Alberta has clarified what it meant about extensive no-go zones in its new rules for renewable energy. The province has laid down a raft of restrictions on an industry that was booming just a year ago. We talk to Vittoria Bellissimo of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association to get the lowdown on the changes.
Alberta just lifted a six-month-old moratorium on new renewable energy projects, but are new rules a poison pill for the once booming industry? We talk to Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon a renewable energy expert to find out.
There are 170,000 inactive and abandoned oil wells in Alberta many of which no longer pay taxes or lease payments to landowners. What if you could transform these sites into revenue-producing, tax-paying solar farms? That’s exactly what RenuWell is doing.
Small towns and cities with neither the money, expertise or capacity to undertake energy efficiency or solar projects. The Municipal Climate Change Action Centre knows this so they helped 26 municipalities hire energy managers who are doing just that.
Not many people have heard of the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre in Alberta, but since 2009 they have worked with more than 150 municipalities helping them save $166 million by doing energy efficiency projects, installing solar and EV chargers and implementing climate resilience action plans.
Energy storage and all of the technologies we need to get the grid to net-zero already exist to affordably transition the grid; government just needs to allow/facilitate their use through new tariffs and regulations says James Bererton.
Investment in solar, wind and other distributed forms of energy is booming, but it wasn’t back when Decentralized Energy Canada set up shop. We talk to DEC president and founder Anouk Kendall about how her organization has gone from the fringe to mainstream in just 20 years.
2024 is going to be the year of the heat pump. It’s fast becoming the number one method of heating in northern countries like Norway and in 2023 we found them in net-zero homes, water heaters and clothes dryers. The big reasons are pretty simple: heat pumps are the most energy efficient way to heat and cool a building and it’s easy to run them emissions-free simply by powering them with renewable energy.
The Bow Valley Renewable Energy Cooperative started up during an economic downturn and the pandemic, but still managed to complete four projects in just a few years. This is lightning speed for a Cooperative in Canada. We head to Canmore Alberta to talk to Jeff Roberts, a boardmember with the cooperative about their success.
Red Deer’s popular Renewable Energy Fairs put on by ReThink Red Deer was “deep-sixed” by COVID, but the good news is it’s being reincarnated as the Energy Innovation Fair and it’s back live on October 21 at Red Deer Polytechnic.
We meet up with Sarah Delano of Parkdale Cromdale Community League to learn all about living local, food foraging, community gardens and their solar-powered community league. Parkdale Cromdale has even created its own art walk with 64 panels of local community created art spread along a trail in one of the City’s ravines.
Alberta’s is betting big on hydrogen, but can hydrogen, blue, green or otherwise help us get to a zero-emissions future? We take a deep dive to find out how and where hydrogen can decarbonize energy use.
The Tufts had a choice: bulldoze their 1953 bungalow and start over or do a deep energy retrofit to net-zero. They chose the cheaper option in this amazing story of renewal.
The Métis Nation of Alberta is taking climate action, saving money and creating new opportunities by embracing energy efficiency and investing in solar.
Lewis Lix loved the oil industry but he grew weary of the boom and bust cycles and being away from his family all the time. After one false start and a great deal of discussion with his family, he eventually enrolled in the 2-year NAIT Alternative Energy Program in Edmonton, Alberta. This is the story of his long and winding journey through energy transition.
Heather first discovered the benefits of solar seven years ago when she helped install a system on her church. Today solar is booming and she is just one of thousands of Edmontonians who have solar on their homes or businesses and she even works in the solar industry.
The consultants said it wasn’t affordable–it couldn’t be done. But Salvation Army architect Michaela Jones pushed back hard requoting their 175-unit supportive living complex as net-zero-ready at the last minute. Now this amazing solar powered, geothermal heated and cooled, energy-efficient building will save Sally Ann $6 million.
So much has changed in the 15 years since net-zero homes came onto the landscape. We now have heat pumps good to -35, streamlined building strategies and it now makes more economic sense than ever to build a net-zero home, eliminate your gas utility bill and produce your own energy.
Canada’s proposed Clean Energy Regulation could help transition its national electricity grid to net-zero, if loopholes are avoided, and if we focus on renewable energy says Stephen Thomas, co-author of Shifting Power.
First the three nations of Fort Chipewyan built a solar project to offset 25% of the diesel electricity generation, now they are bringing electric vehicles to the north.
So many climate plans – so little action. Oslo, Norway is bucking that trend by creating the first Carbon Budget in a City and taking the boots to carbon emissions. We talk to Heidi Sorensen of the Oslo Climate Agency about what they are doing and why it’s working.
The idea of a “just transition” seems pretty straight forward. The Paris Climate Agreement says countries will develop “a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs.” Canada is working on this, but amidst a great deal of political theatre. We talk to Ian Hussey who just wrote a report entitled “No Worker Left Behind” for the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta.
“It’s go time for wind energy, energy storage, and solar energy” in Canada says Vittoria Bellissimo the new President and CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. “What we need is rapid decarbonization and a great expansion of electricity production to achieve an at zero economy.”
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation dipped its toes in solar in 2018 when with two other First Nation partners they built a 2.3 megawatt solar project in Fort Chipewyan to offset diesel generation. Now they are launching 68 megawatts of solar in southern Alberta that they have a 50% ownership stake in.
One of the coolest things about Edmonton, Alberta is its community leagues. There are 162 volunteer groups representing every neighbourhood in the city doing everything from running sports, cultural and recreational programs, to operating halls, tennis courts and skating rinks AND as it turns out taking action on Climate Change. Interest in solar, energy efficiency, local food and sustainability was so high the Edmonton Federation started the Green Leagues program – this week we find out what’s happening in the ‘hoods.
This week we set out to find out if now is the time to go solar! Unlike 20 years ago when solar was very expensive, solar is now the cheapest way to generate electricity, but how expensive is it to install solar on your home. We found solar is now ten times cheaper than 20 years ago, there are incentives in many jurisdictions and this just might be the best time to go solar ever.
