Green Energy Futures

This week on our CKUA broadcast, Starland County started using solar to run water pumps in 2007. They are now working on a pilot program to get 10 farmers each installing a 10 kilowatt solar system. The idea is is to mix in a little farmer DIY to get the price down to the point where solar pays for itself in 10-13 years. Learn how this small Alberta county took an innovative approach to bring sola...

Harvest Power in Richmond BC takes in 200,000 tonnes of food and organic waste and turn it into compost for your yard and electricity for your home! Take a walk with rotting organic waste this week on Green Energy Futures.

This week on Green Energy Future's CKUA podcast, the KidWind Challenge came to Edmonton, Alberta and seven teams from three high schools competed to build working wind turbines. More than 5,000 kids since 2009 from all over North America have participated in the KidWind Challenge designing and building micro wind turbines, testing them out in a wind tunnel and competing for prizes. See photos and...

This week on CKUA Les Quinton is the Macgyver of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the small town of Black Diamond, Alberta. There's almost no system he hasn't optimized and with the dollars he's saved Black Diamond reinvests in solar energy and energy efficiency which saves the town even more money. Learn how Les Quinton does it all this week on Green Energy Futures. http://www.greenenerg...

Cogeneration is a back to the future technology. The idea is simple run a big hot engine, generate electricity right in your building and use the heat to heat it. Most modern power plants actually turn heat into a form of pollution that heats up lakes and rivers instead of our homes and buildings. This week we visit the Centennial Building in Calgary, Alberta to take a look at its 370 kilowatt gen...

Amelie Caron is a high-performance building consultant and one of the people who helped make the Belgravia Green net-zero home in Edmonton a reality. Learn how this 1,500 square foot home gets 50 per cent of its heat from south facing windows and a polished concrete floor this week at Green Energy Futures. http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/62-power-passive-solar-and-thermal-mass

Coming up next week on CKUA's Green Energy Futures: Passive solar energy can provide half of a home's heating needs from sunshine streaming through the windows for free! That's Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday on the CKUA Radio Network in Alberta.

How plain vanilla energy efficiency programs could save Albertans $1.5 billion and get Alberta 27 megatonnes of emissions reductions, halfway to its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. We talk to Jesse Row of the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Alberta has a small carbon tax and the money collected goes into a green technology fund that invests in greenhouse gas reducing projects. This mechanism, called the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation has achieved large emissions reductions by investing in renewable energy projects. Learn how the fund works and about some of the projects they've invested in this week on Green Energy F...

The electric bike might be the single best urban transportation option out there. It's super green, gets you outside, has really low emissions and can get you up that big hill without breaking a sweat. Learn all about e-bikes this week on Green Energy Futures. http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/59-electric-bikes

Alberta's new associate minister of electricity and renewable energy Donna Kennedy Glans (PC), Rachel Notley (ND), Joe Anglin (Wildrose) and Dr. David Swan (Liberal) answer the question: "What timeline do you see as practical for the coal phase out in the province of Alberta." The Jan. 16, 2014 event was moderated by Colin Soskolne for the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

On January 1st the phase out of incandescent light bulbs began in Canada. In spite of what you may have heard, this is actually a good news story. Not only will we save massive amounts of energy, but money as well. We also address the myths around the true costs and mercury in CFLs. See blog: http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/58-incandescent-light-bulb-phase-out-good-thing-0

Green Energy Futures looks at power-to-gas, a way to convert and store excess renewable energy such as wind and solar to make hydrogen and fuel vehicles, heat homes or generate electricity.

Green Energy Futures best of 2013 episode: Rediscover our favorite story about energy from pooh on the farm; find out which story went viral on YouTube; which City Hall is heated with biomass; and which home builder has pledged to make every home he builds net zero by 2015.

In part II of our Green Energy Futures gift guide we suggest a home energy audit, a home energy monitor that helps track down your power vampires like a detective and giving the gift of green energy! Best of the season!

Part I of our Green Energy Futures gift guide. In this episode we recommend the Pedego electric bike, the Nest thermostat and LED light bulbs.

Promo ad for Green Energy Futures Best of 2013 episode on CKUA Radio in Alberta. We pick our favorite episodes from 2013. http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/56-best-stories-2013

The earth tube is a humble, simple invention. It pre-heats or pre-cools the air coming into a building by running it through an underground pipe. If you go a meter or two underground the earth is a constant 4-6 degrees. By taking advantage of that free heat you can can save a ton of money. We explore a couple earth tube projects in this episode of CKUA's Green Energy Futures.

The Eastgate office building in Edmonton is colorful, bright, energy efficient and oh yeah, has a 153 kilowatt solar system on the roof. The building, which will soon become an outpost for Environment Canada, was a developer led project that was seeking LEED Gold status. In order to get the necessary energy efficiency points they went with the simplest, cheapest, most cost effective technology - s...

The worldwide price war around solar photovoltaic modules is bad for manufacturers but great for consumers. Thirty years ago it cost $75 per watt for solar pv, now it costs $0.75 cents a watt. That downward pressure on prices means even more solar gets bought and installed. It's a virtuous cycle and one that means you might be getting a solar system sooner than you think.

Kent Rathwell is a study in contrasts. He's an ambitious entrepeneur who's spending money bringing electric vehicle infrastructure to a country with around 3500 EVs. Rathwell made his money in bird seed, he is the president of Sun Country Farms, and how he's branched out into electric vehicle chargers. The connection isn't obvious at first but listen to this week's story and the connection between...

We break out the microscope and tell the story of just cleantech startup this week at Green Energy Futures. Morgan Solar is an intriguing example of tenacity, smarts and passion. When Morgan Solar got started six years ago their goal was to get their concentrated solar pv modules down to about $1 a watt. Well, in that time the global solar market changed drastically and prices per watt are now aro...

If we get a future where we are integrating large amounts of renewable energy into the grid it won't come without some serious innovation in the energy storage space. We look at Temporal Power's flywheel technology and eCAMION's battery storage this week on CKUA Radio's Green Energy Futures.

If you're a renewable energy nerd like us you've no doubt seen Bullfrog Power's ubiquitous green froggie at an event or on a piece of swag. They're darn good at being everywhere, but we wanted to get behind the cute logo and figure out if Bullfrog Power was for real. Learn what this green energy provider is all about in this week's Green Energy Futures CKUA Radio podcast.

A rocket stove is a hyper efficient wood burning stove that was originally built for the developing world. It solved two big problems - people were dying from indoor air pollution from cooking on indoor open air fires and all of the wood needed to run these stoves was causing deforestation. Now the rocket stove has come to North America but with a bit of a twist. Instead of cooking with it the roc...