

All you guys preaching about the current problems need to take one thing into consideration... Germany is not blind to the fact that this is not their entire solution as of now, or as of 2015 even.

But there is one clear point, change is needed, and we need to start the transition now, and we need the help and support of government and industry to do it.

It will be an uphill battle WITH the help of the above, WITHOUT the help (or it seems even interference)... most likely an impossibility.

So lets stop complaining about the shortcomings, and let those with the know how develop the solutions.

Nothing explains the logic in the section concerning the farmer and his dilemma, or the Zenn Car.

I think this was a very well presented program, showing some alternatives to what we are doing here in North America.
Some of the previously written comments, emphasize the cost of electricity in Germany vs in Ontario. The pollution created by batteries etc.
I think that both opponents and proponents will always be able to cherry-pick bits and pieces, which will support their particular opinion on the subject. I also think that whatever the Germans are doing has to be seen in context. - I don't think they are doing what they are doing only to be green, or only to generate energy etc.
They are generating some energy, which happens to also make the country a bit greener, create jobs and makes them world leaders in the underlying technology. Each bit in itself my not be that spectacular, but all of it stitched together isn't so bad. One could do a lot worse!
Finally, taking into consideration that Germany is about 1/10th the size of Quebec and has a population of 82 million with no natural resources to write home about, other than their brains. it should be easy to duplicate all this in a country like Canada, the second largest country on the planet, with lots of natural resources and less than half of Germany's population.
Of course, the political will has to be there.
The fact that all the resources just come so easily to us might also be more of a hinderance to innovation than a motivator. - After all it is so much easier to cut a tree or drill a hole somewhere...

I think you did a great job pointing out the overall picture. There are obviously many details that could not be included in your program due to time available and complexity. We all know we are currently creating a very poisoned environment now and for our generations to come. Nuclear still carries the same risks and problems it always has... There will still be carbon power around for many years to come. This will not replace it overnight, or maybe not totally ever. But it will give us a labor industry (employment we need) allowing us to 'recycle' (clean non-chemical fertilizer, clean power, reduce feedlot smells) using our land(s) in a more responsible way (less global warming/greenhouse effect), less chance of huge power failures as it would come from everywhere, not just a couple major producers. The technology is there and it's proven. Close your eyes. Which landscape would you want the governments of today to leave your grandchildren to live in tomorrow?

Would like to see more of this type of program.Manufacturing, based on innovative design is creating wealth. Manipulating dollars is not.As a design engineer/industrial designer, I found that the money managers are too timid to think straight despite the enormous wealth of this country.
The manufacturing culture and respect for design engineers helped politicians zero in on finding openings
to create wealth.
The fact that they found a Canadian to help them is similar to what the Matsui Corporation did, when they were looking for talent and new products.

We will never be able to count on just one form of engery. We must have a balanced approach. I lived in Germany and the electric rates there are very high, now I know why and I am not really happy about it. The wind turbines are found to be polluting the soil and the water around them with dioxins and PCB's. They also breakdown frequently needing very costly repairs. My town needed to come up with $10,000 euros to fix one of ours. Making solar panels creates large amounts of toxins too. So nothing is perfect.

What troubled me was the small comment that electric vehicles are not legal to drive in 40 US states and are only legal to drive in Quebec. If you could have only touched more on the "fuel" distribution system more and who exactly is controlling what types of fuel we can purchase. We would have a better idea on who needs to change...

{note to blog editor - please submit this instead of article written a few minutes ago thanks}

Something must be done!

By some estimates Ontario has lost 250,000 manufacturing jobs, over the last 10 years. With corporate taxes and wages each job may have generated $50,000 dollars into the Ontario economy. Multiply 250,000 jobs times $50,000 = $12.5 billion dollars lost, possible for ever. The spin off for each job is estimated to be 3 to 1, so the net loss might be closer to 30 to 40 billion dollars per year. (It is true that some of the manufacturing jobs were replaced with lower paying service jobs)

The net jobs gained in Germany for the green economy was if I'm correct 250,000. I'm watching our economy fall apart. Poverty and depression are on the increase. I don't see many politicians fighting for our jobs. They created free trade pacts that were supposed to bring more jobs. I feel like were all in some big corporate scam with the average Canadian being the victim. Prices rise, wages fall, poverty rises...

