Edmonton Real Estate Investor: environment

This will be the new norm for homes in the coming decades. It's very exciting to see it happen in Edmonton first.

"A house in the McKernan neighbourhood has become the first in Canada to earn a net-zero certification from Natural Resources Canada, one more step toward making the new technology mainstream.

Third-party certification means anyone buying the home can be sure of its claim — that the home generates as much energy as it uses during an average year. "JUMP

Alberta and the oil sands get a pretty dirty rap from environmentalists. When you are running the biggest project on earth you are always under scrutiny and of course everyone has an opinion. Yet every month or so I find an article about how Alberta is leading the world environmentally one way or another.

"Edmonton will soon become the first city in the world to start turning its solid waste into liquid fuel.

The city has signed an agreement with two Canadian biofuel companies to build a plant that will take regular garbage out of landfills and turn it into ethanol.

Those behind the initiative are calling it a huge step towards sustainable, environmentally friendly energy. "

Although there is a lot of talk about ethanol and how we should be using it, why is an area that is getting so much flak leading the WORLD in this initiative? More action and less talk perhaps??

Find the full article here

The image of bamboo for tropical huts is rapidly changing as the hollow stemmed grass is being used to build churches, bridges and luxury homes.

"The relationship to weight and resistance is the best in the world. Anything built with steel, I can do in bamboo faster and just as cheaply," said Colombian architect Simon Velez

Velez has developed special techniques to ensure that weight bearing and bugs are no problem for structures made of bamboo. The environmental material is taking the world or architecture by storm and buildings made from the super grass are going up from Hawaii to China to Bali.

Read more about the amazing building material

Eldon Freeman is a Toronto real-estate broker who is setting up a national green real-estate association with James Rodgers executive director of B.C.'s Greener Realty Association.

Their dream is to have a mandatory energy evaluation for every Canadian home before they are sold on the market.

"Within five years, we hope to have mandatory energy audits right across Canada on every resale home," Elden Freeman executive director of the non-profit National Association of Green Agents and Brokers

The two plan to help teach real-estate agents how to promote greener homes and show homeowners how to make energy-efficient upgrades.

Freeman and Rogers mandatory energy evaluations include assessments of insulation, appliances, furnaces, air conditioners and exhaust fans, and also measure how airtight a home is.

If you cant wait to make your home energy efficient then here is some good news. You can get grants from the government to "green" up your house.

There is a lot of money out there that the Federal Government is willing to give out to owners of single family homes including detached, semi-detached and low-rise multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) that are no more than three storeys high.

The ecoEnergy Retrofit Program is available to property owners so they can qualify for federal grants by improving the energy efficiency of their homes, and reducing their home's impact on the environment.

You reduce the cost of running your investment property by improving its "greeness" if you don't care about the environment, money in your pocket should peak your interest.

PLEASE CONTACT ecoENERGY Retrofit before doing any renovation to your home!!

For a Full List Of Improvements Covered Under ecoENERGY Retrofit Click Here
To Download the ecoEnergy Retrofit Info PDF Click HERE

Alberta Oil Sands are getting a dirty name. Darryl Hannah, Al Gore and Schwarzenegger are all champions of low-carbon fuel standards aimed at cutting imports from places like Alberta. They also see ethanol as the oil of the future but whether this wonder gas is really that wonderful is unclear.

Does it require less energy to produce ethanol?

Independent study by Michigan State University MSU shows that there is 56% more energy in a gallon of ethanol than it takes to produce it. The available energy from ethanol is much higher than the input energy for producing ethanol.

Or More?

The fossil energy expended during production alone...easily outweighs the consumable energy in the end product."".... those who think using the "green" fuel will reduce fossil fuel consumption are deluding themselves -- and the federal government's practice of subsidizing ethanol by offering tax exemptions to oil refiners who buy it is a waste of money. Tad Patzek UC Berkeley Geoengineering Professor

Either way at the moment fossil fuel is still necessary and Alberta is the safest place to get it.

Some truths from Financial Post Writer Claudia Cattaneo:

-that if it weren't for Canada's oil, Americans would have to depend even more on Venezuela, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to fuel their tanks, while waiting -- and waiting for other sources such as biofuels and wind power to save the day;

-that Canada's oilsands business is doing more than most American motorists to reduce its carbon footprint;

-that Canada's oilsands industry is growing because that's what Americans have asked for;

-that light, sweet oil is a vanishing energy source worldwide;

-that Canada's oil is sold to the United States at market prices without strings; and

-that Americans, the top consumers of energy in the world, are hardly in a position to lecture Canadians on the environment or to criticize how Canadians make a living.

I drive economically or better yet walk and ride a bicycle, I recycle and I do my best to help the environment BUT I am not deluded that I can give up fossil fuels.

If it isn't global warming then it is certainly the oilsands use of potable water that has enviromentalists in an uproar. The industry consumes 2–4 barrels of water for every barrel of oil it produces, if oil sands production triples to 3 million bbl/day by 2015, as predicted, the industry would require 15 cubic meters of water per second.

“The Government of Alberta is very interested in making sure our resources are extracted in a fashion that’s environmentally friendly and has long-term potential to enhance recovery,” says Alberta Energy spokesman Tim Markle.

A polymer which increases waters viscosity is hoped to be one of many solutions.
This polymer is a solid, imported from the United States and blended at the site. It thickens water to a jelly like syrup that reduces the difference in viscosity between water and oil, improving H2O's ability to displace oil when producing wells.

“We’re using polymer to create elasticity in the fluid,.... If you think of pushing molasses with water, water will break through molasses. On the other hand, molasses will push water like a piston. If the two were a more similar viscosity, the push would be smoother."
“We believe we’re going to get very good recovery factors. Every per cent counts....”
Canadian Natural Resources Limited exploitation manager Rob Richardson
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