In the five years since its inception, the Antigonish Community Energy Co-op has fostered a megawatt of rooftop solar capacity across northern Nova Scotia, a feat they achieved primarily through buying in bulk. It began with a pair of community meetings, in the fall of 2014 and again the following spring, at which a hundred or so people from Antigonish took a long, hard look at Nova Scotia’s energy mix. Recognizing the dominance…

BookBike lending program in partnership with the Wolfville branch of the Annapolis Valley Regional Library Communities around Nova Scotia have taken it upon themselves to bring a sharp focus and urgency to the looming climate crisis, investing strategically in projects and people to meet Canada’s Net-Zero by 2050 climate targets. Municipalities like Wolfville have brought on people from across a spectrum of experiences and expertise not only to enhance the lives of their…

In the global rush for renewable power, Berwick, Nova Scotia, has about a century’s head start. It began in the 1920s, when the Berwick Electric Commission was founded to manage this community’s single hydroelectric dam; now their part owners of the Ellershouse Wind Farm, stealing megawatts from the breeze. This small, splendid, and otherwise unremarkable community has quietly become a champion of renewable power. “Our early foray into the world of renewables has…

Lorrie Rand remembers two pivotal moments leading to the creation of the ReCover Initiative, which aims to reimagine energy-efficient buildings in Nova Scotia. The first was in 2013, at a passive-house conference in Maine, where she was learning how to use smart design to build a house that uses 80 to 90 percent less energy. She attended a presentation about a program in the Netherlands that had successfully retrofitted thousands of homes to…

There’s a certain nobility in making do with less, carving away the wasted watts permeating modern business while keeping the lights on and the doors open. For some, this means LEDs and heat pumps. For others, it means hiring a professional. Errol Pereira of Efficiency Nova Scotia has overseen the Onsite Energy Manager service since 2016, an initiative which embeds one of his efficiency colleagues into a partnering business full time, and puts…

Although she has trouble pinning down a single event that led to the City of Halifax having one of the most progressive government climate plans in Canada, Shannon Miedema does recall the autumn of 2018. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had just released its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC, warning of the dire consequences of ignoring climate change. “Some of the really scary stuff, it stirred people,” Midedema says. The…

Striving to make the unknown, known and the uncelebrated, celebrated - the Powered by Communities initiative is bringing community energy success stories in Nova Scotia to the forefront. As part of this initiative, Powered by Communities has brought together short films, to showcase the amazing achievements of Nova Scotia’s municipalities. Join us and be inspired by the possibilities of how municipal government can better serve its residents through innovative energy projects. When: November…

In 2011, the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) made the first step toward one of the most innovative and forward-thinking renewable energy policies in Canada. Their goal was to develop a community energy program that would help Halifax reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The municipality chose to implement a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that offers low interest financing for the installation of solar panels. Two years later Halifax's own PACE program, Solar…