There is an astonishing irony in the juxtaposition of this program with the Globe and Mail's article the next day (Wednesday, Report on Business, front page) on the desperate condition of the "cleantech" industry worldwide, which specifically mentions Arise Technology, one of the Fifth Estate's star performers. Read it and weep.

Thank you for the interesting documentary. I hope our politicians and other leaders will finally wake up. We can all do something about reducing our garbage a and energy consumption, but governments need to help with favorable legislation, etc. We don't need a green evolution, we need a green revolution.

What a fantastic show! I appreciate the Fifth Estate for bringing this topic to mainstream TV.
I so wish we did not live in a society where big oil corporations and such have more control than the government and the people.
Germany has proved that we can have a strong economy and be more environmentally friendly - what the &*$@ are we waiting for?????

Way to go Germany - I am truly inspired by your green revolution and can't wait for Canadians to jump on board.

After the program I laid awake late into the night furious at our Federal and Provincial government's cowardice. Why are we to be sheep following the flock? Where is our innovation? The frustrating part is that it exists. Even more embarassing, it is Canadian made! I am puzzled why we cower to big business and allow them to dictate policy. Where is the backbone of our politicians? As shown on the show it really takes one politician. Where is she / he? Now is the time to become leaders in the Green Revolution. We can show the world that Canadians are the leaders our politicians claim we are.

Your program presented a biased and superficial overview of a very complex issue. You presented facts, but only those that supported the program's "green is our salvation" slant. The lack of resarch was evident in the visuals you repeatedly showed--the Ontario Power Authority is not housed in Ontario Power Generation's headquarters! The plan OPA is developing for Ontario's electricity system is not driven by them, but has been set by Government Directives. The Government knows that German consumers pay much more than Ontario consumers, that not one coal plant has been closed because of wind power and that hundreds of millions of additional dollars are being spent to integrate wind and other forms of distributed generation into their grid. Take a look at where Ontario's wind potential is--your program didn't mention line losses that occur over long distances or Ontario's need to work with First Nations. Arise's success might have something to do with the 47 cent subsidy Germany was providing. I wonder if the drop in their stock has anything to do with the German Government's June decision to cut these subsidies back? Presenting a more balanced and real picture of the challenges we face would provide greater benefit to your viewers.

As a resident in the province that continues to miss the advantages of microgeneration, I shake my head in disbelief that our second round of uncontrolled costs with nuclear energy is nearly upon us. (My hydro bill keeps reminding me of the monthly debt reduction charges of the former Ontario Hydro.)
The computing industry found out a long time ago that many small servers would outperform and cut cost dramatically as the web pushed the need for networking. The energy sector is no different. Thousands of small generation points using multiple energy input types can funtion very effectively in a systematic connection protocol. The WWW sytem can't ever fully collapse; one wonders why.
Like Germany, this province will have no choice to retool in the transportation sector to include energy production and its related manufacturing elements.
Do you think that Waterloo company might be persuaded to come back home where they are so needed?

All you guys preaching about the current problems need to take one thing into consideration... Germany is not blind to the fact that this is not their entire solution as of now, or as of 2015 even.

But there is one clear point, change is needed, and we need to start the transition now, and we need the help and support of government and industry to do it.

It will be an uphill battle WITH the help of the above, WITHOUT the help (or it seems even interference)... most likely an impossibility.

So stop complaining about the shortcomings, and let those with the know how develop the solutions.

Still have not explained the logic in the section concerning the farmer and his dilemma.

Thank you, an excellent report!

Like other posters here, I feel my anger growing at the complete ineptitude at our governments and the bureaucrats who "manage" the production of power in this country.

We need to make our feelings known to these idiots and force them to realise the idiocy of thier ways.

