Eleven clean-up champions will rally the city today to sweep up St. Albert’s junk.
Sept. 24 is this year’s annual Fall Litter Pick-Up, which is the autumnal counterpart to springtime’s Clean and Green Riverfest.
“A clean city is a beautiful city,” said city community recreation co-ordinator Nicole Synowec, and this event gives people a chance to help clean up St. Albert.
This year, the city has recruited 11 residents to act as neighborhood champions and get more people involved in the cleanup, Synowec said. These champions have spent the last few weeks promoting the cleanup to local residents and, at various times today, will be stationed at one of 11 locations in town with bags and gloves for all.
Those locations are as follows:
• St. Albert Botanic Park (10 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
• 12 Eastwood Place (10 a.m.)
• Natalia Park, North Ridge (noon to 1:30 p.m.)
• Naples Park, North Ridge (noon to 1:30 p.m.)
• Henderson Park playground, Heritage Lakes (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
• Willoughby Park playground, Woodlands (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
• Erin Ridge Park playground (2 to 4 p.m.)
• Delage Park playground, Deer Ridge (2 to 4 p.m.)
• TD Canada Trust branches along St. Albert Trail (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
Participants should grab their gear from these champions, collect trash from anywhere in town, and drop their bags at any of the aforementioned spots for collection by city crews, Synowec said.
About 100 to 150 people typically participate in the fall cleanup, Synowec said.
Visit stalbert.ca/rec/events/spruce-up/fall-litter-pick-up for details.
Alberta can become a renewable energy superpower, but it won’t be easy, say experts at an upcoming free talk.
The Solar Energy Society of Alberta is offering a free talk Tuesday in Edmonton on meeting the challenges of tapping Alberta’s solar and wind resources. The talk is part of the group’s ongoing lecture series on renewable energy issues.
“The province of Alberta is going through a transformation,” said Rob Harlan, the society’s executive director, having set ambitious goals to phase out coal power pollution and get 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
“There’s a change in consciousness going on.”
But Alberta’s unique energy market means getting to 30 per cent renewable will be a challenge, he continued. Tuesday’s talk will feature testimony from two wind and solar experts who have frequently consulted with the province on the costs and reliability of renewable power.
Alberta has some of Canada’s best solar and wind resources and a track record for developing energy sources, said speaker Patrick Bateman, director of market intelligence and research with the Canadian Solar Industries Association. We can also draw on the many lessons provided by jurisdictions that now already get 30 per cent of their power from renewable sources.
“The core issue in the past has been cost,” he said.
Early adopters such as Ontario faced steep hikes in the price of power due to the costs of solar and wind equipment, Bateman said. Alberta could avoid this, however, as the cost of solar and wind has dropped by about 75 per cent in the last five years.
“Alberta is operating in an entirely different paradigm here.”
Alberta’s energy market is also structured so that plants that can ramp up production quickly – such as natural gas – draw higher prices than those that cannot – such as wind and solar – Bateman said. Adding more wind and solar to the grid should therefore displace more expensive power plants, reducing costs.
Alberta now gets about 10 per cent of its electricity from renewables and has 14 years to get the rest, Bateman said. Alberta will need to get more accurate forecasts of wind and solar power in order to keep the electric system reliable as it adds more renewable power to the grid.
The talk runs from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at MacEwan University’s CN Theatre. Visit solaralberta.ca for details.
