366. Helping municipalities take action to save energy and money, and reduce emissions

Municipalities Taking Climate Action - Part I

By David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

Alberta municipalities are taking action to save energy and money and reduce emissions more than ever thanks to a little help from their friends at the Municipal Climate Action Centre (MCCAC).

You probably haven’t heard of the MCCAC, but since 2009 they have helped more than 150 small towns, cities and municipalities install solar, install EV charging stations and complete energy efficiency projects and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have had a variety of programs at the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre. Everything from electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar installations, energy efficiency upgrades, and electric vehicles,” says Trina Innes, executive director of sustainability services at Alberta Municipalities.

And low and behold the program works. Since 2009 the MCCAC has provided just $44 million in funding that has helped 156 municipalities save $166 million over the lifetime of their projects.

Invest $44 million, save $166 million

It all started back in 2008 when Bob Hawkesworth, who was a city councillor in Calgary for 23 years and an MLA in Alberta for two terms was president of what was then called the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA).

“We began doing some long-term sustainability planning, building the capacity for municipalities to look into the future, address the climate issue, and energy was a big part of that,” says Hawkesworth.

They worked with then Environment Minister Rob Renner to secure $2 million in funding and the MCCAC was born as a partnership between the Alberta Government what is now called the Alberta Municipalities and the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

Hawkesworth then went to work for the MCCAC and developed the first programs for municipalities.

We called it Taking Action to Manage Energy (TAME) and we rolled out the first TAME program for buildings.

They knew municipalities were very interested but, had very little capacity to explore energy efficiency projects, so they sought to fill that need.

“We generally work with administrative staff in various municipalities that can include facility managers, chief administrative officers, and people who run recreational facilities,” says the current executive director Trina Innes.

Since the early days when Bob Hawkesworth developed those first programs, the MCCAC has helped municipalities undertake 878 projects.

“Over the last 15 years, we've helped about 150 municipalities install solar,” says Innes. These projects now add up to 30 megawatts of capacity.

The MCCAC has helped municipalities do energy efficiency projects in 200 facilities and install 200 electric vehicle charging stations.

We spoke to administrators and energy managers in numerous communities and most say they wouldn’t have been able to do the projects without the technical support and incentives.

Town of Raymond, electrically net-zero

The town of Raymond, Alberta is a case in point.

“We didn't know anything about solar. I mean, you have to remember, as a small municipality, we don't have the depth of experience on these things,” says Greg Robinson of the Town of Raymond.

Raymond became the first community in Canada to go net-zero with its electricity all thanks to a little support and some financial support from the MCCAC.

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“We have nine [solar] projects here in the town of Raymond, including our aquatic centre right behind me on our ice arena, our Victoria Sports Park, water plant, fire hall, golf course, town shop–so many facilities,” says Robinson.

Today they produce enough solar electricity to cover all of the electricity use by the Town’s facilities on a net-annual basis.

This is ironic because the first consultant they hired told them solar wouldn’t work in Raymond.

Sure, the town is cutting its emissions significantly, but the project went ahead because the economics of the project were very positive.

This is music to the ears of Trina Innes of the MCCAC. She knows once they do one project with a small town, city or municipality the door swings wide open and inevitably the municipalities undertake numerous projects.

“What we've found is that once a municipality has done one project, they get really excited about the energy savings and the impact that it can have in their community,” says Innes.

Solar everywhere

The Town of Raymond installed solar everywhere, but they've also purchased an electric vehicle, installed public charging stations, and they’ve done several energy efficiency projects and more.

“We've done just about every program the MCCAC has put on the table,” says Robinson. Watch for our upcoming story on the Town of Raymond.

In one of their most successful programs the MCCAC provided staffing grants so municipalities could hire an “energy manager.”

Thirty-seven municipalities enrolled in this program which overcomes one of the biggest barriers – the capacity and knowledge to undertake projects.

Nathan Schaper is one of those energy managers hired by the City of Leduc and he made a huge impact right out of the gate. He analyzed the City’s energy use and then worked with the electricity provider to reduce the peak energy demand numbers and he saved Leduc $43,000 a year.

These energy managers are making a big impact in municipalities.

Adapting to climate change critical

The MCCAC recognized the importance of adapting to climate change and helped 19 Alberta communities do climate assessments and prepare climate resilience plans to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Tristan Walker is the energy manager in Pincher Creek and they just wrapped up their plan last year. No one needs to explain how important this issue is to them. They ran out of fresh water last year as droughts hammered southern Alberta.

“The intakes for freshwater are above the water line right now and we're trucking water in for the municipal district and then the town has also had water restrictions last summer,” says Walker.

He took us to the Oldman Dam to see their water intake and yup it was above the water level in the dam which was very low which is causing issues all over southern Alberta.

Pincher Creek’s plan covers wildfire risk, adaptation to wildfire smoke, extremely hot weather, droughts, and ironically the potential for floods as well.

No communities can afford all of the actions they should take to adapt and prepare for these risks, but with the plans they have a tool to strategically invest in projects that give the best bang for the buck, or help reduce the biggest impacts. Watch for our upcoming story on municipalities adapting to climate change.

When the MCCAC started they had three staff and about $500,000 to $1 million budget.

Municipal actions inspire more actions

“Our team has grown – we're about eight or nine people now and we're moving around five to 10 million dollars a year in funding into municipalities. And we're looking to scale, so there is a lot that needs to be done in this space,” says Innes.

Municipalities need and want the support and when one municipality does an energy efficiency retrofit or installs solar they inspire others to do the same. Several municipalities also told us community actions inspire residents to do the same.

Since Raymond achieved net-zero electricity they have been visited by 200 representatives of other communities to learn about what they did and there are now ten municipalities that are “electrically net-zero.”

Indeed Alberta and the world needs many more and much better-financed organizations like the MCCAC to rise to the challenge of climate change and help tame municipal budgeting.

Green Energy Futures CKUA Podcasts

Green Energy Futures · 366A. MCCAC Helping municipalities save energy, money and emissions

Green Energy Futures · 366B. Municipalities take climate action with a little help from their friends