We receive the Organic Box (www.theorganicbox.ca), fresh organic produce sourced in Northern Alberta, Southern BC, and a few Western US states such as California. They also offer local organic milk, bread, eggs, flour etc. They tell you the name of the farm or producer where your food comes from which is nice. Anyway, in their last newsletter they informed us that their operations, running the office, the warehouse, the coolers, are now bullfrog-powered.
The Rocky Mountain Soap Company produces its "100% natural skin care" in Edmonton. Besides their own shops their products are being sold at the gift shop of our favourite museum in the city, the Royal Alberta Museum. That’s how I found out. Reading the website of the Rocky Mountain Soap Company I learn that they not only care about the ingredients of their products but also about the packaging, shipping, lighting, and the energy they use. They are bullfrog-powered.
Bullfrog is an Alberta power company offering 100% wind power for an extra 2 cents per kilowatt hour. They reckon it adds 40 cents per day to the average family’s electricity bill. I pulled out our last monthly bill – we used 85 KWH. For us that would be $1.70 per month extra, no big deal. But that would mean that the average household uses as much electricity in 4 days as we use in a month. We then thought about the average household … must be a house, with bigger or lots of rooms and possibly lots of appliances. Admittedly, our heating is not included in our electricity bill, we have a coin laundry in the basement and we don’t have many appliances or a block heater for our non-existing car. That leaves us with lights, phone, fridge & freezer, stove and laptops. Period.
Our power bill is actually something that terribly annoys me. We pay less then $30 per month, $5 is for the power, the rest is distribution and administration fees. Where is the incentive to save energy, please? Seriously, if we weren’t renting, we should simply install solar panels on roof or balcony and get off that grid. Even more so, because most of Alberta’s energy still comes from coal. Edmonton (and the rest of the prairies possibly) gets so much sun every roof here should be plastered with solar panels. It works fine for Germany and the sky there is more often grey, overcast, or something else but sunny. I can hear the scepticism already, like, what about the angle of the sun in winter? Will it produce enough? Probably not, but winter does not last 12 months here. What about summer?! Imagine operating your air conditioning with solar power. Fancy! I mean, wind power seems to work and really it is not that windy in Edmonton. When I first came here I used to mark in the calendar when there was actually a breeze outside, it seemed so rare to me.With everything humanity has invented I am sure there's a way to install solar panels so they catch the most sunshine possible. Some smart brain will now how.
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