Green Energy Futures

When Elon Musk gave his presentation on the Powerwall he gave the energy storage business a billion dollars worth of free press. Ontario is leading the way in Canada in energy storage deployment, we head there to learn more.

We head to Bobcaygeon, Ontario to see an off-grid, solar-powered cottage made out of steel shipping containers. Learn more at http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/sea-container-cabin-cottage-country

Ontario has successfully transitioned away from coal power and is ramping up renewable energy. It's the single largest carbon emissions reduction project ever undertaken in Canada and it deserves to be recognized.

Transportation is the average family's second biggest household expense. We talk to a location efficiency scholar and a city councillor to learn more about why buying a location efficient house might just save you a whole lot of money.

Cradle to Cradle is the evolution of recycling. Instead of turning what we recycle into a lesser version of what it was before Cradle to Cradle asks manufacturers to think of their materials as nutrients in a vibrant ecosystem. Episode here http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/cradle-cradle

LEED is everywhere but what is it worth the effort? We look into the effectiveness of this ubiquitious green building raiting system.

We find that people are genuinely curious about geothermal. From our first season one of our most popular episodes is on geothermal so we decided to follow up and make some interesting discoveries about energy efficient heating and cooling technology.

A new breed of startups is taking on a $750 billion dollar opportunity in industrial and commercial energy efficiency. They're using a mix of custom metering hardware, proprietary software and common sense to go after the 30 per cent of energy that's paid for but wasted by the industrial and commercial sectors. We talk to two of these startups in this week's episode of Green Energy Futures.

Judith Sayers is the former chief of the Hupuchasath First Nation on Vancouver Island. She was key to getting one of the first run-of-river projects that was majority owned by a First Nation built in Canada. Learn about her and the China Creek project this week at Green Energy Futures http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/judith-sayers-first-nation-run-river-hydro

On this week's CKUA episode of Green Energy Futures we've got the latest science and numbers on the actual effects that wind turbines have on birds and bats. http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/wind-wildlife-impacts

Is a net-zero commercial officie building possible? You betcha. On this week's CKUA Green Energy Futures episode we feature The Mosaic Centre in Edmonton, Alberta a building where geothermal heating and cooling work with solar electricity to produce an affordable, beautiful commercial building that will produce as much energy as it consumes. http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/first-net-zero-...

Even people who research and write about energy for a living struggle with jargon and making this stuff feel real. This week we explore a couple of commonly used energy terms and try to make them understandable. And the picture? That's a kilowatt-hour's worth of coal.

Titan Clean Energy Projects is a Saskathewan based company making a very interesting product: biochar. We visit their plant and learn more about this amazing product that has a ton of different uses - including long term sequestration of carbon in the soil. Learn more at http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/biochar

Feed-in tariffs have transformed renewable energy markets around the world. Now the mountain town of Banff is the first municipality in Canada to institute this important piece of renewable energy supporting policy.

The town of Craik, Saskatchewan hatched a plot to increase the population of the slowly dying prairie town. An eco-village on the edge of town where people would build environmentally friendly homes on unserviced lots sold for a dollar. See if it worked and get a tour of this amazing community at http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/craik-eco-village

We check out one of the rarest electric vehicles in Canada and that spurs us to check on the state of electric vehicles in Canada - http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/electric-vehicle-canada-update

Whitecourt, Alberta has a pulp mill and a saw mill. With all that wood comes wood waste. We look at how one company is turning this wood waste into something useful - green electricity. This is Green Energy Future's CKUA Radio podcast. See video and blog: http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/97-whitecourt-biomass-waste-energy

David Dodge of Green Energy Futures gets out of his comfort zone and jumps on a bike in the middle of an Edmonton winter. He learns about what kind of gear you need and how to stay warm for this fun, energy efficient mode of transportation. Plus we talk to Edmonton City Councillor Ben Henderson, a four-season cyclist himself.

Energy storage is getting ready to expand across the world. We head to Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan to see a finished project and understand more about this important next wave of energy technology.

Europe's largest, most successful economy is successfully and aggressively transitioning away from fossil fuels and nuclear. With their success has come a host of myths, we debunk the most persistent ones and get to the bottom of why you should care about Germany's energy transition.

The great boreal forest straddles the width of Canada. We visited the largest Kraft pulp mill in North America and found 95 megawatts of green biomass electricity capacity. This huge pulp mill not only produces the vast amount of electrict it requires to operate, it also now produces electricity for Alberta's grid. It's the story of pulp mills as power plants.

We look back at 2014 and pick out our three favourite clean energy stories.

The best gifts for the green energy or energy efficiency nerd in your life.

Given the simplicity and effectiveness of solar air heating technology and how much we have to spend to keep ourselves warm in the winter solar air heating just makes sense. We build a demonstration model in a backyard and chat with the company behind SolarWall a scaled up version of a solar air heater for industrial and commercial buildings.

Learn how in Canada's most fossil fuel friendly province it's wind and solar energy that are driving down prices for consumers.