HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-07-05, Page 7THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2007. PAGE 7.After a busy six months, theCentre for AppliedRenewable Energy (CfARE)has finally slowed down
enough to put a sign out front.
Since its opening in
November of last year, Joan
van der Meer and David
Blaney have had their hands
full with the “tidal wave” of
interest that flowed in when
they opened their doors.
“The appetite for renewable
energy was far greater than
we thought it was. We opened
the doors and the tidal wave
just came in, so it’s taken until
now to get some of the
mundane things like signs
done,” Blaney said. “But now
Joan [van der Meer] has
finally gotten us organized.”
The sign is on the way, says
Blaney, as is a website for the
centre, so the CfARE can be
accessed worldwide, 24 hours
a day. The website is another
task put on the backburner
due to the amount of interest
in the centre.
Renewable energy and
environmental issues have
interested Blaney for years
now, resulting in his “falling
into his position” at the
CfARE. Blaney is also a
Huron East councillor, a post
which helped him to
familiarize himself with the
financial problems facing
rural Ontario and the
environmental issues of the
day.
The idea for the centre,
however, came from a group
of citizens, who brought the
idea to the Huron Business
Development Corporation.
The centre got its start by
hiring van der Meer as co-
ordinator, then Blaney as a
technical advisor of sorts,
though he is devoid of a title
that communicates that.
However, that is how the
two of them communicate it.
Blaney keeps his ear to the
ground for the latest
technologies and learns as
much as he can, to ready
himself for queries from the
public, and van der Meer
works out of the
administrative end.
Blaney’s research was
something that led him to
realize what an anomaly their
centre is.
“I’ve looked at what’s out
there, and there are groups
that promote wind energy and
there are groups that promote
solar energy. There are trade
groups and there are
environmental groups that
have a broad interest in
renewable energy. But there
didn’t seem to be an
organization in Ontario that
has a broad intention to
inform and explain renewable
energy and how to apply it
and where to apply it,” Blaney
said.
“The reality has confirmed
what the research was saying,
so by default and because that
was our interest, that’s what
we moved in to do. It’s not the
only thing we do, there’s the
public education aspect and
there’s the public information
aspect. The difference
between the two being that
with public education, you’re
taking things to people,
whereas with public
information, it tends to bedirected the other way; peoplecoming to us.”And while the CfARE hasclearly had its share of peoplecoming in for information,public information nights
were organized to bring
affordable presentations ($5
each, predominantly to pay
for the coffee and cookies,
says Blaney) on several types
of renewable energy to the
people of Brussels.
With an approximate
attendance of 50 people per
night, regional experts were
brought in to give preliminary
presentations about solar
energy, wind energy,
anaerobic digestion and
biomass.
In addition to the
information nights, van der
Meer says the centre has
turned into more of an
information hub than
anything else, but they also
take up odd jobs here and
there wherever renewable
energy is concerned.
“We’re not actually pushing
one technology or vendor
over another, we have no
intention to do this. However,
there are obviously situational
recommendations,” Blaney
said.
“We do some studies, I
attend conferences and
summits, certain municipal
officials have asked for
studies or briefs on different
technologies.”
Blaney and van der Meer
attribute a lot of their business
to the centre’s cutting edge
feel. Blaney says renewable
energy is catching on, but it’s
still a new field and many of
the related fields are still
catching up.
“Now Lambton College has
a Renewable EnergyTechnician course, but youcouldn’t have graduated fromit yet. This would be thesecond year of a three-yearcourse. However, there are anumber of places that have
individual courses in Ontario
and several in the U.S.,” he
said.
“For instance, the
government’s latest building
code regulations were
probably the first to recognize
renewable energy and to
define when you need a
permit for solar or wind
technology; and this makes it
somewhat difficult for people
because you may actually
have to educate the officials
as you go along.”
And even as it’s his job,
Blaney says technology is
moving faster than it can be
absorbed right now.
“With this technology, I
spend all day looking for
things like this and I’m
always behind. Every day I
come in, I’ve lost ground.
That’s simply because they’re
inventing it faster than you
can keep up with it,” he said.
“The sheer volume of it
requires that it’s a constant
job to keep up with what’s
going on, so that if people ask
questions, you have some sort
of answer for them.”
However, while the volume
of the field can be
intimidating, Blaney says,
renewable energy technology
is becoming more of a
household name.
“You can tell a technology
is becoming popular whenyou can go to Canadian Tireto get it,” he says.“You can get CanadianTire’s renewable energycatalogue at their partsdepartment now. I don’t know
why it’s there, but it is.”
With the field being vast,
intimidation, says Blaney, is
why many organizations tend
to specialize, but specializing
can result in poor all-around
service.
“The field is very wide now
and it’s intimidating. So the
tendency now, is to pick one
thing and go with that and I
think that’s why an
information centre that
doesn’t do that can be very
useful,” he said.
“I think in a lot of cases, the
right hand doesn’t know what
the left is doing and there
isn’t the time or the money to
reinvent the wheel every six
weeks or every six months.
However slowly, I think there
will be some level of co-
ordination of information.”
Blaney stressed that the
CfARE wouldn’t be standing
in Brussels if it wasn’t for co-
ordination. He calls centres
like the one in Brussels a
growing network of
organizations that helps each
other along.
The CfARE is funded by
the Ministry of Training,
Colleges and UniversitiesLabour Division as well asthe Huron BusinessDevelopment Corporation. In addition to their funding,CfARE is partnered with theElora Centre for
Environmental Excellence,
the Maitland Valley
Conservation Authority,
Saugeen Economic Business
Development and several
more. Blaney says there are
about 13 different
organizations he would call
partner to the CfARE.
While embraced by the
village of Brussels and rural
Ontario as a whole, Blaney
says the “Why Brussels?”
question gets asked a lot.
“The idea was that this
centre wouldn’t just be for
Huron,” he says.
“This centre is for Perth and
Bruce and all of Southwestern
Ontario. It works out that
Brussels really is the centre of
the area we’re trying to cover
and Brussels also had the
space. We actually looked at
Wingham, but we didn’t like
any of the spaces up there.”
In addition to the central
location, Blaney says that the
people of Brussels and the
surrounding area have more
interest in renewable energy
than people might think they
do.
“There is a major amount of
interest from area farmers.
They are always accused of
being conservative, but in
terms of renewable energy,
that hasn’t seemed to be the
case. Some of them are very
much on the forefront andwilling to put up the capitaland the installation, becausein this area, there can be agood return on a long-terminvestment,” he said.“Plus, a tremendous
number of these projects can’t
be done in the cities. They
don’t have the resources and
they don’t have the space.
Eventually, they’re going to
be more and more dependent
on the countryside.”
Blaney says rural Ontario is
prime real estate for
renewable energy because it
has crops, wind, sun and
waste.
“Well, I think we’re on the
leading edge,” says van der
Meer. “And it’s exciting.
After proving to be a
leading organization in the
field, the CfARE has been
approached by several other
municipalities to bring their
information nights to them.
This is something they hope
to do in the fall. Blaney says
that touring the information is
where the network of
organizations comes in handy.
Putting the information on the
road is also something Blaney
feels a responsibility to do.
“I think it’s up to us to
educate people, to dispel
some of the myths and to also
point out that they’re not
appropriate for every place,”
he said.
“Not to mention, the public
education role is going to be
crucial in the next few years.”
With global warming being
Centre flooded with ‘tidal wave’ of interest
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Technology moving faster
than it can be absorbed
Continued on page 11