Drew Tozer knows how hard it is to get good information and advice on heat pumps so he wrote the book "Feel Good Homes - How to Choose the Right Heat Pump for a Comfortable, Healthy, Sustainable Home. Anyone who's looked into heat pumps probably knows how hard it is - This book nails it. It's concise, easy to read and it will help you understand ho…

Interest in solar has exploded in recent years, but how do you figure out if you are getting a quality system at a fair price from a reputable installer? Jordan Kruhlak and Beth Andrew both worked in the industry and know this so they started Glean Solar Brokers. Glean helps their clients understand solar, they secure three quotes from reputable in…

Toronto Western Hospital is launching the largest wastewater heating system in the world. Yup, the hospital will get 90% of its heating from heat exchangers that suck heat out of Toronto's sewer system and then upgrades the temperature with heat pumps to heat the hospital complex. It's just like geoexchange systems (geothermal) except the heat come…

Our full interview with Ed Whittingham on his new podcast "Scrubbing the Sky" involves going beyond energy transition to zero-emissions energy and also capturing carbon from the atmosphere and locking it up.In this episode, we take a deep dive into why some believe we need to go beyond energy transition and directly capture carbon from the atmosphe…

Ed Whittingham calls himself "a climate citizen at large." He's also the host of the Energy vs Climate podcast, the former executive director of the Pembina Institute and the host of a new podcast called "Scrubbing the Sky." He says we will have to do more than transition our energy systems to zero-carbon sources to combat climate change. To stave …

Heat pumps are taking the world by storm and Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community has both ground-source and air-source heat pumps, heating and cooling the homes of this super-sustainable neighbourhood. Blatchford has a green building code and an amazing geoexchange district energy sharing system. It all starts with 570 bore holes beneath a lake tha…

Kassandra and Martin were looking for a new home in the core of the City and they hoped to include some green features in their home. But then they discovered Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community, and as Martin said "Boom Done." They found Landmark Homes in Blatchford, and their home is solar powered, heated by a super energy-efficient air-source he…

Landmark Homes pioneered the most affordable net-zero homes in Canada and now the company has found the perfect home for their homes in Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community in Edmonton, Alberta. Their unique combination of solar and air-source heat pumps mean homeowners can wind up paying little or nothing for their utilities, a boon in an energy un…

Josh Culling was looking for a green home powered and heated by green energy in the heart of the city with plenty of green spaces. Sounds impossible? He found his new home in Blatchford, the largest planned carbon neutral community in North America. GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com PodcastEpisode 399 - also see blog and videohttps://greenenergyfuture…

“What we love about Blatchford is that all of the homes here are heated with renewable energy,” says Heather MacKenzie," of their home in the largest carbon neutral community in North America.In Part 2 of our series on Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community we meet Heather and Justin, two of the early residents of this visionary community. Blatchford …

When Blatchford was announced as the largest planned carbon neutral community in North America it was seen as "wildly ambitious.""It's right in the heart of the city, connected to transit, and boasts short travel distances. There's a grocery store already, there's an LRT stop, it's all the things that new neighbourhoods often wait years and years f…

This week in part 2 we return to see the straw bale dream home 8 years after filming a story on the Making of the Straw Bale Dream Home. This home features some of the most innovative features we've seen in any green home. Lance and Wendy Olson lead us on a tour of their version of a passive house that is heated mostly by passive solar energy.The h…

Here is an AI deep dive summary of Green Energy Futures' David Dodge interviews with Lance and Wendy Olsen about their unique straw bale home. The Olsens, seeking to downsize and minimize their environmental impact, built a net-zero home incorporating straw bale insulation, rammed earth walls, and solar technology. The home features innovative elem…

In part 1 of our series on a Net-Zero Straw Bale Dream Home we meet Lance and Wendy Olson as they were building their straw bale home. They wanted to downsize, reduce their footprint and build the most energy efficient home they could.After a lot of research they landed on the idea of building a straw bale home. But they didn't stop there, this str…

In Part 2 of our series on the worst case scenario for an air-source heat pump, improvements were made, the post reno energy audit is done and we check back a year later after installing an air-source heat pump in a cabin with 2x4 walls and R12 insulation in the cold Canadian north.Full story GreenEnergyFutures.caVIDEO story https://www.youtube.com…

Energy efficient heat pumps are revolutionizing home heating. So we wanted to know, can we install an air-source heat pump in a cabin with energy inefficient 2x4 walls? This is part 1 of that story that starts with an energy audit. Energy efficient builders hold tight to the maxim "envelope first" which means focus on improving insulation and other…

In part 2 of our Solar & Sheep series first generation farmer Janna Greir adds Kunekune pigs to her solar & sheep farm. It turns out these cute little oinkers are symbiotic with the sheep. They eat parasites and worms left behind by the sheep thus interrupting their lifecycle keeping the sheep healthier. www.GreenEnergyFutures.ca www.CKUA.com Podca…

