ATHABASCA - Former Athabasca town councillor Mike Gismondi and current town councillor Rob Balay are spearheading an effort to bring the Energy Futures Lab (EFL) roadshow to town this fall to bring together innovative thinkers to consider the region's future energy landscape.
The Energy Futures Lab was created in 2015 out of a response to the narratives around energy being very polarizing. The group refers to themselves as the “radical middle” in an effort to bring both sides of the debate closer together, explained EFL fellow and animator Juli Rohl.
“So, you know, it's either you're drill, baby drill, or you're saying keep it in the ground, and we figured there was an opportunity to create a bit of a middle ground that we call the radical middle,” Rohl said. “It's leveraging our strengths of the past to build the energy system of the future and so, we're trying to create kind of more inclusive solutions that work better for more folks, and also lead us towards a more sustainable future.”
Due to the pandemic, the roadshow has shifted from three in-person sessions over three months to four virtual sessions of invited attendees — government officials, educators and business owners — as well as those who are just generally interested in the discussion.
"We included in that list some of the high school teachers who teach science and we encouraged them to invite some high school students. They did that in Hinton and that was really interesting, because the youth had a very different take on what maybe the future is going to look like for them than the older oldtimers like me,” Gismondi said. “I mean, I'm not going to be here in 50 years and they are.”
And considering how the pandemic and plummetting oil prices have affected the oil and gas industry, Gismondi said there are ideas for them to pivot to other energy solutions like direct heating which requires drilling. There is one central heating system and then pipes are run underground to all the buildings piping steam; a concept that is popular in Europe because of its efficiency.
"In Alberta, that might be an interesting job opportunity because we have lots of horizontal drilling skills and people who build pipelines for a living and so they might be interested as a small business or medium-sized oilfield company in transitioning into maybe drilling, for direct heating," he said.
Gismondi added he and Balay once added up the cost of electricity for all the municipal buildings in Athabasca and it was close to $750,000 a year, so looking at things like a turbine in the river to help offset costs is important.
"This is all being funded out of our taxes so, if there's a way that we can save 15 or 20 or 30 per cent of that cost, and that gives us money to use in other ways in our community. Twenty per cent of $750,000 suddenly becomes a chunk of money that they could put into keeping the costs of admission to the Multiplex down or paying down some of their other debts or, or doing some other creative things,” Gismondi said.
Rohl explained the roadshow was born out of a recognition that communities, and especially rural communities, play a huge part in Alberta's energy system.
“Calgary and Edmonton have a lot going on, but we wanted to bring a lot of these innovations and ideas out to more of the rural communities and see what made sense for them and help them on their energy transition journey,” she said.
The free virtual event will be held Oct. 15 and 22, Nov. 18 and Dec. 10 and participants are encouraged to be prepared to take part in all four. They will run from 10 to 3 p.m. with an hour break.
If you are interested in exploring an energy future for Athabasca contact Natalie Ethier to reserve your spot at [email protected]
