Providing professional planners with the tools and strategies to effectively pursue community energy pathways will play a central role in energy conscious cities of the future.
Many Canadian communities are doing this already. The City of Guelph, for example, created the Guelph Community Energy Plan in 2007 – the first of its kind in North America.Since then, the development of community energy plans has evolved substantially across the country. Today, cities and towns across Ontario have initiated change. But the most effective community energy planning comes at the early stages of development.
Author: Kirby Calvert
Building Tools to Plan for the Transition to Distributed Renewable Energy
CEKAP launched a project that aims to increase the capacity of communities and local planners to anticipate and manage the landscape impacts of distributed renewable energy (DRE) development within their region. We are focused on ‘land-based’ DRE (wind, solar, biomass) for now, but will expand focus to rooftop solar and others soon. The project combines spatial analysis and community engagement to enable smart and socially inclusive local energy planning.
Toward First Principles of Community Energy Planning
First principles ensure coordination of efforts, and position for success. This blog will excavate, evaluate, and refine the ‘first principles’ of community energy planning. My insights build on the Getting to Implementation project, inspired conversations with leading practitioners, and my experience as co-chair of the City of Guelph’s energy task force.
The case for community energy planning
The CEKAP research team is interested in identifying and overcoming the barriers to the implementation of community energy plans. Why are we focusing on community-level energy planning? And how might we envision the role of our municipal partners in the planning and implementation process?
