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

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

142. Alberta students school Premier Rachel Notley on climate change

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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 …

The Temperance Street Passive House will be the first passive house certified in Saskatchewan. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

139. The first certified passive house in Saskatchewan

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson In 1976, gas prices doubled overnight. Naturally, this freaked …

Energy audits are often supported by municipal or provincial energy efficiency programs because they provide a strategic recipe book for all future energy efficiency improvements to businesses or homes. It provides hard, cold facts about return on investment for each change you are contemplating. It might be the best money you spend. Here, Rob Gawreletz inspects the attic insulation and seals in a home audit by CReturns, in Edmonton, Alberta. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

138. Energy efficiency coming to Alberta, at last!

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson On March 2, 2016, energy efficiency companies and experts from …

Edmonton's new carbon neutral net-zero garage suite is full of sensors and will be part of Godo Stoyke's PhD lifecycle assessment of the home to determine if energy efficiency and solar energy production can make not only the operation of the home carbon neutral, but whether it can also offset the carbon used in materials and construction and decommission. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

137. Carbon neutral laneway home–first of its kind

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson This carbon neutral garage suite is a first for …

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

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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

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

Electricity from tomatoes?

134. Biogas: Brown waste – green power!

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Brown gold. Prairie pies. Monkey missiles. Whatever you call …

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 …

Peter Amerongen is one of the acknowledged grandfathers of the net-zero home—a home that produces as much energy as it consumes. Using his secret formula for insulation you can make a net-zero home in the most northerly city in North America. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

132. Insulation 101: One builder’s secret blueprint for a net-zero home

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson The era of net-zero homes is upon us. These super-efficient …

Carl Lauren of Tyee Log and Timber Homes in Kimberley B.C. wanted to promote energy efficiency in home building so he pushed City Hall to start a program. Pictured is the crew that hand builds log homes at Tyee in Kimberley. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

131. Small town energy efficiency program is simple by design in Kimberley B.C.

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson All Carl Lauren wanted to do was promote the …

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

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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 …

The solar crew of Dave Simmonds, Warren Sarauer and Steve Milne from Evergreen and Gold Renewable Energy pose with Evansdale Community League's new 13.6 kilowatt solar system that will provide half of the community organizations electricity over the course of a year. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

126. Evansdale Community League solar: An investment in sustainability

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson In Edmonton, Alberta, almost every neighbourhood has a community …

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 …