Paige is a wonderful realtor! She was very patient with me in my buying process - buying your first condo can be a very stressful time but Paige wasn’t pushy & was always quick to point out things I wouldn’t know to look for. Very trustworthy! Thank you for making my first time buying experience a good one!
Nancy Moro
Week of the Sun!
Crash course in sun worshiping from one solar expert to another
By Jennifer Smith - Kelowna Capital News
Published: May 16, 2009 12:00 PM
It took just eight words to make Fatih Birol a household name around the world, if only for a day.
“We should leave oil before oil leaves us,” the chief economist of the International Energy Agency said, rocketing himself to front pages with one poignant observation.
Made just over a year ago, the comment served German solar expert Gerhard Stryi-Hipp well Friday morning as he tried to show Kelowna how his country put its own name on the map by harnessing the power of the sun, politicians and solid marketing techniques to become the world leader in solar energy.
“It’s only a manner of time before renewables are cheaper than oil,” he told those gathered for Kelowna’s first solar workshop. “We have to reconstitute our energy supply system.”
But selling that idea to the general public will not happen overnight, according to Stryi-Hipp as he tracked the solar industry through decades of ups and downs in Germany for his audience.
“It’s important to see that it’s a long process,” Stryi-Hipp said. “(Although), I’m sure with the experience that’s available it will be much quicker here in Canada.”
One idea Kelowna could learn from in its quest to become the lead solar city in B.C., he said, is an event called The Week of the Sun.
In Europe, several countries now proclaim their focus on solar energy for a week-long social marketing event in which solar experts and solar providers try to get the public to see the advantages of greener technology.
The events include things like solar car races for kids which “show how the sun can really get things moving,” Stryi-Hipp said.
Germany got things moving toward solar technology in the 1990s, primarily by implementing energy grants and government programs in a similar vein to Friday morning’s federal energy grant announcements. (See story below.)
Problematic periods in Germany tended to follow cutbacks to those programs, although 2006 proved a watershed year for other reasons.
When oil and gas supply started to dwindle two years back and the general public felt the pinch, the industry hit an all time high in his country.
Germany holds 35 per cent of the European solar market, second to none, although Greece and Austria are also major players on a per capita basis.
The country is light years ahead of Canada in its solar installations.
During the event, the Canadian federal government announced another round of solar grants to a growing number of incentives Solar B.C.’s Nitya Harris is hoping will form the backbone for B.C.’s commitment to secure 100,000 solar roofs.
Germany, by comparison, is installing that number every year—the provincial commitment is open-ended—and their government’s commitments include ensuring a minimum 30 per cent of all energy consumption within the country comes from renewable energy.
On a global basis, solar technology falls second only to wind technology for the amount of energy it produces, beating out geothermal installations.
Here in B.C., the solar system installations Solar B.C. is focused on are hot water systems, designed to replace domestic hot water, but not to heat homes.
In Europe, talk is now centred on how to use solar to produce heat for buildings. They’re currently piloting combination systems designed to produce hot water and building heat.
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