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[Display omitted] • Novel method to estimate total technical potential for improving energy efficiency. • Bottom-up sector energy model used to characterize energy demands and opportunities. • Technology-explicit analysis framework used to estimate integrated energy savings. • Application to Canada's pulp & paper sector indicates major savings are possible. • Technical potential to reduce natural gas use by 95% and net electricity by 54% Industrial energy efficiency has long been recognized as a critical tool for energy management and emissions reduction and is increasingly considered to be an energy resource in its own right. However, the complexity of most industrial sectors creates barriers for modellers, companies, and policymakers in understanding and achieving the overall potential for efficiency-driven energy savings. To address this gap, we have developed a novel method that combines disaggregated bottom-up sector energy modelling with analysis of a comprehensive set of technology-explicit energy efficiency measures. This approach overcomes the deficiencies of top-down analyses and better represents the complexities of multi-measure efficiency investments compared to piecewise studies of individual measures. In this study, we demonstrated application of our method to the case of the Canadian pulp and paper sector. Our analysis shows that the sector can reduce its natural gas and electricity use by 95% and 41%, respectively, by adopting economical efficiency measures. This equates to 71 PJ of natural gas and 44 PJ of electricity saved annually and would result in cost savings of $81 per tonne of output sector-wide. Notably, we find that efficiency and fuel switching have the technical potential to reduce natural gas consumption by 98% across the sector. Taken together, the results provide quantitative evidence that energy efficiency is an underestimated resource for cost-effective energy savings in the Canadian pulp and paper sector. Our analysis framework can be applied to any industrial sector in any region to provide insights regarding energy conservation strategies and policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of fifteen energy audits conducted on industrial sites in Canada's Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The audits covered a range of industries including food processing, packaged goods, and finishing processes (powder-coating). The primary focus of the audits was to analyze the natural gas consumption and the performance of major-gas-consuming equipment. The audits identified natural-gas-consuming equipment that could be optimized to yield energy and operational cost savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction opportunities. Food production plants' energy intensity ranges from 5.59 m3/ft2 to 17.73 m3/ft2. Therefore, there is a significant opportunity to improve energy consumption through better technology integration. The results of the audits indicate a trend of an increase in the percentage of non-productive consumption with non-productive time. The proposed energy-saving measures include reducing non-productive natural gas consumption, gas-fired equipment tune-up, optimizing boiler loads, and reducing oven exhaust by using variable frequency drives (VFDs). The findings of this study could be used to develop a demand-side management program specifically for small- and medium-sized industrial facilities in the Greater Toronto Area and other parts of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great increase in car ownership has led to the daily recurrence of traffic congestion. Thus, traffic mobility, safety and emission concerns have become the most serious challenges for transportation researchers. To mitigate traffic congestion, a variety of proactive traffic-control strategies, such as ramp metering (RM), have been intensively investigated and deployed. With the aim of improving freeway traffic conditions, RM regulates the on-ramp flows dynamically in response to dynamic road conditions. However, most early RM strategies focus on optimising the traffic from one single aspect. This paper presents an RM control algorithm that predicts and evaluates the RM-controlled future traffic states. The impact of RM control was evaluated using a macroscopic traffic-flow model. The designed RM control algorithm possesses a multi-objective optimisation module, which improves the traffic network from the aspects of mobility, safety and emissions. The designed algorithm is evaluated through simulation and calibrated using field data collected over an 11 km major freeway stretch in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The comparison of the proposed algorithm-controlled scenario and the uncontrolled scenario shows that the proposed RM control algorithm can effectively relieve traffic congestion, improve safety and reduce carbon emissions concurrently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how 10 localities in the USA and England, recognised as leaders in clean energy and climate action, have used collaborative approaches to develop local climate change plans and energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy initiatives. It examines these planning and policy-making processes in the context of Margerum's [2008. A typology of collaboration efforts in environmental management.Environmental Management, 41 (4), 487–500] typology of “action”, “organizational”, and “policy-level” collaborations, as well as Gray's [1989.Collaborating: finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass] classification of collaboration in the “problem-setting”, “direction-setting”, and “implementation” phases. We conducted interviews with local elected officials, municipal staff, energy professionals, and citizen volunteers in each community, supplemented with an analysis of their adopted energy, climate change, and land-use plans. We find that despite the different government structures and political contexts between the two countries, there was a surprising amount of commonality in how the case study localities used collaborative planning to develop local climate plans and clean energy initiatives. These processes were most often initiated by local elected officials and/or high-level staff members, and then carried out in collaboration with local third-sector organisations and other community stakeholders. In the USA, collaboration was strongest at the policy level and in the direction-setting phase, with the distinguishing feature that citizen advisory boards or stakeholder working groups often took a more active role in shaping local plans and policies. The English localities had some of those same types of collaborations, but were more likely to also employ action collaboration, in the implementation phase, in which