Comments on: Why Finnish Paper Mills Became Electric Utilities

By: cityville

cityville — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:25:09 +0000

i may not have supposed this had been great a couple of years back but it is amusing the way time changes the manner of how you experience diverse creative concepts, many thanks for the post it truly is enjoyable to read anything intelligent once in a while in lieu of the normal crap mascarading as blogs and forums on the web

By: Rhys Little

Rhys Little — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:49:08 +0000

I think these technologies are so important in moving into a greener society, maybe with the new US initiatives, it will prompt more countries to levy there waste surplus with CHP, I found some more info on Combined Heat and Power here, thanks for the post!

By: John

John — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:07:32 +0000

Not all of North America needs “new” laws.

Currently in Alberta about 33% of the generation is coming from Industrial CHP plants. That is based on net to the grid. The percentage of total generation will be a bit higher.

John

By: Efstratios Psarianos

Efstratios Psarianos — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:13:15 +0000

Hi, Uncle B.

Just to put things in context: the US isn’t a country run on anti-socialist principles; it’s run on circumventable checks and balances and the resulting popular democracy.

The checks and balances are made up of the US’ two internal political tendencies: populism; and anarchism. The way to get anything done is to circumvent blockages through wheeling and dealing by politicians elected to do precisely that (call it ‘Let’s Make A Deal’ democracy).

As concerns anarchism: it’s the very root of US political philosophy: ‘Government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for the PEOPLE’ (note Lincoln’s original emphasis; it wasn’t on OF, BY, FOR).

Given this, it’s not surprising that US political talk keeps bringing up ‘let the markets take care of it'; given the messy governmental alternative, freewheeling enterprise DOES have its attractions. That being said, doing business in the US can be annoying to outsiders who aren’t used to it or who prefer more orderly environments to work in (like Mr. Canadian here … :P).

Margaret Thatcher (I believe) is the one who said it best: (to paraohrase) “The US is like a big dog in the living room. It’s friendly, but it tends to knock over the furniture.” Mind you, she was talking foreign relations, but still …

Cheers! Orcus

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:32:03 +0000

@Moo Thanks, corrected, I meant in Finland.

By: Moo

Moo — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:42:06 +0000

A minor correction…Fortum isnt the largest utility in Scandinavia, that would be Vattenfall AB.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Vattenfall

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:47:05 +0000

North America has a long way to go in energy conservation and in effective use for current energy endeavors.As the end of the “Cheap Oil Era” draws to a close Americans will have to smarten up to maintain the American Dream lifestyle! Some great fat bummed Americans will reduce, some in easy chairs will take up the yoke of healthy exercise, some living extravagantly will cut back, and most will go without some luxury.

The poor will become poorer – to the point of socialist revolutionary ideals, the Uber-Rich will invest more securely but most of all, America will go forward consuming less foreign oil, and more domestically produced electricity from Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal and Nuclear sources. The Gulf fiasco will be repeated many times, in fact so of then we will come to accept sloppy oil drilling as par for the course in a corporatists world, and life will go on!

In other parts of the world where Socialist governments and ideals prevail,longer term planning, without the profit motive will provide much cleaner, more stable energy plans for longer periods of time than corporatism allows – it is a question of longer term planning.