I found the show interesting, but a bit of a one-sided fluff piece. It really did a poor job of comparing the alternative energy sources, making nuclear the monster while wind and solar the saviour. No mention of the fact that the latter are not a constant source. Who wants to be the patient on the operating table when the wind dies down and the cloud passes overhead? They have a role but they are costly and require backup.
I prefer 6 cents to 23 cents per kwh. In the future please at least attempt to appear to be unbiased.
However, I do feel the government should make it much easier for small producers to connect to the grid that we all pay for.

I think the point of the show was to demonstrate that our politicians have a complete lack of foresight and vision. While they mull over rewarding companies that haven't proved successful- GM springs to mind- they don't see the manufacturing opportunities that present themselves with these renewable technologies. They may not pay off immediately, but technology is always improving- but it needs money and the opportunity to do so.

It's time that small energy producers began selling power to their neighbours apart from Hydro One. Obviously there's a demand, and the government isn't willing to oblige.
It's also notable that installation of windpower generators would provide employment for lots of recently unemployed workers, would provide clean power......
Are the authorities concerned with losing personal investments in coal energy?.... in nuclear energy?? Is there a fear of losing control? Just why is there any hesitation on this?
Years ago, when electric power was brought to every little outpost in Canada, the cost may have loomed large. The same will be said of this project.

JUST DO IT!! Yes, you can!

I'm shocked at the ignorance in society and our "new"
goverment.When will we ever learn, we need more shows on nuclear, so we can abolish it before it abolishes us.
Money should not be a issue when we are talking about LIFE Sustenance.Green has it's negatives,But our survival is at stake and I'm sure in time we can work out the evident problems with green.

Great and very pertinent show!

How tragic it is. Canada will NEVER be a leader in the field of clean, modern energy development while we are tied to the machinations of nuclear lobby groups.

The USA has its National Rifle Association, we have the Canadian Nuclear Association and AECL.

Do the math. The environment needs immediate action. It takes 10 years to bring nuclear plants online! ...

I enjoyed this presentation - it was both informative and interesting. A few inaccuracies:

(1) The Ontario Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation are two separate entities. The screen shot of the OPG building across from Queen?s Park is misleading ? OPG does not run the procurement process for new renewable generation, OPA does.

(2) The Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program was launched in November 2006, not in 2007.

Other than that, it would have been interesting to know what Ontario ratepayers are willing to pay for renewable energy. $0.42/kWh for solar is expensive electricity, especially considering that the average wholesale energy price is less than $0.05/kWh year-to-date. Do average consumers know the costs of different types of electricity generation? Are they concerned with these high costs?

Obviously, we need to develop cleaner power systems in Canada. A centralized transmission grid is not an excuse to hide behind. Perhaps it is time we took a serious look at distributed generation and load management. Renewable energy is part of the carbon mitigation solution; however, since the supply is predominantly intermittent, many other solutions must be advanced in parallel.

I am so happy to see that you have exposed at least some of the issues of nuclear power. This industry is a perfect example of big industry rules and we Canadians have to step up to the plate. How many proposals are they making in Canada-we have 4 for here in Albera and we don't need the power-so it will likely be to sell to places such as California while we get the radiation and the waste as well as the cost. ..

I think the Show was good for the time allowed. The way to go is with Wind and Solar as well as Methane where possible. There is also Micro-Hydro that is available in select portions of the Country.While I agree the 20 vs 6 cents difference was not stressed there is also the hiding of the true cost that is not brought to the consumer. My electricity cost on my power bill is cost of electicity 20 dollars and transmition cost 124 dollars (as an example) there is a large gap in these numbers that do not jive. If the true cost of looking after the Nuclear waste and keeping it secure was factored into the cost of Nuclear I feel no person could afford 1 watt of nuclear power as it would be cost prohibitive....

The 5th Estate program on Green technology and the steps Germany has taken to embrace it are most revealing. I feel deeply disheartened when I listen to the numerous opportunities lost in Canada, on many levels, over grasping the significance of what 'going green' respresents. If the government in this country wants to assume real leadership and inspire it's citizens, there can be no moment better than NOW to embrace these technologies.
Glenda Miller, Nelson, B.C.

Thank-You for airing this documentary - it brought clarity to the greening story... It basically comes down to where we want to invest our dollars? IF we continue to subsidize Nuclear Energy without responsibility being born by the industry itself, we are terribly foolish. Overuns in Ontario have cost its citizens financially (the health concerns for our children are yet to be understood). ....

