Green Energy Futures

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...

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.ca VIDEO story https://www.youtube.com/greenenergyfuture/ GreenEnergyFutures.ca CKUA.c...

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 measure that reduce your energy needs first befor...

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 Podcast Full story https://greenenergyfutures.ca/epis...

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 vegetation on their Strathmore Solar Farm. Janna has b...

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 vegetation on their Strathmore Solar Farm. Janna has b...

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 vegetation on their Strathmore Solar Farm. Janna has b...

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 says this distributed energy, when coupled with en...

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 social sphere is dominated by polarization, a...

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 celebrate their 10th anniversary, we caught up with Ma...

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 debunk some myths. I caught up with Simon at the ve...

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 Ford F150 Lightning and took stock on the charging...