Janna Greir and her partner Ryan always loved the idea of ranching, living in the country, and operating a small farm, but becoming a first-generation farmer is nearly impossible these days.That is until she discovered the combination of sheep and solar. The family had a dozen sheep until she landed a contract with Capital Power to manage the veget…

Janna Greir and her partner Ryan always loved the idea of ranching, living in the country, and operating a small farm, but becoming a first-generation farmer is nearly impossible these days.That is until she discovered the combination of sheep and solar. The family had a dozen sheep until she landed a contract with Capital Power to manage the veget…

Janna Greir and her partner Ryan always loved the idea of ranching, living in the country, and operating a small farm, but becoming a first-generation farmer is nearly impossible these days.That is until she discovered the combination of sheep and solar. The family had a dozen sheep until she landed a contract with Capital Power to manage the veget…

Gary Holden of Lodestone Energy in New Zealand says making solar energy available to everyone is the secret to building an affordable, resilient, net-zero electricity grid.The idea is to build solar projects in or near every town and offer the solar to consumers who can't put solar on their homes or businesses the opportunity to go solar.He also sa…

This week we speak to Tristan Walker one of 40 people appointed as a fellow of The Energy Futures social innovation lab to have the hard conversations about how our energy systems can evolve to meet net-zero objectives. Tristan Walker of Massif Energy is working on the Alberta's Electricity Future initiative with a diverse group of Albertans. While…

The Energy Futures Lab is like a breath of fresh air in today’s polarized world, where meaningful discussions about real-world problems are scarce. Every year, they invite 40 talented individuals from various fields to join their mission and tackle some of the most challenging issues facing us, like how to get Alberta to net-zero emissions. To cele…

Get totally TRUCKED UP!Simon Lindley, fed up with the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) surrounding electric vehicle (EV) trucks, decided to take matters into his own hands. He launched the Trucked Up EVs YouTube channel, where he’s on a mission to test the limits of these electric beasts, evaluate the charging infrastructure across Canada, and de…

I met Simon Lindley at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. His passion for EV trucks inspired him to create a YouTube Channel called Trucked Up EVs to look into the good, the bad and the ugly of EV Trucks. He has a passion for busting myths and had just wrapped up a cross Canada tour on which he tested the limits of his …

In a recent episode we talked to Jeremy Kureluk of Rental Bus Lines about how much they like their electric buses and how they hoped one day to connect them to a virtual power plant to feed electricity to the grid. Turns out this is already happening in Canada. Rob Safrata owns a tour bus company and he too wants to go electric. So he started FUSE …

The wheels on this electric bus have been going around and around since 2017. We talk to Jeremy Kureluk of Rental Bus Lines based in Stony Plain, Alberta about owning and operating an electric school bus in the cold Canadian north.Turns out they love their electric buses and want more. We dive into all the questions you might have including range, …

The ballots have been counted and the winners have been announced of the Energy Innovation Challenge hosted by Decentralised Energy Canada and the City of Medicine Hat. The winners were announced at the Decentralised Energy Canada Forum in Whistlers, British Columbia. (https://www.deforum.ca/)The winners solutions will be piloted on the Medicine Ha…

It's a ticking time bomb - how do we integrate millions of solar, wind and battery projects along with 250 million EVs by 2030 into our outdated 20th Century Grid? Old school utilities often think of building more power plants, distribution, and transmission, but that would cost too much and could never happen fast enough.At least part of the answe…

The City of Medicine Hat has partnered with Decentralised Energy Canada to host the Energy Innovation Challenge, a tool they are using to navigate energy transition and transform new energy resources such as solar, EVs, batteries and managed loads into assets instead of liabilities.GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com PodcastMedicine Hat & The Energy Inn…

The long-held dream of using geothermal energy to satisfy our needs and save the earth is ready for a big breakthrough.Today we take a deep dive into Green Energy Futures complete guide to geothermal with hosts Sarah and Michael, our AI hosts from Notebook LM.Geothermal and its cousin Air Source Heat Pumps are ready to provide heat and power to our…

The Energy Innovation Fair is back again this year on Oct. 18-19th. We talk to organizer Rene Michalak of ReThink Red Deer about the speakers, panels, displays and demos that will be featured this year. The theme is economic diversification in Central Alberta and there are speakers on geothermal, solar, carbon storage, agrivoltaics and much more.Gr…

Our electricity grids were designed to accommodate a few giant power plants. But what happens when millions of solar, wind, EVs, heat pumps and other Decentralized Energy Solutions come online? The Energy Innovation Challenge was created to find new and creative solutions to not only integrate these new energy resources but to turn them into assets…

