Print Icon
 

With the official start of winter less than two weeks away, cozy up with these heart-warming stories on CEA projects related to community energy management, low-carbon transportation, energy retrofits, and collaborating with colleagues. Read on for more.


Please help to increase the profile of CEA and its work by forwarding this newsletter to a friend and invite them to subscribe.


This month:

  • Coming Together to Support Small Communities
  • On the Road to Reduce Local Transportation Emissions
  • Helping Homeowners on their Retrofit Journey
  • Connecting with Peers
  • CEA Members Look Ahead to 2025
   

RECENT INITIATIVES

Coming Together to Support Small Communities


Most small and mid-sized communities don’t have a dedicated Corporate Energy Manager on staff and can therefore struggle to achieve energy savings from community buildings and local infrastructure. CEA and BC Hydro are hoping to change that and have developed two initiatives that are currently rolling out.


1. A webinar series on energy issues for small and mid-sized communities. The first webinar last week focused on BC Hydro processes and incentives. Future sessions will explore quick and easy wins for energy savings and solar PV and battery storage offers.


2. Corporate Energy Management (CEM) capacity that could be shared between communities. BC Hydro is providing CEA with 50% funding for a Shared Energy Manager that can support a group of communities that wouldn’t individually qualify for a BC Hydro-funded position. CEA is currently recruiting participants for a pilot project on shared CEM services (to run over 202526), with preference given to multiple communities within a geographic region or Regional District.


Want to learn more about the Shared Energy Manager opportunity? Email Josephine Howitt, CEASenior Lead for Climate Planning & Implementation. 


Of the 40 local governments that participated in the webinar last week, only 7 indicated that they have a staff member dedicated to CEM and achieving energy savings, demonstrating the need for additional staff capacity.

   

On the Road to Reduce Local Transportation Emissions


It’s full speed ahead for a number of CEA projects related to transportation decarbonization.


Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles


A project to help local governments transition their medium and heavy-duty fleets (think dump trucks, snow plows, and cargo vans) to zero-emission alternatives (hydrogen, electricity, etc.) has engaged nearly 70 staff from around the province so far. The first phase of the project captured input on existing barriers, such as the up-front purchase cost, limited availability of charging infrastructure, uncertainty about different technologies, and concerns about vehicle reliability. Participants also identified new resources that would help overcome these barriers, including education for fleet managers, regional collaboration on vehicle purchasing, and help with business cases that would incorporate projected operating cost savings. The next phase of the project in 2025 will involve a technology showcase that will bring different types of zero-emission vehicles to multiple parts of BC for demonstration and information-sharing.


EV-charging in Ontario


Six rural counties in southern Ontario are closer to getting nearly 130 electric vehicle charging ports installed in communities throughout the region. After CEA helped them conduct a regional assessment of EV charging infrastructure needs, the counties – Grey, Bruce, Perth, Wellington, Huron, and Dufferin – selected Ivy Charging Network as the owner and operator of the infrastructure and have been submitting proposals for funding support. The Government of Ontario recently supported the initiative through its EV ChargeON program. The Ontario counties reached out to CEA in 2021 to help with their regional charging plan after CEA’s experience with regional EV charging networks in the Kootenays, southern Alberta, Vancouver Island, and northern BC.


Aggregating Carbon Credits


Because electric vehicles displace the consumption of fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel, the owners of EV chargers in BC gain carbon credits. These credits have value and can be sold on the Government of BC’s carbon market, but there’s a threshold for the minimum number of credits that can be sold. This precludes many local governments and smaller public sector organizations from selling the credits they earn from owning and operating community EV chargers. CEA is helping by designing an aggregation service that will pool the credits from multiple organizations, sell the credits, and distribute the earnings proportionately back to those same organizations. CEA is aiming to launch the aggregation service early in the new year to sell credits earned in 2024. Stay tuned for more info about the aggregation service and how communities and public sector organizations can enrol.

Helping Homeowners on their Retrofit Journey


A Five-Part Retrofit Journey Webinar Series


Homeowners wanting help prioritizing their home energy retrofits now have an online resource produced by CEA that features industry experts. A five-part series of webinars delivered over the past few months is now available on CEA’s YouTube channel, providing an introduction to home energy, initial priorities such as air sealing, and considerations when installing a heat pump. The live webinars received more than 400 registrations and the recordings have already been viewed more than 600 times.


View the full playlist on YouTube


Thanks to BC Hydro, FortisBC, and the Columbia Basin Trust for funding the webinar series through CEA’s Kootenay Clean Energy Transition program.

   

Retrofit Assist Expands


And then there were five. That’s the number of local governments now partnering with CEA to deliver the retrofit concierge service called Retrofit Assist. Initially offered in Squamish and Whistler in 2022, then expanded to Rossland, Retrofit Assist is now also available in Kamloops and East Kootenay. In fact, there were more than 50 sign-ups in Kamloops within days of the program being announced.


Retrofit Assist helps homeowners navigate the process of home energy retrofit projects, and connects them with local contractors and financing. The program earned national recognition earlier this year when it was named a Clean50 project for its ability to inform and inspire Canadians.


Interested in bringing Retrofit Assist to your community? Get in touch.

   

NETWORKS

   

Connecting with Peers


CEA convenes peer network meetings every month, mostly for staff in local, regional, and Indigenous governments. Here’s what’s coming up in December.


BC Retrofit Peer Network, Dec 12: This meeting will focus on retrofit programs for Part 3 buildings and include BC Hydro rebates as well as the new BC Retrofit Accelerator, which provides advice and support on the retrofit process for strata councils and the owners/managers of larger commercial and residential buildings.


Thompson Okanagan Climate Action Network, Dec 17: A community mobilization program that grew out of the City of Vernon’s climate action advisory committee will present about building strong relationships, activating social capital, and the role of local governments in climate action. The Fresh Outlook Foundation’s Climate Action Ripple Effect (CARE) program launched in 2022 and has since engaged with hundreds of local students on climate and sustainability topics.


Find out more about the peer networks that CEA convenes and inquire about joining one.

CEA Members Look Ahead to 2025


Representatives of our 50 member-organizations met in late November for an update on CEA’s strategic planning and recent interactions with senior government officials. The conversation that followed highlighted areas of need for CEA members in 2025 and beyondtackling misinformation, securing support from senior levels of government, and getting timely insights into government policy and directionalong with an appreciation that CEA can help bring members’ concerns to other levels of government.


The feedback will shape CEA’s member programming in 2025 as we work to evolve our support for the CEA member community to match the challenges and opportunities at this moment in time.


Not a member but want to know how it would benefit you and your organization? Contact us or check out the CEA membership web page.


Thank you for subscribing to the CEA Newsletter, our monthly update on local climate and energy initiatives connected to the Community Energy Association.

No longer interested? You can easily unsubscribe or update your preferences