Episodes

March 27, 2013 — The Cowichan Bio-Diesel Cooperative is the plucky little coop that could. In 2004 they started selling 20-litre jugs of bio-disel at the local farmer's market. Nine years later they're planning to produce 150,000 to 200,000 litres with a mix of corporate and retail clients.  More…

Tags: Biofuels

Jan. 3, 2013 — Prairie bamboo, salix, willow. It's a common plant and near ubiquitous in North America. It turns out that a novel scheme to treat the waste of small towns and counties with fast growing, easily planted willow stands means a nearby, reliable source of biomass for any number of end uses. Learn how the county of Camrose southeast of Edmonton is treating their waste, increasing biodiversity, ensuring a healthier water supply and heating their main county office building with this interesting idea.  More…

Tags: Energy Efficiency, Biofuels

Aug. 30, 2012 — How did Ontario kick start the development of hundreds of renewable energy projects? You can pin it down to a simple wunder-policy – the Green Energy Act. This bit of law acts like a German style feed-in tariff. Essentially everybody with an electricity bill pays a bit more every month so that renewable energy systems can get established.

Put another way, electric utilities are obligated to buy renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, hydro etc.) at above-market rates set by the government.

  More…

Tags: Wind Power, Solar Energy, Renewable Energy, Hydro, Energy Efficiency, Biofuels

May 4, 2012 — The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) launched its alternative energy program this year and six times as many students applied as they could accept! Their shiny new labs have working geothermal, solar and fuel cell systems. We speak to teachers and students of this new program. More…

Tags: Wind Power, Solar Energy, Renewable Energy, Hydro, Geothermal, Biofuels