After successfully designing a very efficient and compact combined furnace-water heater Gradient Thermal is now adapting it to run on 100% hydrogen.
NAIT’s Alternative Energy program may have started when solar and wind power were “Alternative,” but after 10 years its grads are rocking the clean energy sector and clean energy is booming. We chat with the program’s founding chair Dr. Jim Sandercock.
You often hear oil and gas pitted against renewable energy as if they are in an all-out either-or war for supremacy. But Alberta, Canada’s oil province is also blessed with the best renewable and clean energy resources in the country and the energy expertise to build the net-zero economy of the future. We have done so many stories about inspired Albertans building the economy of the future we thought we’d take the conversation live. In this preview, we speak to four Albertans who believe their province has the right stuff to thrive in a net-zero future.
The Business Renewables Centre (BRC) says there has been $3.7 billion in investment and 4,500 jobs that have been generated by municipalities and companies alike procuring 100% renewable energy from private developers in Alberta: companies like Amazon, RBC, Telus, Bimbo, and more. We talk to Nagwan Al-Guneid, director of the BRC.
A recent survey by Schneider Electric Canada says we all care deeply about climate change, but fewer than one in five Canadians are investing in energy efficiency and smart home devices. We talk to David O’Reilly at Schneider Electric Canada about the potential of smart home technologies to save energy, save money, and take a dent out of the 13% of greenhouse gas emissions that come from our homes.
SolShare Cooperative partnered with Tantalus Winery in the Okanagan of B.C. to install solar to power the winery operations. Germany’s renewable energy industry was kick-started by cooperatives, but it’s harder in Canada due to the structure of electricity markets. We talk to Rob Baxter of SolShare about their efforts to make solar more accessible.
Canada has a new Emissions Reduction Plan to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. Binnu Jeyakumar of the Pembina Institute says “This is a turning point for climate action in Canada. It’s the first time we have a detailed plan on how we get 40% emissions reductions…by 2030. We zero in on new measures to decarbonize Canada’s electricity grid.
Alberta’s electricity was 81% coal-fired in 1981. By 2023 it will reach 0%. Now for the hard part – getting to net-zero. Green Energy Futures talks to economist Dr. Blake Shaffer about how to go the distance and reach net-zero emissions.
2021 was a big year for solar in Alberta. Just as the largest solar project in Canadian history came online one 3.5 times larger was already under construction. Solar is now the cheapest way to generate electricity and in one of the coolest energy transition projects ever solar is being used to repurpose abandoned oil well sites in Alberta.
Solar, wind, and energy storage are the most economical solutions to use for Canada to decarbonize the grid and help Canada reach its net-zero goals says a new report entitled Powering Canada’s Journey to Net-Zero.
#COP26TinyExplainer – NetZero targets are all the rage for government and industry these days. Join us as we attempt to sort spin from substance. Mitchell Beer talks to Catherine Abreu of Destination Zero to sort the many zeros of net-zero.
Passive House 101 – This amazing net-zero passive house has no furnace and is designed to withstand the northern Canadian winter where temperatures reach near -40 Celsius. We present the anatomy of a passive home that is 90% more efficient, is super-insulated, has no concrete foundation walls and that uses a 450% efficient heat pump water heater not only to provide hot water but also to provide supplementary heat in the cold depths of winter
Dagmar Knutson was growing very tired of the rhetoric and polarization that swirls around climate change and energy transition in oil-rich Alberta. So she formed Ten Peaks Innovation Alliance and has organized a conference to bring teachers and students together to transcend polarization and begin collaborating on building the low carbon energy future we all need.
The DCBEL R16 is a revolutionary electric vehicle charger that connects your solar system to the grid, and with built-in artificial intelligence learns how to help you save money. Due to its unique DC charging system, it charges EVs at twice the speed of a level two charger and it completely replaces the inverter for your solar system. Oh, and it knows your price of electricity and optimizes vehicle charging, and thanks to bidirectional charging the R16 can use electricity from your car to run your home during a blackout.
We look at solar recycling – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ok, that’s pretty melodramatic because as we learned solar modules contain mostly very benign, and rather plain materials. We tear apart a solar module, find out what toxins are present, and learn how a company in Medford, Oregon is recycling 110,000 solar modules per year.
Fabtech not only recycles used solar modules they have refurbished more than 600,000 modules and are selling them into a burgeoning market for use solar modules.
By day Mark Dowson works on solar projects in the United Kingdom, but when the sun goes down he’s the author of a series of post-climate change, dystopian, SciFi thrillers.
A North American Renewable Integration Study found Canada could get up to 95% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050 in a low-cost, low-carbon future. This would mean a 10-fold increase in wind power and an 18-fold increase in solar power.
Schneider Electric was named the most sustainable company in the world by Corporate Knights a Canadian sustainability rating firm. The France-based global company already used 80 per cent renewable energy for its operations and wants to be carbon neutral by 2025.
Edmonton has a bold plan to live within a 1.5-degree carbon budget, get to zero emissions and build a sustainable 15-minute city of the future.
The future is not solar, batteries, electric vehicles, or hydrogen – it’s all of the above and more. And this is why the University of British Columbia is building a Renewable Energy Hub, a city-block-sized living lab that seeks to optimize the use of renewable technologies to get to a zero-emissions future.
With COVID shutdowns David Betke created GreenShows a carbon-neutral online event hosting service that radically reduces travel, increases participation, and plants trees instead of handing out swag.
Business is booming for off-grid RV solar systems as snowbirds and campers take to the roads in droves. We meet with Remi Watts of CBI solar at a pop-up workshop at West Edmonton Mall to get the lowdown on some pretty cool RV solar systems.
On the same day, Edmonton’s Mayor Don Iveson was awarded a national Clean 50 Award and city council passed its landmark 1.5-degree Energy Transition Plan which seeks to take Edmonton to net-zero by 2050.