I've just finished reading Hermann Scheer's Energy Autonomy, and would recommend it to anyone who believes in spite of all the environmental and economic doom and gloom, that we might still have a future.

Why must Canada repeat the story of our nuclear past, when we could diversify, create jobs, and use our wealth of natural energy to get rolling down the road to a clean, green and sustainable future? Why is there always money to degrade the environment, but we just can't afford to live in harmony with it?

Are we dinosaurs or what?

Thanks for suggesting there is an alternative.

Awesome awesome documentary! Keep up the good work. Why can't the politicians here see the light?? I do agree that some things were glossed over or are missing but its good to see how some governments are progressing towards changing at lightspeed compared to us.

And no nuclear is not an option in the long term. While it provides lots of energy its not viable. And in case they take years and years, not to mention billions and billions to build.

Lets work with biofuels, solar and wind. Trapping methane from waste and burning it prevents that methane, which is many many times worse that carbon dioxide, from going into the atmosphere.

They are even working on solar cells that can be mixed into paint and sprayed onto anything. Imagine all the energy generated if every tower was covered in the this "solar cell paint"??

Thank you, very informative documentary.
The Canadian government should take a good look at this material.
It is their responsibility to work for society and the people of this great country and not for the lobbyist and energy giants.

The wind power option was presented as the solution to all our energy needs. Furthermore, it suggested that we should all drive electric cars. First of all wind power can not come close to supplying even half of our current electrical power needs. Those huge wind turbines that take so much space provide very little power. One coal fired turbine provides the same power as a field of turbines. If you start using electricity instead of gasoline to power all of our cars then the amount of electricity we'd need would be far greater than we could supply right with out current infrastructure. Let's get real when we have these discussions.

I think it is abysmal that the Canadian government is resisting the evolution of such a movement. What I still cannot understand is why "Green" technology is thought of as a financial burden as opposed to a potential economic powerhouse. Fossil fuels is a big business. Why can't "Green technology" also become big business? The Canadian government should be providing more incentives to these types of technology. With the world in the so called economic crisis, green technology maybe something that can help us avoid further damage and weather the storm. The sooner the government jumps on the band wagon, the sooner we can benefit from the rewards. It may also be in the interest of oil companies to dip their sticks into this movement. We always hear how they are improving their methods of getting business done, finding cleaner ways to extract etc. They should hybridize their business so to speak, it has the potential to be very profitable for them. With their resources it should be viable option.

2008 could well turn out to be the year of change for the western world when it faced cross roads of: Hubbert's peak, Climate Change, and dependency on imported fossil fuel. Big car manufacturers broke and the monetary system collapsed, proven unsustainable. The future of energy will be nuclear and renewable. If Germany is short of electricity it can always go to France as backup with some 80% of their electricity from nuclear.

It is hard to tax wind and light.

This was an interesting show but already seems a bit dated. The cost of nuclear was noted as being high but wind and solar are not only more expensive but only produce about 10% of the time and not always when you want it. Thus the costs (dollars per watt): nuclear: 2.9 (OPA), 4 (Darlington), 7 (Moody's); wind: 15 (40 effectively); and solar: 10 (100 effectively). So if we want to double (or more) our electricity costs, we could put lots more windmills and build a huge new grid to support them. And windmills require a back-up: Germany is building more coal plants while Ontario is building more natural gas plants, i.e., you get one plant for the price of two. Or: The only real alternative that wasn't even mentioned is Enhanced Geothermal Systems which are green, use no fuel so no risk of explosion, continuous for base-load yet flexible as well, can start small and easily scale up to large plants locally, have no decommissioning worries, and are much cheaper than intermittent wind and solar. The expertise in deep drilling gained by the oil and gas industry makes EGS a practical source of an
enormous amount of clean power.

Why does it seem so easy from where I sit to make the decision that renewable power is the best buck for our tax dollar spending for energy.

How difficult can it be to put an electric car on Ontario's highways? We all have plugs in our garages & in our homes!

