ATHABASCA – A local chemical engineer hopes that by sharing his experience with renewable resources in the agriculture world, he’ll be able to shift some perspectives around the topic.
Steve Sulz, a chemical engineer and farm owner, will be the latest Science Outreach guest speaker with his April 11 talk, “Demystify renewable energy and electrify your life.”
“Anyone that’s interested in EVs (electric vehicles), solar, or local agriculture is the target,” said Sulz, who spoke to Town and Country This Week while charging his own EV on a snowy Friday morning. “It’s mostly going to be about the farm, about electric vehicles. We’ve been on solar power on the farm, so the goal is to show people how it works in Northern Alberta.
“If you’re on Facebook or anything else, there’s a lot of misinformation on there … we’ll be going through how it works, how it doesn’t work, and what some of the issues are," he added.
Sulz runs a farm in Athabasca County with his wife; the pair have steadily been moving towards renewables since 2011, when they installed solar panels on their property. They purchased a Tesla in 2022, and then a Ford Lightning this year after they were impressed with how their first EV served them.
“They’ve been really good, we’ve been through two full-scale winters with it, including the -50 bit this January. You do lose a bit of range but depending on what you’re doing it’s not a big deal, you just have to charge a little more,” said Sulz.
The professional engineer will be bringing his work experience to bear during his talk as well — audience members can expect cost-benefit breakdowns for how renewable energy can save them money, as well as a logical, measured approach to a sometimes heated topic.
“We’ll also be talking a bit about the farm, how we’ve tried to make it an environmentally sustainable operation,” said Sulz.
Alongside Sulz is the Athabasca Regional Renewable Energy Association (ARREA), a community initiative to help spread awareness and knowledge around sustainable energy. Mike Gismondi, a board member with the association, said the goal was to get some useful information to people who may be considering making the jump themselves.
“We’ve co-sponsored this to get people to take the next step — a lot of people are curious, they’re exploring, but they want to hear how it's working for people,” said Gismondi. “We’ll give testimony about how it's worked for us. George Allen (a former science teacher) has put together a pamphlet, there’s contacts for trades people, et cetera.”
ARREA will also be providing information on funding for clean energy initiatives, including the Clean Energy Improvement Program (CEIP) which is run by the Town of Athabasca.
“I think the program is underutilized right now,” said Gismondi.
The talk will be held in the Athabasca University Governing Council Chambers at 7 p.m. Anyone unable to attend in person can find a digital link to the talk at Science Outreach – Athabasca’s website here.