Renewable energy co-operatives have led the renewable revolution around the world. We look at the roots of co-operatives in Europe and SolShare and other renewable energy co-operatives in Canada.
By using 3,500 kilowatt hours of excess solar electricity from his home solar system Ron Kube is able to power his electric car for 22,000 km and save $2,500/year and reduce the payback on his solar system to just five years.
Emissions on the farm grew 23% between 1990 and 2018 in Canada. The National Farmers Union has a vision for near-zero emissions farming in and it involves fewer fertilizers, less fuel and better quality local foods. This week on Green Energy Futures CKUA Radio podcast we talk to Darrin Qualman author of a new report on near-net-zero farming.
A new report “Canada’s Net-Zero Future” evaluated 60 scenarios for Canada to get to net-zero emissions by 2050. The good news is it’s possible, but it’s going to be a long hard road to get there.
Which can fuel your vehicle to go further? An oil well pump-jack extracting oil or a 750-kilowatt solar farm covering the same footprint? We do the math.
Here’s a big idea! RenuWell wants to breathe new life into thousands of Alberta’s abandoned oil wells by reusing well pads and roads and building 750-kilowatt solar farms. It’s a win-win for landowners, municipalities and energy transition.
The media loves a good headline – The Energy vs Climate expert panel tackles energy and climate change in the media with Laura Lynch of the CBC’s What on Earth show.
Canada just updated its climate plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 and get Canada to “net-zero emissions” by 2050. Is the plan going to work? Green Energy Futures checks in with the Energy vs Climate panel of experts to find out.
Li-Cycle is a Canadian company from Ontario that is taking the mounting heap of battery waste and turning 95 per cent of it into gold – battery-grade raw materials for new batteries. This is the very definition of a circular economy and a secure supply of batteries for electric vehicles.
In spite of COVID-19 and economic chaos in the world there is a solar boom going on in Alberta, Canada’s oil-rich province. This is big news you probably haven’t heard about. The biggest solar project in Canadian history is just about finished, a project four times larger starts construction this year and there are 77 other projects in the development queue in the province.
Is nuclear power the only way we can reach net-zero emissions or is it a threat to civilization and a distraction from the development of other low carbon sources of energy such as solar and wind? We discuss this with energy experts Ed Whittingham, Dr. David Keith, Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon and former Canadian Green Party leader and current MP Elizabeth May.
$300 billion in investment, 700 new EV models and numerous stunning trends mark 2020 as the tipping point for the EV Revolution. The only question is how fast the revolution will take hold and transform the transportation industry around the world. We look back on 2020 with Norman Crowley of the Cool Planet Group, Eddie Robar, transit boss in Edmonton, and Leon Milner e-bike enthusiast.
PODCAST – As 2020 winds down we look back at the year when the renewable energy revolution past the tipping point. Renewable energy is now the cheapest energy money can buy and is attracting trillions in investment. In Canada the largest solar project in Canadian history was built unsubsidized in Claresholm Alberta. Before it was complete another solar project was announced four times larger for 2021, also in Alberta. Renewable energy is becoming a story of opportunity, investment, jobs and economic diversification.
Batteries Included – In part II of our series on Edmonton’s e-bus revolution, we visit the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage for eletric buses which boasts a dramatic art installation on the roof of this stainless steel expanse of post-industrial design.
Edmonton has quietly become a national leader in electric buses and is counting on these zero-emissions vehicles to reduce operating costs.
Bryce Bernhard came to Alberta from Texas in 2010 with little more than a half-ton and a bag of tools. Today he is the CEO of Alberta Screw Piles a business booming thanks to a booming solar industry.
Solar is revolutionizing life for indigenous people at their remote cabins in Canada’s north. Join us as we take a tour of Raymond Cardinal’s solar-powered cabin out on the Peace-Athabasca Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest inland delta in North America.
Blue Eyes Simpson is just one of 20 Indigenous and Metis people of Fort Chipewyan getting a custom-designed off-grid solar system to replace gas generators at their remote cabins out on the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Canada’s North.
Three Indigenous Nations in northern Canada joined forces to build a 2.2-megawatt solar project to replace 25 per cent of the local diesel-generated electricity. What’s more, it’s completely community-owned which contributes to energy sovereignty while creating local jobs and training.
This Canadian home builder now builds only net-zero ready and net-zero homes and the best part is – the homes are selling like crazy!
Norman Crowley was blown away when he discovered businesses waste $1.2 trillion worth of energy per year – so he started Crowley Carbon to make and save millions of dollars. Climate Capitalism Part I
Permaculturalist Kenton Zerbin is living large in his super-efficient tiny home. Join us as we take a tour of this amazing tiny home with big features.
They said it couldn’t be done, but Kent Rathwell created the first zero-emissions wild bird seed company and then created the longest green highway in the world where you could charge your electric vehicle for free.
First came evidence-based decision making, then Halifax declared a climate emergency and now HalifACT 2050 is their plan to get to carbon neutrality by 2050.
We’re calling it Edmonton’s Solar Skydome! It’s the largest architectural solar installation in Canada and one of the most beautiful. We tag along with Adam Yereniuk of Kuby Renewable Energy for a tour of this amazing project.
There are an estimated 120 million tonnes of waste and residue biomass in Canada right now — waste that could form the cornerstone of a green COVID-19 recovery effort that fights climate change by building the sustainable economy we need.
Faruq Vishram is an engineer from Edmonton, Alberta who cut his teeth designing coal-fired power plants in fossil-fuel rich Alberta. When they started closing coal plants Vishram pivoted to solar and he is now sought after to do projects around the world including a solar-powered hospital in Afghanistan.
Nathan Kuptana and Eriel Lugt, two of the youth filmmakers in the TukTV collective are creating a film entitled “Happening to Us,” a film about the impacts of climate change on their home in Tuktoyaktuk in the Arctic. They took a preview of their film to COP25, the IPCC climate change conference in Madrid, Spain.
