Thumbs up for solar

152. Leduc has the largest rooftop solar system in Western Canada

David DodgeSolar, Renewable Energy 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Mayor Greg Krischke could barely contain his enthusiasm as …

Bull Creek Wind Farm

151. Wind farm powers 500 Alberta schools

David DodgeWind, Education, Renewable Energy 4 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson The rolling hills South of Wainwright are home to …

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148. Summerside smart grid uses 46 per cent wind power

David DodgeWind, Energy Storage, Renewable Energy 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson In 2015, the city of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, …

You may know Bob Chelmick as the calm, steady, professional former news anchor from CBC and CTV. But this city boy who built a career under the glare of the city lights, and spotlit newsrooms found his own authenticity in the "calming quiet of the country" where he built his storied solar-powered Cabin in the Woods the inspiration behind the landmark radio series The Road Home. “I wanted to integrate the things I love in my life most. Living here in a cabin, living out of the city, living in nature, making radio, storytelling, and painting pictures through that storytelling.” “The best pictures I make are on radio,” says the accomplished photographer. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

147. Bob Chelmick’s Solar-powered Cabin in the Woods

David DodgeSolar, Renewable Energy 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson On a crisp spring morning, a pair of Canada …

Lliam Hildebrand is an boilermaker and oilsands worker that helped found Iron and Earth to call on training in renewable energy for out of work oil workers.

146. Iron and Earth: oilsands workers call for training in renewable energy

David DodgeRenewable Energy, Solar, Wind 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson The call to action on the Iron and Earth …

A beautiful home in West Cape PEI with the West Cape Wind Farm in the background. Islanders get an average of 26 per cent of their electricity from wind power. Virtually all of the rest comes from an inter-tie undersea cable to the New Brunswick grid. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

145. Prince Edward Island rocks wind power

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Prince Edward Island is the smallest province in Canada. …

Scott Harper, the CEO of the Wind Energy Institute of Canada at North Cape on Prince Edward Island. The institute reinvented itself in 2005 adding it's own 10 megawatt wind farm to the research institute to fund their work and being real life experience to their research and work. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

144. The Wind Energy Institute loves wind so much, they bought the farm

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Long before you get to the North Cape of …

Calgary is wind powered

143. Renewable energy powers Calgary, Canada’s oil capital

David DodgeWind, Renewable Energy, Solar 3 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Alberta’s carbon tax is expected to have a relatively …

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142. Alberta students school Premier Rachel Notley on climate change

David DodgeEducation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Solar 1 Comment

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson There’s a stereotype about young people. They don’t care …

Medicine Hat, Alberta AKA "The Gas City" wanted to diversify into wind power so they entered into a public private partnership with Wind River Power to build a 6 megawatt wind farm, the largest inside a city in Canada. The power purchase agreement is what helped access bank financing from ATB Financial, something that is challenging in Alberta's deregulated electricity market. Since Alberta needs 5-7 gigawatts of new renewable energy by 2030, creating enough price certainty to attract bank financing will be very important in Alberta. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca Learn more: https://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/canada-germany-renewable-financing

141. Financing critical for renewable energy projects

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson It’s no secret that the Germans have done a …

Saskatchewan will add another 1,700 megawatts of wind capacity between now and 2030 to reach their goal of 50% of generation capacity. This naturally means actual generation by renewables will be much lower due to capacity factors of less than 50%. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

140. Saskatchewan blows the dust off its dirty electricity grid

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson It’s late winter in rural Saskatchewan. The highways are …

Visiting the Kinney Earthship, in the dead of winter on the Canadian prairie landscape north of Lethbridge, Alberta does invite comparisons with the lunar landscape! So much so it inspired photographer Steve Nagy to create this selfie in the middle of the night on a fine winter day. And in fact the number one question the Kinney's get about their Earthship is how does this passive solar heated home work when it's -30 degrees celsius.

136. Earthship living in a cold Canadian winter

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 8 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson  When we last visited the Kinney Earthship it was a smokin’ hot 30 …

The Mosaic Centre in Edmonton, Alberta is a net-zero commercial building powered by a nearly 200 kilowatt solar system (some of which is flat mounted) and heated by a geoexchange system that runs on solar power.

135. Shining a light on solar energy myths

David DodgeRenewable Energy, Solar 4 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson In Greek mythology, Icarus, while escaping Crete wearing homemade …

In Green Energy Futures' whirlwind tour of wind energy myths we learned that the only significant health effect of wind farms is that they annoy some people. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

133. A whirlwind tour of wind energy myths

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson It seems to happen with every new technology. It …

Jason Rioux's shipping container cabin. The cabin was built out of seven sea containers in a hub and spoke pattern near Bobcaygeon, Ontario. This incredibly innovative sea container cabin is powered by a small 1 kW solar system and is packed with energy efficiency innovation - probably part of the reason the video has more than 100k views on YouTube. Photo Courtesy of Jason Rioux

130. Green Energy Futures: Our favourite stories from 2015 from net-zero to sea container cabin

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson The year 2015 may well go down as the …

Highlight of 2015 - Dan Hofer, financial boss, David Vonesch of Skyfire Energy and Jake Hofer electrician with Green Acres Farm near Bassano, Alberta pose in front of their 2 megawatt solar farm that consists of more than 7,600 solar modules that produce the electricity to run Green Acre's recycling and farming operations. Photo David Dodge GreenEnergyFutures.ca

129. Green Energy: The highlights of 2015

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson  No question, 2015 will be remembered as a banner …

Even the suburbs of Vitoria-Gasteiz are green and pedestrian friendly. Photo, David Dodge

128. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Spain’s green capital is made for walking

David DodgeBiogas, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Change is hard. Green energy enthusiasts talk a lot …

According to Penelope Comette of the Pembina Institute and the Green Jobs Map there are 14,100 renewable energy jobs in B.C. Photo David Dodge

127. Renewable energy jobs a big growth sector

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson By any metric, the renewable energy sector is a …

Approximately 13 million tonnes of coal are mined at Highvale (adjacent to Wabamun Lake in Alberta) each year and delivered to TransAlta’s Sundance and Keephills coal-fired power plants. Photo David Dodge

125. Coal phase out case study: What Alberta can learn from Washington State

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Renewable energy made up half of all the new power plants constructed in the world …

Dan Hofer hands me a carrot from the cool storage room on the Green Acres Hutterite Colony. These carrots are for colony use, but these are the same you might see at a farmers market in the region. Photo David Dodge

124. Green Acres, Hutterites invest in solar to run the farm and more

David DodgeRenewable Energy, Solar 5 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson You’ve seen them before, though they don’t tend to …