Canadians love a good deal. I’m not suggesting that we are a nation of skinflints who constantly dig into the couch to find spare change (I admit, I still do that from time to time), but we do seem to enjoy buying stuff that isn’t expensive. We find it hard to pass up a garage sale, we flock to Walmart in search of a sale on school supplies, and we pride ourselves in negotiating a better price on that used car. The same goes for the energy we use to power our lives.
Every year in March, millions of people celebrate Earth Hour, along environmentally-minded non-profit agencies and electrical utilities. This is one hour on a weekday evening when we are all encouraged to conserve electricity – turn off the lights, eat a meal by candlelight and prove to ourselves that we can indeed cut our consumption of power. It is well advertised in most mainstream media in the days leading up to the event and quite visible during the hour, when even the lights on the Lions Gate Bridge are extinguished.
In 2015, BC Hydro recorded a 15 megawatt reduction over normal power use during the Hour. How much is that in real terms? Depending on how you do the math, it’s enough electricity to power 5,000 to 10,000 homes, give or take. Three cheers for our ability to turn off the lights when asked.
Actually, three cheers would be a bit much. The savings reflect a reduction of about 0.2 per cent of the normal electrical load in the province. Yes, you read that correctly: 0.2 per cent. Newfoundland saved more than 30 megawatts with about one-eighth the population of B.C. We West Coasters are apparently unable or, more likely, unwilling, to stop our power meters spinning even when we are told to do it for one measly hour for the good of the planet. Why? Because power is cheap. At least it is here.
We may complain about our electricity bills when they show up every month and install energy-efficient lightbulbs and fridges to save a bit, but overall, electricity use continues to rise. In Germany and Denmark, power costs three to four times as much as here in Canada, so many people do not even own a clothes dryer due to the high cost of operation. Meanwhile, here in B.C., we are using power with reckless abandon, with no signs of slowing down. Rain falls and rolls downhill, creating low-cost power on the way. We’re lucky.
In Squamish, there is an ongoing debate about green energy. What we all need to understand is that until the price and reliability of wind and solar reach a point that they can compete head-to-head with cheaper energy, the world will continue to use oil, gas and coal to spin turbines and power our televisions. The gap is closing, but there is still a long way to go.