An indigenous working helped pave the way for indigenous ownership in renewable energy procurement in Alberta. They also secured some of the best prices for renewable electricity in Canadian history.
All “R”s are not created equal. Recycling a bottle can save 10 – 15 per cent of the energy it takes to create a new bottle. But reusing a bottle saves almost 100 per cent of the energy. The reuse “R” is the one they try to focus on at the Goodwill Impact and Edmonton’s ReUse Centres.
“Little things make a big difference.” So said baseball legend Yogi Berra. He could have been talking about Jayman Homes that began installing small solar systems on every new home one year ago. Today there is one megawatt of solar on new homes in Alberta.
Most Canadians believe an energy transition to cleaner sources of energy is already underway in Canada and that it will be a good thing for the economy in the long run. Clean Energy Canada found economic growth in the clean energy sector is outpacing other sectors.
Vivian Manasc is an architect with a passion for building it green. Her company Manasc Isaac is well known for its pioneering work on many green buildings – they also built the first net-zero commercial building in Alberta. We talk to Vivian Manasc about her journey and her work.
Carbon Busters is building the first net-zero homes in Blatchford, the largest carbon-neutral community in Canada. Solar-powered and geothermal heated and cooled these homes require 94% less energy for heating.
Climate change may be the Canadian Press story of the year in 2019, but when we cast our eyes back on the year that was we find inspiring stories of people working on solutions to climate change. From the largest carbon-neutral community in the world to the largest solar project in Canadian history it was a year of firsts.
In 2019 Time Magazine named Greta Thunberg “person of the year” and climate change was the news story of the year as chosen by Canadian Press. At Green Energy Futures we documented a number of firsts: the first net-zero church and social housing project, the first passive house car dealership and the inspiring story on students in the EcoVision Club at Lacombe Composite High School who changed their school by taking action.
The amazing story of a church in crisis that took stock of their assets and wound up building the first solar-powered, net-zero church and social housing project in Canada. They saved the church, saved the school, built 16 new homes for refugee families and created an amazing community of sustainability.
Building on a teacher’s maxim “Words without actions are meaningless,” students at Lacombe High School formed the EcoVision club, took on a dozen projects and became the Greenest School in Canada.
Alberta-based Greengate Power has already developed the largest wind farm in Canada – now they’re building the largest solar farm in Canada by a factor of four.
Edmontonians have already been recognized as pioneers of net-zero homes, and now they are building the largest carbon-neutral community in the country: Blatchford.
How the University of Calgary transformed their ‘60s-era brutalist MacKimmie Library into a building designed to reach net-zero energy.
People in the movies carry disposable cups like people in the ‘60s were portrayed smoking cigarettes as the norm. Has the recycling generation lost it? Some believe we need to recycle recycling to tackle huge waste issues and tackle climate change.
Solar will replace 25 per cent of diesel generation in Fort Chipewyan a small community of 1,000 people in northern Alberta that until now has received all of its electricity from a diesel microgrid.
Carol Bishop of Edmonton bought a Nissan Leaf EV “for environmental reasons,” but loves it because it’s “fun to drive” and super cheap to operate. Fill it up for three bucks this week as we take a ride with Carol in her Leaf in Part II of our #LifeWithAnEV series.
Once Ed Ma started reading about Tesla ten years ago, he was hooked! In the first in our series Life with an EV we talk to Ed Ma and Rhonda Blair about their ten-year romance with electric vehicles. Ed likes that EVs are better for the environment, but he absolutely loves the electrifying performance of electric vehicles.
Activist and former Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko’s new book Burning Souls is a climate thriller–fiction with a firm grasp on the real world and the vexing issue of climate change.
Ed Ma and Rhonda Blair built their super energy efficient green home 12 years ago using solar thermal modules–it’s still pretty cool after all these years. So much has changed since then and his green home project continues to this day. We talk to the couple about what they’ve done, what they’ve learned and what they would do differently today.
Jacob Komar is shaking up the energy efficient building world by resorting to an age-old technology: geothermal energy. He says you can save lots of money and use much less insulation and get to net-zero for half the price if you use geothermal to heat and cool your home or building.
Big news in EV circles. Matthew Klippenstein tells us the Tesla Model 3 is the best selling electric vehicle in Canada and sales of electric vehicles have eclipsed internal combustion vehicles in Norway.
His friends said he was crazy, but when Derek Leahy came to Alberta to start Rural Routes to Climate Solutions he found fertile ground for this ground-breaking project. He says engaging Alberta farmers in farm solutions that are climate solutions has been “a walk in the park.”
The county of Osnabrück in northern Germany produces 80 per cent its electricity from renewable sources, smashing national goals that call for 60 per cent by 2050. We look at one county’s response to the challenge of the national goals of Energiewende (energy transition) in Germany.
Effect Homes, a local leader in building net-zero, solar-powered homes has built Alberta’s first off-grid solar-cogen-powered and heated office.
Geothermal energy could be harvested from tens of thousands of spent oil wells in Alberta––enough to support a revolution in agriculture. So says Dr. Johnathan Banks of the UofA in this co-production between Green Energy Futures and Rural Routes to Climate Change.
A German waffle cone factory is using its waste heat to heat the homes in its hometown—an ingenious initiative that could serve as a template for other heat-wasting small-town factories.
In a scenario where Canada invests 2.5 times more in energy efficiency, Canada would create 118,000 jobs, save $75 billion on energy costs and reduce emissions up to 50 per cent. “And without energy efficiency, there’s no way that we can meet our Paris targets,” says Phillipe Dunksy an international energy efficiency consultant.
Saerbeck, Germany calls itself the “Climate Community of the Future.” Today they produce 400 per cent as much renewable energy as they need.
In 2018 Alberta secured the cheapest wind power price in history, electric vehicles are on the rise and coal is on the decline. We talk to Dr. Tim Weis, industrial professor from the University of Alberta about some of the big green energy stories in Alberta from 2018.
