What the guy who got into a shouting match with Danielle Smith at a climate conference thinks of the exchange
Derek Power says Alberta's premier misunderstood what he was trying to say about renewables and batteries
Derek Power didn't come to Alberta expecting to get into a shouting match with the premier of the province.
But when he found himself in that situation, he decided to roll with it.
"I've always been a bit of a loud mouth," he said with a laugh, the day after his heated exchange with Premier Danielle Smith made headlines and trended on social media.
Power, aptly named, runs a rooftop solar company based in Toronto. He travelled to Calgary to attend the Pembina Institute's Alberta Climate Summit on Thursday and do some networking while in town.
He also happened to be seated near the stage when Smith, a keynote speaker at the event, asked whether anyone in the audience thought it was possible to build the amount of infrastructure needed for Alberta's electricity grid to reach net-zero by 2035.
Numerous people in the crowd responded: "Yes."
Smith turned to the audience and gestured toward Power, in particular, whose voice boomed above the din of the crowd.
The two went back and forth for about 30 seconds, talking over each other at points, Smith with a microphone in hand and Power, unamplified, doing his best to be heard.
The event host, Dave Kelly, tried to steer the premier's attention back to their on-stage discussion, but neither Smith nor her impromptu interlocutor were having it. Staring directly at one another, they continued to verbally spar.
"What do you know that my industry experts don't know?" the premier asked, her voice rising.
Power's voice rose, too.
"I know 17 years of solar rooftop," he said. "Let's talk about it."
"And what do I do when there's no sun and no wind?" Smith replied.
"When there's no sun," Power shot back, "I've got batteries galore."
"Batteries?" the premier said. "Let's talk about batteries."
She then spent the next minute explaining why she thinks industrial-scale battery storage is not realistic when it comes to Alberta's electricity grid, and accused supporters of the technology of engaging in "fantasy thinking."
"I think we need to stop," the host finally interjected, and the premier returned to their regularly scheduled discussion.
'What really got me going'
In an interview Friday, Power said he felt compelled to challenge the premier because he believed she was disrespecting the audience, which included energy experts from industry, government and academia.
"That's what really got me going," he said.
"She was trying to pick on everybody in the room, and all the experience that people had in the room, and I'm like, 'You're not even listening to us. Like, you got your head up your butt.' Excuse my term. So that's what kind of irked me."
He believed the premier was being too dismissive of renewable and energy-storage technologies that he has worked with for over a decade, while talking up other, more novel technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) and direct-air carbon capture.
"Talk about fantasy," Power said. "Like, take your D&D dice out and start rolling, baby. You know what I mean?"
Power also said the premier had misunderstood what he meant when he shouted about batteries.
Residential vs. industrial scale
He wasn't talking about industrial-scale battery storage on the province's power grid, but rather small-scale battery storage in individual homes. As a rooftop solar guy, this is more his wheelhouse.
"What I was telling her is that we've been looking at this the wrong way," Power said.
"I think she missed the point."
He says it's less expensive than many people realize to install a handful of solar panels and a small amount of battery storage in their homes.
He tends to prefer lead-acid batteries, which are an older technology compared to modern lithium-ion batteries. But, he says, for small-scale residential solar systems the older-style batteries are cheaper to buy up front, have long life cycles when properly maintained, and are nearly fully recyclable when they reach the end of their life cycle.
Power believes encouraging more widespread adoption of systems like this would help take pressure off the power grid and reduce the need for industrial-scale generation. As a bonus, he said, it provides homeowners with independent reserves of backup electricity for emergency situations.
That alone won't solve all of our energy challenges, Power said, but he felt it was "disheartening" for the premier to be so dismissive, because he believes long-lasting solutions will take a combination of all sorts of different technologies which, when added up, can make a significant difference.
"It's just one watt at a time, bro," he said. "It's just one watt at a time."
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