Green Energy Futures

In Part 2 of our Green Energy Futures CKUA.com podcast, Reza builds his first net-zero home, and we follow his relentless pursuit of developing the most affordable net-zero home. His work to design and build the simplest, most cost-effective net-zero design has gone from his first efforts in 2013 to today, when he has 100 net-zero homes in the works in Blatchford, Edmonton's Carbon Neutral Communi...

This week we celebrate net-zero pioneer Reza Nasseri, the founder of Landmark Homes who made it his mission to build affordable net-zero homes. This is our special double VIDEO episode of our CKUA.com podcast. We trace Nasseri's roots from immigrating to Canada from Iran, inheriting a cultural penchant for waste not want not and energy efficiency. From his beginnings with net-zero homes almost 16...

Reza Nasseri began working on net-zero homes 15 years ago and is recognized as a pioneer and leader in net-zero design for production homes. In part 1 of our series, we trace his roots as a young electrical engineer and flesh out what motivates him to design and build the most affordable net-zero homes. Nasseri is the founder of Landmark Homes, and ARQBuilt has developed a revolutionary automated...

When residents of Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community in Edmonton, Alberta, moved in, the community garden was already there! Ever since the beginning, the raised beds and garden spaces were oversubscribed by residents looking to grow their own organic, local, sustainable food. Interest in community gardening is surging with more than 80 community gardens in Edmonton, but as we learn in our story,...

Renewables were not to blame for a catastrophic blackout in Spain in April 2025. We explore challenges and solutions to the growing renewable energy grid with Michael Liebreich, energy expert and founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. 🟢 GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.com Podcast ❤️ Subscribe Today - We have more than 400 episodes! ✅ BLOG - GreenEnergyFutures.ca ✅ PODCAST - https://open.spotify.co...

Blatchford carbon-neutral community is pioneering a virtual power plant project to link 100 solar-powered homes in a virtual network in a game-changing project. Each home has a 20-kilowatt battery, and the pilot project will export electricity to the market in periods of high demand, thus helping the grid and generating revenue for the homeowners. We talk to Geoff Ferrell of sonnen, the battery su...

VIDEO - Roger Gagné was frustrated by a lack of action on climate change. He wrote scads of letters, he wrote articles, and he even created the Climate Plan Alberta website where 84 businesses and organizations joined him in a call for Alberta to develop a meaningful climate change action plan. So he took his inspiration for the sign guy on Facebook and created a sign that says "Alberta is no...

Roger Gagné was frustrated by a lack of action on climate change. He wrote scads of letters, he wrote articles, and he even created the Climate Plan Alberta website where 84 businesses and organizations joined him in a call for Alberta to develop a meaningful climate change action plan. So he took his inspiration for the sign guy on Facebook and created a sign that says "Alberta is not ready for a...

In Part 2 of our story on Kumson's Electric Race Team we head out on the trails with the team to see the electric quads in action. The team is the first and only electric race team in Canada and have piled up a series of wins on the race circuit. We talk to Sam Kumson about these amazing machines, playing fair with powerful electric machines and his favorite aspect of electrifying quads. Oh, a...

Kumson's Electric Race Team is the first and only electric quad racing team in Canada. Sam Kumson, from Ryley, Alberta got the idea for electrifying quads after he added solar to his quad trailer. He thought why not electrify the quads too? These quads are quick off the line, fast and very low maintenance. We meet Sam in his shop to hear the origin story of Kumson's Electric Race Team. 🟢...

Can you put a heat pump in any home? It can be very difficult to get good advice and find a reputable installer to help you install a heat pump in your home. Drew Tozer knows this, so he wrote the book "Feel Good Homes - How to Choose the Right Heat Pump for a Comfortable, Healthy, Sustainable Home. Tozer was an energy auditor and he'd recommend clients install heat pumps and then the clients woul...

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 how to move forward with a heat pump with confidence...

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 installers and then they help people evaluate the qu...

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 comes from the sewer instead of the Earth. If...

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 atmosphere to avoid the most catastrophic impac...

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 off the worst impacts of c...

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 that feed into Energy Centre One where a massive heat...

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 heat pump, and it's super energy effic...

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 uncertain future. We talk to the company founder Rez...

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 Podcast Episode 399 - also see blog and video https://greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/399-green-spaces-green-energy-green...

“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 has a green building code, geo-exchange (geotherm...

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 for, uh, but they're already here in Blatchford,"...

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 home has many innovative features including passiv...

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 elements, such as reclaimed concert hall seatbacks rep...

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 straw bale home has loads of innovative features in...