Solar played a starring role in every single one of our favorite Green Energy Futures stories from 2018. It’s the leading clean technology in terms of global investment and it’s playing a pivotal role is zero emissions homes, stores, colleges and grids.
Insurance payouts for severe weather events tied to climate change have gone up 250 per cent from $400 million/year to $1 billion/year in just ten years in Canada.
The Symonds Passive House is 90% more energy efficient, solar powered and built out of solid wood (cross-laminated timber) and one of the most beautiful super energy efficient homes we’ve seen at Green Energy Futures.
Julia Pyper grew up on a horse farm in Milton, Ontario. But at a time when journalism seems like a tough career, she went to university in New York, landed an internship reporting on what she calls the “apocalypse beat” (climate change) for Climate Wire in Washington DC and today she’s senior editor with Greentech Media in Los Angeles. We talk about clean tech in the Trump era and much more.
Energy Shift is an e-newsletter – an oil and gas guy’s take on how conventional energy needs to work with alternative energy to tackle climate change and find the way forward.
Red Deer College has surged beyond its own goals for renewable energy by installing a 1.6-megawatt solar system, the largest on any post-secondary institution in Canada. Solar is everywhere and combined with their new 1-megawatt cogeneration system they generate 66% of their own electricity right on campus.
Greg Caldwell generates 80 per cent of his own electricity, right in his Edmonton home. He uses a solar micro combined-heat-and-power (cogen) system—one that combines a rooftop solar system with a small gas-fired generator.
Just seven short years ago NAIT’s Alternative Energy program seemed ahead of its time. Today this innovative 2-year program is training the leaders of the clean energy revolution in Alberta. We talk to program chair Dr. Jim Sandercock about the evolution of the program.
As a 19-year-old Rae-Anne Wadey had to make a decision – buy a diesel truck or study Alternative Energy. The program was ahead of its time and Rae-Anne had problems finding a job. What happened next is history – she’s a Face of the New Energy Economy.
Brandon Sandmaier is one of the faces of the new energy economy. He left a six-figure job as a heavy duty mechanic in the oil industry to study Alternative Energy at NAIT. Even before graduation, he started a company called Generate Energy.
At 46% Summerside PEI already has among the highest integration rates for wind energy in North America – now they are working with BluWave AI to use artificial intelligence to use even more renewable energy.
In New Zealand solar with batteries is economic today, and could transform the electricity grid thanks to a simple market-based policy called time-of-use pricing.
A Calgary-based medical device manufacturer sees solar as key in the global marketplace, important to attract new talent and a key part of the new energy economy.
Ontario’s SolarShare is North America’s largest renewable energy cooperative, with $60 million in projects—but its beginnings were much more humble. We talk to Mike Brigham, solar evangelist and co-founder of SolarShare.
Metamorphosis the film takes viewers on a poetic, visually stunning journey through the climate crisis to a brave new world of clean energy solutions and a new relationship with nature. It was inspired by climate change itself.
Riverdale Community League tested public interest in sustainability at a community meeting in 2005 and since then the community has created a community garden, a food forest, hosted energy efficiency pizza parties, and thanks to a grant from Eco-City is now powered by solar energy. Oh, and there’s a waiting list to get on the sustainability committee!
Economist Mark Anielski says we should transition to a Genuine Wealth Accounting system––one that accounts for our well-being, values natural capital (nature) and accurately tracks our mounting environmental liabilities.
The Canadian Home Builders Association now has a net-zero labeling program. We talk to Sonja Winkelmann about the program designed to help consumers and builders understand and embrace super energy efficient, solar-powered net-zero homes.
Ever wondered about going net-zero with your home? Curious about solar, heat pumps or geothermal systems? The 19th Annual Edmonton Eco-Solar Home Tour is your chance to see the latest solar and energy efficiency technologies and talk to the owners who installed them.
It’s called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. Alberta introduced a PACE bill and some believe if passed, it could drive a surge of investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy in Alberta homes and businesses.
The small community of Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia has more solar per capita than any B.C. district on municipal buildings. It was all due to the vision of Mayor Gwen Johansson who worked with the Peace Energy Cooperative to put Hudson’s Hope on the solar map.
Energy systems around the world are being disrupted and Clean Energy Canada has just zeroed in on five trends that are driving a global energy transition to clean energy. We talk to CEC’s policy director Dan Woynillowicz to to figure out what it means.
La Maison Simons just opened the first net-zero major retail store in Canada. It’s solar powered, geothermal heated and cooled and energy efficient.
Learn all about the new EnerGuide for homes label and how an assessment can help you reduce energy use in your home, save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
Green Energy Futures presents the Top 10 Energy Efficiency Tips for your home. We tag along with an EnerGuide for homes auditor and together create the ultimate list of things you can do to dramatically reduce energy use in your home.
When Ron Kube discovered his home was using nearly twice as much energy as the average home the energy detective was born. We can all learn from Ron’s journey that led to him reducing electricity use in his home by more than half–through measures so simple they are clichés.
Producing your own solar electricity, it’s a cool idea right? But when is the right time to go solar? We talk to Ron Kube, who installed solar on his home and Clifton Lofthaug of Great Canadian Solar about everything you need to know before going solar.
Edmonton is getting set to host the first international conference on Cities and Climate Change Science. We talk to Seth Schultz from C40 about Edmonton, climate change and the action thats required. Schultz is an organizer and director with a global organization of 90 megacities helping mayors and cities taken action on climate change.
SMART HOMES PART 2 – Have you ever dreamed of living in a net-zero home? According to Peter Darlington, that dream may be closer than you think. In fact, you might already be living in your future net-zero home. We present Peter’s four steps to making your home net-zero.
SMART HOMES PART 1 – Is your water heater kaput? Want to discover the best option for high efficiency water heaters? Look no further! We check out tankless, electric heat pump and power vented conventional high efficiency water heaters. Is one of them right for you? Read on and find out.