Farmer's wows regarding hooking up to the grid was something else! Absolutely, the main reason any kind of investment in any such project as wind or solar would stop me cold. The government does not play fair.

The big nuclear companies seem to be steering the energy projects here in Ontario.
Point about how the costs of storing nuclear waste is never included in the price of electricity was spot on.

Those billions of our tax dollars wasted on storing radioactive waste should be used to provide truly clean electrical power from solar, wind, biofuels & wave "farms".

Your show sparked a nerve with me and got me so angry. I can't beleive our Federal and Provicial governments are so blind and unwilling to do their jobs. I am a strong supporter of green wish the truth would get out there and people would force out governments to do the right thing. The Ontario Power Authority and Hydro One make me sick! They are as bad as "big oil" in preventing the evolution of greener automobiles. Please air your show as many times as possible so more people may wake up to the truth and stop Ontario from going down the nuclear road again!

A proper green shift: economically sustainable!

What more can we do as consumers?

Thanks for the show. Truly inspiring! I feel my passions rising.

Let's as a province and as a country become leaders in the green revolution!

I really enjoyed this documentary. Instead of simply listing the possibilities (what is possible in theory, what COULD be good...) this documentary actually showcases success stories --- real experiences that have been environmentally and economically profitable.
This is crucial if these technologies are going to be taken seriously by Canadian citizens and the government. What is most outrageous is that huge gaz, oil and nuclear companies get large subsidies for producing dirty energy while greener, renewable innovations are treated with suspicion and get tripped up by the government.
It's a real shame that you have to be a multi-million $ environmental monster to get public subsidies...

This story could not be more true. I personally know someone in Ontario who has a solar start up business. Their technology is unprecedented and is generating interest all over the world. Their design is exciting because it will enable solar energy to become much more affordable.
Unfortunately the bureaucracy in Ontario is so slow that this company will likely relocate within the next year. It's unfortunate to see great Canadian companies such as this leave because they just can't get the support here in Canada.

Thank you for producing this eye-opening piece. It makes me wonder what is it that our governments still need to see, to learn, before they realize that the new green technologies will not only save our species, it will also save the economy.

Meanwhile our best brains, best know-how like McLennan, move out of Ontario, out of Canada and we all become poorer.

It's pretty obvious that the Ontario government is afraid of companies who generate power.
Money is the issue here not the people. Why are we still paying for a huge mistake they made with nuclear power plants that happened Thirty years ago?
Generating power from windmills and solar panels are clean and effective.
Unfortunately, a Canadian businessman who makes solar panels was approached by the German government to produce them there, with the help of there government, shows me that our government is incompetent to make good decisions.
This is why Ontario is in a mess.

Good story. I have visited Germany also to see their renewable energy revolution in February 2006. I visited in anticipation of Dalton McGuinty's press release on March 21 2006 of Ontario's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) modeled after the German Feed in tarrifs. The purpose of my trip was to learn all I could from a people and country that was making renewable energy a reality. And it appeared we were about to start the same thing in Ontario. We started investing and creating jobs and building projects. Unfortunately, there has been incredible inertia to overcome. I saw first hand the job creation and the economic stimulus that the renewable energy industry created in Germany.
My hope is that the RESOP will be reactivated, allowing small Canadian companies to continue what we started and allow us to create more jobs to help replace the ones lost in the auto industry. The question that remains is this also what Dalton Mcguinty hopes. According to the Report it doesn't appear so.

I have to say, they are WIND TURBINES not WIND MILLS. They are totally different things. Wind turbines produce power. Wind mills grind (as in grain into flour) and pump water.

But, otherwise it was a very interesting and informative program.

This was a well done and much needed wake up call about green technology and it's state in Ontario and Canada.
My only complaint was why didn't you show this a month ago when we could have done something about it, the election is over and Canada voted in the least green party again, this could have tipped the balance.

