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

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

Just one of the groups that has taken the 5-day solar training course at Grid Works Energy Group in Edmonton, Alberta. Owner Randall Benson has trained more than 700 electricians in solar in the last six years. Solar jobs now total 174,000 in the U.S. surpassing coal jobs. Many places in Canada are just beginning to install solar, but it has enormous potential to diversify the economy and provide clean, low emissions electricity. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

122. Solar training on the rise

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Solar sector employment in the U.S. is booming. It …

Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick at the mountain city's large sun tracking 1-megawatt solar farm a project designed to re-brand Kimberley as a modern, clean energy tourism town. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

121. SunMine: How solar is transforming Kimberley, an old mining town

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney You hike over the crest of the hill and …

Science teacher Stephanie Bennett with two alumni - all veterans of the Cochrane High School Sustainable Development Committee. Successive committees have built seven major projects at the school including solar, energy efficiency and gardens. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

118. Cochrane students install solar and get new town policy permitting renewable energy

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney There’s a quote from cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead that …

Reid's Heritage Homes is building five net-zero homes as part of NRCan's Eco-Energy program. Here's their first home nearly completed on the left. The only external signs are the solar on the roof and the air source heat pump heating system mounted on the side of the house. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

114. Net-zero contagious: Five mini net-zero communities spring up across Canada

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney The race to build net-zero homes across Canada is …

Jason Rioux's shipping container cabin. The cabin was built out of seven containers in a hub-and-spoke pattern near Bobcaygeon, Ontario. Photo Courtesy of Jason Rioux

112. Welcome to the Octopod: An off-grid, solar powered shipping container cabin in Bobcaygeon, Ontario

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  Whether you call it a cottage or a cabin, …

Solar flowers at Clarkson Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Region of Peel in Mississauga, Ontario. This flamboyant solar system is installed right next door to a former hybrid bus plant that also has a 427 kW solar system on it's roof. More than 23,000 renewable energy projects have been built in Ontario since the launch of the Green Energy Act in 2009. Photo David Dodge, Green EnergyFutures.ca

111. Ontario: Canada’s energy transition success – the untold story

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney When you look at Ontario’s greenhouse gas reductions you …

Jacob Komar of Revolve Engineering shows off the workings of the geothermal system in the net-zero Mosaic Centre commercial building. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

107: Geothermal: Hitting the geoexchange heating and cooling sweet spot

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  By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney   There is something calm and comforting about …

The grand opening of the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce in Edmonton. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

103. Welcome to the Mosaic Centre: Canada’s biggest net-zero building

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  By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  The gap from net-zero house to large scale …

Prior to launching the solar municipal feed-in-tariff program Banff invested in solar systems on public buildings such as the public washrooms in downtown Banff. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

100. Banff launches the first municipal solar feed-in tariff in Canada

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Banff National Park is famous for its beautiful mountain …

No two homes are the same in the Craik Eco-Village. There are tiny homes, homes made of straw bales, homes made out of insulated concrete forms – each home is its own unique recipe for building eco-home. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

99. Craik, Saskatchewan: The little Eco-Village that could

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  About ten years ago the town of Craik, Saskatchewan, …

Kyle Kasawski of Landmark Solar

89. Wind and solar reduce the price of electricity in Alberta

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Have you heard the one about how renewables are …

The roof of the Eastgate office building in Edmonton, home to an Environment Canada office, has 640 solar panels.

83. Is Alberta Canada’s next big solar market? We make the case

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney On a bright fall day in early October in …

The Kinney family Earthship at dawn. The house is 2,300 square feet in size with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

82. How we built our own Earthship, a radically sustainable, off-grid home on the prairie

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By Duncan Kinney and David Dodge When you tell people you’re building an Earthship there …

Landmark Solar Townhomes

81. Chasing Net Zero: Go big or go home

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney American poet, philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once …

Shafraaz and Serena Kaba’s near net-zero home was inspired by the German concept of the Passivhaus, a super energy efficient home that requires very little energy for heating or cooling. The home is air tight, very well insulated and it gets half its heating from passive solar energy streaming through the windows. Photo Darren Greenwood

80: Chasing Net Zero: Net-zero evolution

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney It’s a beautiful, livable, functional net-zero experiment – Welcome …

Photo Garth Crump Chasing net-zero Part 1: Net-zero 101

78. Chasing Net Zero: Net-zero 101

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney A net-zero home is more than just a place …

Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures Groundswell Network Greenhouse, Invermere BC

73. Passive solar greenhouses: Producing more food with less energy

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney A passive solar greenhouse in Invermere B.C. is making …

Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures Starland Country Community Solar Program, Alberta

68. Community solar: Farmers love the sun

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney “God hates cowards,” that’s how Bob Sargent, a farmer …

Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures Community Solar at Oilfield Arena, Black Diamond, Alberta www.greenenergyfutures.ca

65. Community solar: Meet a small town solar energy Macgyver

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney It’s one thing for SolarShare to get $3 million worth of …