Solar powered football – the Philadelphia NFL Eagles have 11,000 solar modules, fly on 100 per cent renewable energy, divert 99 per cent of waste and recycle everything else.
Gordon Howell is a solar pioneer, the first to install a grid-connected solar system on his home in Western Canada. Today Gordon finds himself at the hub of a community of people involved in a veritable solar revolution.
Life is a carnival! Sustainival, the world’s first green carnival started in Edmonton, Alberta. It’s a biodiesel powered full scale carnival infused with a message of sustainability.
Brian Scott and Leigh Bond want to see Property Assessed Clean Energy financing come to Alberta. They say PACE has generated $3.4 billion investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy in the U.S. and that little else would do more to spur on a boom in Alberta.
Edmonton-based builder Landmark Homes has launched one of the most affordable net-zero homes we’ve seen in Canada.
Two important things happened in the electric vehicle (EV) world in recent months: Late last year Quebec became the first Canadian province to adopt a requirement for the sales of zero-emission vehicles and then in February General Motors debuted its long awaited Chevy Bolt, a long range, low-priced EV.
We take a look at an ambitious energy efficiency retro-fit program designed to bring all buildings in the Netherlands to a net-zero standard by 2050.
The Heights is an 85-unit apartment complex in Vancouver that is the largest passive house in Canada. The project is leading the way to for a zero emissions building policy in Vancouver.
From wind-powered cities and schools to net-zero straw-bale homes, Green Energy Futures reflects on our green energy past.
Ian Cullis of the B.C Non-profit Housing Association shows us how some shallow retrofits are saving big money in Vancouver.
What’s in a name? Quite a bit actually! This week, we examine Alberta’s carbon levy and the affect it will have on Albertans.
We examine the state of the world’s renewable energy investment and meet BlueGreen Canada, an advocacy group that seeks to secure a fair shake for workers affected by the sunset of the coal industry.
We check in with Canada’s “Climate Capitalist” about the state of our cleantech startup landscape.
Tom Jackman of Simple Solar shows us the benefits of solar thermal technology.
Vulcan, Alberta, the Star Trek Capital of Canada, has built the countries first aesthetically-minded solar park. Residents and visitors alike can now soak in rays alongside a visually pleasing solar resource.
The 1.14 megawatt solar system on the roof of the Leduc Recreation Centre is the largest of its kind in Canada and accounts for fully 10 per cent of Alberta’s total solar capacity.
Twenty six school districts in Alberta banded together to purchase 100 per cent renewable energy and have the Bull Creek Wind Farm, near Provost, Alberta to show for it. We talk to school trustees, the CEO of BluEarth Renewables, a farmer and a member of the Alberta Government on location at the Bull Creek Wind Farm.
Summerside, Prince Edward Island (PEI) replaced expensive diesel power with record amounts of wind power using a smart grid and simple energy storage in residents furnaces and hot water heaters.
Bob Chelmick is a former CBC news anchor who built his storied solar-powered “Cabin in the Woods” and started the ground-breaking radio series entitled: The Road Home. We visit the home of solar-powered radio this week on Green Energy Futures.
More than 4,000 people have signed Iron and Earth’s pledge calling for renewable energy training for out-of-work oil workers and already 450 workers have said they want training.
Prince Edward Island, Canada (PEI) is home of the highest proportion of wind power in North America. We talk to Energy Minister Paula Biggar about how this little province replaced expensive diesel power with enough wind power to provide 26 per cent of the electricity in PEI.
The Wind Energy Institute of Canada in Prince Edward Island helped that province integrate the highest proportion of wind power in North America.
When people think Calgary, renewable energy doesn’t usually come to mind. But dig a little deeper and it seems the oil capital of Canada is more ready for a carbon tax than many jurisdiction, thanks to investments in renewable energy the city is in a great position to save money.
This past March, students from around Alberta and beyond collaborated on a white paper that seeks to influence the future of climate change education in the province.
Securing investment in renewable energy is getting easier, but banks have a few things they like to see in projects, like price certainty and long term contracts that ensure a steady stream of revenue to support the loans needed to develop renewable energy projects.
Moving from one of the dirtiest grids in the country to 50 per cent renewable is no small task. However, Saskatchewan’s ambitions are matched by the quality of their renewable resource. We visit the Morse Wind Farm in southern Saskatchewan to see the start of the wind energy boom in Saskatchewan.
How does a passive solar heated Earthship fare in the long cold Canadian winter. This week we return to a familiar place, the Kinney Family Earthship, to see how it holds up in the middle of a cold Canadian prairie winter.
Aren’t we too far north for solar? I’ve heard solar doesn’t work in the cold. And aren’t solar modules only 15 per cent efficient? This week take an illuminating look at some pesky solar myths and help you sort myths from facts.
Ever hear the one about how it takes more energy to make a wind turbine than it will produce over its lifetime? This week we blow the smoke away, and delve into some of the more pernicious myths about wind energy. Bookmark this one, you’ll want to use it later!
2015 will go down as the year that marked the dawning of the age of the net-zero home. We took notice by preparing our four-part Chasing Net-Zero series. And we we just loved the story about Jason Rioux’s shipping container cabin, as did almost 200,000 viewers! Here are some of our favourites from 2015.
2015 was a banner year for clean, green energy! Vancouver pledged to go 100 per cent renewable energy, the Cowessess First Nation built a wind turbine and is testing energy storage, Edmonton passed an energy transition plan and Rachael Notley the new premier of Alberta announced a plan to phase out coal and greatly expand renewable energy.
The European green capital for 2012, Vitoria-Gasteiz is small in size but big in ambition.
This week, Green Energy Futures explores the state of the green economy
This is the story of Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign worked with Dawn Farrell the CEO of TransAlta to accellerate the end of coal-fired electricity generation in Washington State.
This week we visit the largest solar farm in Western Canada on the Green Acres Hutterite colony.