This is the exact kind of ridiculous wishful thinking that makes a lot of the green movement a sham. The show talks about the German couple who have a solar panel on their roof that makes them money. The only way for them (or anyone right now) to make money on solar is with a 1000% subsidy. So yeah, if you offered me 10 times the going price for electricity, I think I could come up with a lot of 'green' ways to make it. Then more talk - we would not like to introduce anything like actual numbers into the conversation. Until we get to nuclear. Then all the numbers come out. 30 billion here, 10 billion there - sounds expensive! But to build wind (the most viable renewable now) into a system that makes 50% of our power - like the show says seems 'doable' would cost at the current accepted prices for wind systems and storage techniques for when it 'aint blowin' about 30 million / MW actual capacity, or about 500 billion dollars. If we use wind like Germany has now at 10 - 15% of production, then the price per MW actual capacity comes down because storage problems are largely avoided. Still expensive though. One thing that Ontario has now that Germany does not is lots and lots of waste - a few billion into conservation programs would pay us back many times over. One other fact - Ontario is actually using less power this year than last year, for the second year in a row. It turns out that the best way to be green is to be frugal. Spending money is rarely green.

I think it should be considered criminal to continue our reliance on nuclear power generation.The waste from this industry has a half life of 180,000 years....will the executives still be around to look after their waste....dont forget Chernobyl...it CAN happen here just as easily.If the 20 billion that it will cost for the next plant was given away to the solar , wind and biogas sector.....we would all be much better off..

This was a great exposition of green vs conventional energy and Canada's lack of will to advance in getting off non-renewable energy sources such as gas, oil, coal and nuclear. Where was this show when the recent federal election campaign was debating green vs conventional?

One point the show glossed over all too quickly was that the price of electricity in Germany is 23 cents/kwh while in Ontario it is 6 cents/kwh (your numbers - do they both include transmission, distribution, debt reduction, PST, GST VAT, etc.?) It would enlightening to know the capital and operating cost of nuclear vs wind and solar energy in the Canadian context.

GM is a dinosaur, if our government bails them out and the price of oil goes down, GM will go rite back to making gas hog trucks and suvs. We need to switch to a green economy. This will create good jobs and provide a better future for new generations. We cannot bail out a failed industry.

An excellent documentary showing what Canada could do if the political will was here. The green shift will have to happen and the sooner the better. Government should remove the barriers and red tape and encourage the shift to renewable energy and we will all reap the benefits.

More programs on renewable energy are needed. Well done CBC. Quality TV as usual.

fantastic show, i think canada should take a hard look at what germany is doing about the energy crises. look at all the jobs that can be created.

Thank you fifth Estate for airing this show. It is about time for Canadians and especially the government to wake up. Here in Canada we have all the resources to become a world leader in renewable energy. Our wind, solar and tidal resources are not going anywhere, once harvested it will be there for ever. The employment we could provide would compensate for the jobs lost in our auto industry. Yet another business is lost to another country because we are too afraid of change. Wouldn't it be nice to be known as a leader with trying to save our environment. Lets think of the future for a change, and not just a present.

Very interesting show however I can't help but think something is missing. I don't think there is any energy solution that is free and wish your show could have addressed some missing items of concern. Examples include the pollution from manufacture and disposal of batteries and solar cells along with wind noise and potential impact from failures of small energy operations. The big black out of a few years ago is only one example of what can happen to the north american elctrical grid when one small supplier screws up. And then there is all those compact energy saving light bulbs which contain small amounts of hazardous material that by volume could present a major problem for all our futures. Just a few thoughts as I experiment with my costly and inefficient solar cells and batteries.

What a crock of propaganda this episode was!! Information was cherry-picked to make "green energy" look so wonderful, as opposed to big, bad nuclear power. You didn't mention all the new coal plants that Germany is building because wind energy is only able to supply a small percentage of the country's power requirements. You also didn't explain that Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is advising that they consider building more nuclear power stations. You forgot to interview E.on, the German power company that has a more realistic view of the problems inherent with wind energy. While the program dwelled upon the high cost of nuclear, you didn't mention the higher cost of wind energy, especially when the transmission grid upgrades and backup generation are included. Oh that's another thing, what about the fact that Ontario will have to build multiple natural gas generating stations to back up this wind power? At least Minister Smitherman mentioned the high cost of electricity in Germany as opposed to Canada. This is not the quality of reporting that I have come to expect from The Fifth Estate.