Virtual power plants are simply networks of small energy producers (solar, wind, backup generators etc.) and energy storage devices that can provide power to the grid when needed.It's the digitization of the grid. It's very efficient, costing 40% less than speaker power plants and it's absolutely essential to start managing the millions of distribu…

Farmer Shawn Morton just said "no" the first time he was approached by solar developers. But Morton found an ally in Claude Mindorff a farmer who was working for the solar company. So he cut a deal to lease 300 acres to a solar project and to keep grazing and farming that land in the lease. It's called Agrivoltaics, or the integration of solar with…

Solar plus farming, called Agrivoltaics is helping farmers generate new sources of income, keep the family farm viable and keep farming in the solar farm. We meet up with farmer, former oil and gas guy and current renewable energy developer Claude Mindorf at the Joffre Solar Farm in Alberta to talk about agrivoltaics. It turns out Canada could prod…

Alberta phased out its coal-fired electricity in record time representing the largest single action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. The trouble is a lot of the coal was replaced by natural gas which produces 60% of the emissions of coal. Can the fossil fuel-infatuated province also capitalize on its amazing renewable energy resources …

Alberta's last coal-fired power plant stopped burning coal on June 16, 2024 at 10:57 pm. The coal phase-out was originally proposed for 2061, but in 2015 a new target was set for 2030. On June 16 the last lump of coal was burned to produce electricity six years ahead of schedule. The phase-out represents the largest reduction in greenhouse gas emis…

This is huge! EAVOR believes they've cracked the geothermal nut. Using closed-loop technology they have pioneered a new kind of Geothermal that can be built almost anywhere without uncertainty. We look at EAVOR's pilot project in Alberta and their full-scale geothermal plant in Germany that will provide electricity for 8,000 homes and district heat…

EAVOR has pioneered a new kind of geothermal that can provide heat and power almost anywhere on the planet. This could be the missing link in the energy revolution that could not only help electricity get to net-zero. It also helps solve the even bigger challenge of how to heat buildings with zero emissions.We talk to Jeanine Vany of EAVOR, a compa…

Here's what Green Infill looks like!Built to the super energy efficient Passive House standard this 16-unit townhouse style infill project replaced two underutilized single-family homes in Edmonton, Alberta. The homes require just 10% of the heating energy of a regular home, and have no natural gas or bills.We take a tour of this amazing project wi…

This project checks all the boxes. T5M Connect replaced two single-family homes with 16 new units of desperately needed housing and the kicker is it was built to the passive house standard in the mostly northerly city in North America.GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com Podcast저자 David Dodge

Part 2 - Gregor Robertson, Vancouver's longest-serving mayor set out to create the greenest city in the world. Now he's the Global Ambassador of the Global Covenant of Mayors helping 13,000 other cities take action on climate change.GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com PodcastFull story GreenEnergyFutures.ca…

When Gregor Robertson came up with his campaign slogan of creating the greenest city in the world who knew it would be his most popular focus? He went to become Vancouver's longest-serving Mayor, and although they may not have reached the coveted top spot, they got pretty close. They created a very green building code, increased non-car transportat…

PART 2 - Summerside PEI had no electricity generation capacity a decade ago and then did some amazing things. First (in part 1) they added wind power, a smart grid and energy storing furnaces. Then they added AI-powered solar microgrids and a solar and battery farm right in the City. The little City with no generation capacity has achieved 62% loca…

PART 1 - Summerside like the province of PEI had no energy production except expensive backup diesel generators just a decade or so ago. Something had to change. So in an amazing transformation, they set up their own utility, built a wind farm in the city, installed a smart grid and thermal energy storing appliances and got to 42-46% renewable ener…

This sounds counterintuitive, but a new study has found Electric Vehicles (EVs) are driving the price of electricity down and increasing net profits for utilities. Thanks to time-of-use pricing EV owners are shifting their charging habits to non-peak times thus making much more efficient use of existing grid resources. GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.co…

Mitchell Beer started The Energy Mix, a media service dedicated to covering climate change 10 years ago long before the conventional media took it seriously. We talk to Beer about climate change, journalism, and his media service which has published 30,000 stories on climate change and climate solutons. GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com Podcast…

EVs produce fewer lifecycle emissions than ICE vehicles in countries with dirty grids or clean grids. A study looked at emissions in five countries including China, the US, UK, Germany and Japan and found EVs produce much lower emissions throughout the life of the vehicle.GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com Podcast…

In part 2 of our series on Alberta's new renewable energy rules we learn that 57 projects worth $14 billion are potentially at risk. We talk to Jason Wang of the Pembina Institute which just prepared a map overlay showing the potential impact of new restrictions. We also talk to Vittoria Bellissimo of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association about…