Edmonton, the oil capital of Alberta, passed its energy transition strategy earlier this year. We talk to Mayor Don Iveson about what this northern city is doing to transition to clean energy.
When Vancouver Mayor first ran for election he pledged to make his city the “greenest city in the world.” Now Vancouver has upped the ante pledging to make the city 100 per cent renewable by 2050.
Talk about light bulb moments, the grade 5 students at George Webster School in Toronto, Ontario are literally turning the lights on in TREC Education’s Capture the Wind renewable education program.
You could call it Sustainability High – since 2002 students in the Sustainable Development Committee at Cochrane High School in Alberta have raised almost $150,000 and build more than half a dozen solar, energy efficiency and green projects around their school.
From super-cooled rocks to free transit, learn what cities across Canada and Europe are doing to be greener.
Ontario’s energy transition — shutting down coal and ramping up renewables — is the most successful greenhouse gas reduction project in Canada’s history.
We can be guilty of using jargon here at Green Energy Futures. That’s why this episode is dedicated to clearing up two of the most common used and misused terms that come up on a regular basis.
What happens when you sell unserviced lots for a dollar and get people to build green homes on the edge of a small Saskatchewan town? We find out.
Germany, Europe’s largest, most successful economy, is successfully and aggressively transitioning away from fossil fuels and nuclear. We debunk some of the myths that have sprung up around this incredible transition.
We look at the last year and explore our favourite stories of 2014.
Welcome to Canada’s first concentrated solar thermal energy plant in sunny Medicine Hat, Alberta. Discover how “The Gas City” is adding solar and wind to diversify it’s electricity supply in a city endowed with rich fossil fuel resources.
On their own a feedlot, an anaerobic digester and an ethanol plant might not make sense but combine them and you’ve got an integrated bio-refinery where each business feeds the other in a virtuous cycle.
Landmark Homes is planning to have all of their homes be net-zero by 2015. Learn how net-zero is transitioning from small custom home builders to large scale companies.
In 10 years net-zero homes have gone from government pilot project to mass production. Shafraaz Kaba’s near net-zero home is an excellent example of how we got there.
We look at making energy efficient, infill homes that are beautiful and also at how the location of your home can have a dramatic effect on your energy footprint.
The first episode of our four-part series Chasing Net-Zero. We dive into the history of net-zero homes and figure out you can build one of these comfortable, beautiful homes that also doubles as a mini-powerplant.
This week we follow students at Prairie Waters school in Chestermere, Alberta to seek out and destroy energy vampires, increase energy literacy and save energy in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge.
A passive solar greenhouse in Invermere B.C. is making people across the continent sit up and takes notice. It may sound ironic, but most greenhouses are not designed to harvest and retain the sun’s energy.
This week join us as head head to Globe 2014 into the Grizzly Den, where 36 different companies are pitching to investors, partners and customers. We feature three out of 30 that we thought you should know about.
With cheap natural gas and cheap solar PV is solar hot water still worth it? We explore how this technology works and in what applications it makes the most sense.
Learn how Harvest Power turns your rotten banana peels and other gross assorted food waste into energy and compost at their site in Richmond, BC.
Alberta has a carbon price and it’s collected $380 million worth of cash for carbon reduction technology projects. Learn how they’re spending that money.
We talk to a doctor who knows the true health costs of coal in Alberta as well as Alberta’s new Associate Minister of Renewable Energy and Electricity on what she would replace coal with.
Renewable energy produces energy when the sun shines and the wind blows, but these entrepreneurs are developing better batteries and new and innovative ways of capturing and storing renewable energy.
Here are our favourite stories of 2013.
It’s that time of the year to sweat about what exactly you’re going to give to the people you care about in your life. Here at Green Energy Futures we’ve taken the time to come up with a short but awesome list of what to get for someone whether they’re a total green energy geek or they’re a total green energy neophyte.
Soon solar will be so cheap it won’t make sense not to have it on your house, office building or spare building facing south. The price of solar has dropped one hundred times in the past 35 years, that’s not a typo. Learn what’s driving the low cost of solar and where and when you’ll start seeing it in the near term this week at Green Energy Futures.
The International Energy Agency estimates the cleantech market will be a three to four trillion dollar concern by 2020. Tom Rand is helping Canadian entrepreneurs get a slice of that trillion dollar pie through his work at the MaRS cleantech business incubator and through investing in early stage cleantech startups with the MaRS cleantech fund. Learn all about this week on Green Energy Futures.
We profile Morgan Solar, a Canadian startup that aims to develop a cheaper to produce and more efficient solar module.
We talk to two Canadian startups working in the energy storage space, Temporal Power, a a company making flywheels and eCAMION doing community battery storage.
We get behind the cute logo and figure out if Bullfrog Power is for real.
In Sherwood Park, Alberta just minutes from refinery row city hall, the famous Festival Place Theatre, condos, a high school and more buildings are all heated by biomass, wood to be exact.
Ever looked at the breakdown of your electricity bill with all of its transmission and distribution charges and wondered if there was a better way? There is and it’s called distributed generation. Learn about it this week at Green Energy Futures.
It took a 45-person team to build Edmonton’s first net-zero home. In six short years since then net-zero builders are constructing cheaper and radically simpler net-zero homes. We Peter Amerongen and Simon Knight, two net-zero pioneers.
The Nanaimo Regional District is home to about 145,000 people on the east coast of Vancouver Island. This west-coast municipality is turning its trash into compost, clean energy and carbon credits.
The T’Souke First Nation on Vancouver Island developed and implemented a plan that slashed 75 per cent of their energy use and installed solar PV to provide clean power. It turns out it’s a lot easier to go net-zero when you drastically cut your energy use.
Landfills are quickly becoming centres of innovation when it comes to turning what we throw away into energy. Edmonton has had a landfill gas operation since 1992 and it was the first in Western Canada to turn old garbage into a new resource. Learn how it’s done this week on Green Energy Futures.
