Sustainable Energy

Sustainable Energy for the Ottawa Valley

The Ottawa River Institute's Sustainable Energy Committee has been exploring the questions "What might sustainable energy mean for the Ottawa Valley?" and "How might the Ottawa River Institute help to facilitate a transition to sustainable energy?" See our report, Sustainable Energy for the Ottawa Valley.

Home Energy Upgrades Workshops

One of the most popular project that ORI has undertaken has been the Home Energy Upgrades workshops. Over the past three years, over 230 homes in Renfrew County have been upgraded, thanks to this workshop.

The Home Energy Upgrade workshops were conducted by the Ottawa River Institute's Project Coordinator, Cheryl Keetch and demonstrated simple ways and effective ways to make energy saving improvements to a home. Some of the techniques demonstrated included, how to apply weather stripping, how to caulk windows and doors, how and where to install pipe insulation and hot water heater jackets.

Over the years, thanks to special project funding has been received from The Ottawa River Power Corporation, Renfrew Hydro, Eganville Generation, The Ministry of Energy and donations from Keetch’s Building Supply, all workshop participants received a free kit of materials to upgrade their home, a $100 value!

Solar Domestic Hot Water Training Workshop for Tradespeople

A group of keen plumbers and trades people gathered on Friday April 23rd at Energy Options in Renfrew for a fantastic half-day workshop on Solar Domestic Hot Water (SDHW) for plumbers and trades people. The workshop, facilitated by Gary Martin of Energy Options, was very thorough and contained valuable information on the installation of different types of SDHW systems. Gary’s workshop covered everything from mounting systems, cold weather performance, system sizing, design, and payback analysis to plumbing codes, storage tanks, plumbing schematics, specialty tools, equipment, job safety, system filling, purging and trouble shooting.

The participants were able to view and discuss the outdoor placement of the Energy Options in-house SDHW system flat plate solar collector, and then inside, they saw the SDHW system in action, heating the hot water for in-store use.

SDHW Session

Renewable Energy Workshop in Cobden

Renfrew County residents, farmers, business owners, and municipal representatives came out to a free Renewable Energy workshop on Wednesday June 16, 2010 at the Cobden Agricultural Hall, Astrolabe Rd, Cobden ON.

The workshop featured three guest speakers who offered useful information on various types of renewable energy projects that they have been involved with, and suggested how they could be easily replicated in Renfrew County. Topics covered in the workshop included, generating income from the MicroFIT and FIT programs, community and wind and solar projects, First Nations community wind projects, community micro-hydro generation, local opportunities for biomass growers and developing a biomass growers network. The guest speakers for this workshop were; Graham Findlay of 3G Energy Corp, Ottawa ON, Rosanne Van Schie of Algonquin Agro Energy Inc, Mattawa ON, and Muffy Koch of Burritt’s Rapids Renewable Energy Association, Burritt’s Rapids ON.

With its agriculture and forestry industries, as well as its advantageous geographical location for the production of wind, solar and micro-hydro energy, Renfrew County has great potential for developing numerous private and community renewable energy projects. This workshop was made possible through a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to the Ottawa River Institute.


Green Building and Passive Solar Design Power Point Presentation

A couple years ago, ORI offered nine "Green Building and Passive Solar Design" presentations across Renfrew County. Many of the people who attended these presentations have asked for another chance to view this informative power point. So for these people and everyone else, here it is as a downloadable pdf file below.

Sustainable Energy Media Articles

Below are a number of newspaper articles reporting on our Sustainable Energy Project across Renfrew County. Please take a look!