third-sector organisations coordinated with the locality to directly provide clean energy services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency projects in Canadian universities, including access to capital, bounded rationality, hidden costs, imperfect information, risk and split incentives. Methods to address these barriers are investigated, including evaluating the efficacy of revolving funds. Design/methodology/approach -- Senior administrators of 15 Canadian universities were interviewed, making use of both structured and open-ended questions. As university executives and senior technical directors are responsible for investment in energy efficiency at Canadian universities, these individuals were the focus of our study. Findings -- The results offer a curious contradiction. While "Access to Capital" was found to be the largest barrier to energy efficiency in Canadian universities, and while respondents agreed that green revolving funds are both an effective method to address these capital funding constraints, and may be an effective method to implement energy conservation projects at their university, only 2 out of the 15 universities interviewed and 7 out of the 98 universities in Canada currently make use of a green revolving fund. A general reluctance at Canadian universities to formalize processes to prioritize energy efficiency limits the associated benefits of mechanisms such as revolving funds to institutionalize energy efficiency and reduce long-term energy use. Practical implications -- To provide insights into barriers to energy efficiency in universities and methods to address them, including the efficacy of revolving funds. Originality/value -- This research is one of the first to investigate the efficacy of revolving funds to confront barriers to energy efficiency. The findings, implications and recommendations are valuable to organizations, university administrators, researchers and practitioners implementing energy efficiency measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to highlight and discuss legislative and regulatory developments relevant to energy lawyers, including electricity matters, and related jurisprudence that have arisen during the 12-month period from May 2010 to April 2011. This article focuses primarily on decisions before the relevant courts and tribunals in the areas of facilities, tolls and tariffs, the duty to consult, jurisdictional issues, review and variance decisions, surface rights, and standing decisions. In addition, this paper highlights developments in legislation, policy, and guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Government of Canada, like many others around the world, has given much importance to biofuels to address some of its policy challenges: climate change and diversification of energy supply. To deal with the emissions, the Government plans to increase production and use of ethanol. This will have impacts on the Canadian economy. An input–output model of the Canadian economy is developed to estimate the macroeconomic impacts of the Ethanol production in Canada. Several modifications have been made in the Use and Make matrix of Canada, 2003. To consider biofuel sector in the Make and Use table of Canada 2003 we have included two new industries – biofuel and E10. The four new commodities have been entered in the list – ethanol, E10, DDG and CO2. The impact matrix is estimated from an input–output model that computes the direct plus indirect impacts on the Canadian economy, 2003. This model has been closed to the household sector in the economy by endogenizing this sector into the model. Various multipliers have also been estimated. A number of simulation exercises have also been attempted to study the implications of policies to reach the Kyoto target of Canada. Results show that the macroeconomic impact of ethanol sector leads to increase in industrial output and employment. The agriculture sector makes necessary adjustments to meet the demand for ethanol product. The petroleum industry is also going to be affected. The paper concludes with several policy suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Rising fuel prices and global warming are two major issues that concern people today. In this paper, the effect that the integration of the hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/wind-turbine generation can have on conservation of energy and reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has been studied. Base-case energy demands were calculated using building energy simulation software and then the residential buildings were equipped with the PV/wind-turbine electricity generation devices. The results show that the integration of those equipments can reduce both cost of fuel and GHG emissions to a fair amount. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the majority of the biomass residue around Canada is incinerated or landfilled although it still contains valuable chemicals such as tannins (2–40 wt %) that can be extracted and used for the production of materials such as binder for plastic composites or polyols for polyurethane foam synthesis. However, most of the methods currently used for tannin extraction involve chemicals such as sodium sulfite, sodium bisulfite or sodium carbonate that are not environmentally friendly. Therefore, cleaner methods of tannin extraction are re-emerging as alternatives. Today's challenge is the development of a cleaner method that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly as the one presented in this paper to extract tannins from Canadian yellow birch bark. The bark was mechanically pretreated and then tannins were extracted using hot water. Tannin solution was separated from the residue by centrifugation and the tannin extracts were recovered after water evaporation. The yield, energy and water consumption results of the entire extraction process showed that tannin extraction and tannin isolation are the most energy consuming steps (23% and 72% of the total energy used, respectively). Three methods were developed to reduce the energy and water consumption while maximizing the tannin yield. The first method assisted by ultrasound allows to save up to 34% of energy and 34% of water for the tannin extraction step while increasing the tannin yield by 52% compared to the hot water extraction method. The second method which recycles the extract solution allows a consumption reduction of 39% in energy and 40% in water for the tannin isolation step compared to the hot water extraction method. Interestingly, a combination of Methods provides the most significant energy and water reduction for the whole process, which are 41% and 49%, respectively, while increasing the tannin yield by 13% compared to the hot water extraction method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]