The new low temperature hot water style heating system at UBC is taylor-made to integrate renewable energy systems like biomass, geoexchange, solar thermal and waste heat into a natural gas system all because the barrier for entry is lower. The bouncer at the old steam heating system was pretty strict – you had to be 190 C to get in. Now you only have to get the temperature up to 80 C.
Cow poop isn’t typically thought of as a valuable resource. But with a process called anaerobic digestion that cow poop can be turned into electricity, heat, a near odourless fertilizer and and animal bedding.
This four-story, 60,000 square feet structure is practically a living thing. It’s a $37-million laboratory that aims to achieve LEED Platinum status, but more than that, they’re also pursuing a Living Building Challenge certification. This certification is so hard to get, there are only three certified living buildings in the world.
With more than 700 companies, the cleantech sector has emerged as a major driver of innovation and employment growth in Canada, investing almost $2 billion in research and development. We talk to Canadian entrepreneurs about can be done to ensure that Canada grows in concert with this rapidly expanding $1 trillion global clean technology industry.
Learn how a small rural Albertan county is treating it’s waste in a more environmentally responsible fashion and growing their own substitute for natural gas. They pump the effluent from a waste lagoon into a densely planted stand of willows. Willows like moist soil, grow fast and grow easily in our climate. That willow is then chopped down every three years and can be used for wood, heat or compost. In Camrose, they’re using it to heat their main county office.
Join us as we dive into our archives and give you our favourite clips and behind the scenes moments from 2012. From nearly falling into the Bay of Fundy to angry anti-wind protesters we go coast to coast to coast to give you best.
If Nova Scotia could get tidal energy to work right, it could power all of Nova Scotia. Discover the potential of tidal energy in the Minas Passage.
Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia switched from fuel oil boilers to biomass, then added solar thermal modules to their dorms and even installed two wind turbines and are saving money on operating costs!
When you think of Walmart do a plethora of contradictory thoughts and images come into your brain? Well get ready for it to get even more confusing because the world’s largest retailer and the 19th largest economy in the world have stepped up the plate with one of the best corporate sustainability plans in the world. It’s not just planning either, they’re executing it as well. We went to their Fresh Food Distribution Centre in Balzac to get the story.
If you’re a cooperative, not-for-profit, municipality, university, First Nation or Community Economic Development Investment Fund you can qualify for Nova Scotia’s community feed-in tariff. This means a guaranteed economic return on any approved project and it means regular folks and not necessarily large multi-nationals get to see the financial benefits of building out new renewable energy infrastructure.
Some provinces have all of the luck. While poor PEI has little more than potatoes and tourists Alberta gets not only the lions share of Canada’s coal, oil, gas and bitumen, it gets the best solar resource in all of Canada too. We learned this by talking to Alberta’ solar industry veterans, experts from Ontario and even the minister of environment for Alberta, Diana McQueen at CANSIA West.
If I told you you could almost double the amount of money you got from the solar energy you put on the grid would that make you more likely to get a rooftop solar system? Spark and several other small electricity retailers are betting that you will. Is this the final push that gets solar over the hump in Alberta?
Canadian Control Works is a small Edmonton based company with a big idea. They’ve figured out how to create green electricity from the downswing of a pumpjack with a device called the Enersaver. We don’t give them much thought but each pump jack is moving 5-10 tons each time it goes up and down. By harvesting that energy oilfield operators save money and stabilize the grid around it.
We take a tour of the Canadian Solar plant in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2011, the solar manufacturing industry in Canada was responsible employing over 2,100 people $584 million of economic output.
“We can take a commercial roof that was previously wasted space and turn it into a generation asset which is producing clean, safe, renewable energy,” says SolarShare president Mike Brigham.
Not only that but investors get to finance these projects through solar bonds and see a healthy financial return without creating a toxic legacy.
Heidi Eijgel has lived next to the 136 megawatt Summerview wind farm since 2003. She is happy to have these towers of clean, green power next to her home. She tells us about the noise levels, the effects on wildlife and the business and environmental case for wind energy.
The German style feed-in tariff that Ontario implemented in 2009 has made Ontario a North American leader in renewable energy. Learn how they did and why other provinces need to follow the lead of Ontario.
When the people behind the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative first thought up the idea of a highly visible urban wind turbine they had no idea how far it would eventually go. From this revolutionary first project grew the organizations and people who would nudge Ontario towards North America’s first German style feed-in tariff.
Cheryl Shuman, a city councillor with the city of Dawson Creek in northeastern British Columbia considers herself a turbine hugger, not a tree hugger. She was part of the Peace Energy Co-operative a local grassroots group that developed the Bear Mountain Wind Park.
Have you ever wanted to get solar panels on your house but were scared of the costs, time and effort it would take? Enmax, a Calgary based utility, has simplified the process for homeowners with their Generate Choice program. Simply sign up and if you qualify Enmax will handle the installation, permitting and maintenance.
Meet the people and families that have taken the solar energy plunge.
NAIT’s Alternative Energy Program is helping meet the increasing demand for professionals to design, build, install and maintain green energy systems. A two-year program, it teaches students the intricacies of solar, wind, geothermal and even fuel cell systems.
Meet the students and instructors who are helping to create the next generation of skilled green energy workers.
Author Chris Turner is an inspiration. As a writer he has focused on real world examples of people, places and programs where the future is already here. Things like self-sufficient islands in Denmark, Germany’s renewable energy metamorphosis and the surprising results of Spain’s commitment to high-speed rail.
We speak with Chris about the three leaps we need to take to replace non-renewable energy with renewable energy in the next 50 years.
The award winning Hat Smart program in Medicine Hat, Alberta provides incentives and rebates for renewable energy and energy efficiency and has really captured the imagination of residents of this Southern Alberta City of 61,000 people. In this week’s episode Alderman Ted Clugston explains how success depends on a sexy program, a solar powered dentist shows his stuff and a home builder explains how building an EnerGuide 89 geothermal heated home is helping him build better, greener homes.
