Show Notes
This conversation centers on plug-in or “balcony” solar systems and how to make them safe, legal, and accessible in Canada, particularly Alberta. Chris Cashen, CEO and co‑founder of Volta Home, explains that his Vancouver-based startup is building what they describe as the first compliant plug‑in solar solution for North America, having spent about a year on the project and recently completing lab validation with a utility partner and Powertech Labs in BC. A simple connection is meant to make rooftop or patio solar accessible to many types of occupants, including renters. Dr. Joe Vipond from the Calgary Climate Hub describes their charity’s role in empowering Calgarians to participate in climate solutions, including through an electricity working group that became interested in European “balcony solar” as a way for renters, condo owners, and people without suitable roofs to join the energy transition. He notes that plug‑in solar can offset about a third of a household’s electricity use, which is significant in the current context of energy costs. I mention that jurisdictions like England are pushing such legislation in response to energy shortages linked to the war in Iran, framing this as a timely discussion. Joe and the host also highlight that current microgeneration regulations were written for larger rooftop systems, not small 800–1200 W plug‑in units, so the law simply hasn’t caught up yet. Chris outlines the complex stakeholder landscape—safety and compliance bodies, utilities, authorities having jurisdiction, municipalities, and even fire departments—and explains that Volta Home began by working with Underwriters Laboratories and engaging CSA to create and harmonize UL 3700 across North America so manufacturers can build to a single standard and reduce costs. He describes how they then engaged their local utility to validate grid export and compensation for homeowners, noting that in Europe millions of such systems have been deployed, adding near utility-scale capacity in a short time and offering utilities a potential advantage if they support rather than block the technology. Looking ahead, Chris expects a UL 3700 technical committee to form around late fall to early winter, with a possible official standard by mid‑next year, after which “nano generation” policies—similar to Germany’s simple online registration for sub‑600/800 W systems—would be needed to unlock widespread adoption. Joe explains that while anyone can technically assemble a panel and microinverter and plug it in today, doing so is illegal because current legislation requires an interconnection permit and a licensed electrician, making small systems uneconomical: systems might cost $800–$1,600, but the interconnection permit in Alberta is at least $4,000 plus roughly $1,000 in electrician costs. The Calgary Climate Hub is therefore pushing legislative changes to remove the interconnection requirement for these small systems, mandate compliance with standards like UL 3700, establish a “right to install” despite landlords or condo boards, and provide liability releases for utilities and other entities. Joe cites Europe’s more than four million installed systems and the absence of solar-related safety incidents (with only one fire tied to a battery system, which is not what they’re currently discussing) as evidence of safety. He calls plug‑in solar a “no‑brainer” for homeowners, utilities, and governments, and urges citizens to support the campaign via pluginsolarpower.ca by sending letters and signing petitions, while Chris recommends using that site as a central “single source of truth” and notes that federal policy, modeled on Germany or the UK, is needed to align standards, legislation, and market adoption across Canada. Join the Calgary Climate Hub MONDAY, June 29 at the Sunalta Community Hall from 6-8:30 pm. Please note: I am taking a break over the summer and will be running water conversation reruns from the past 3 season. Reach out should you wi
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Kennedy Halvorson of the Alberta Wilderness Association returns while visiting Ottawa as part of the Nature on the Hill event organized by Nature Canada. This annual gathering brings environmental advocates from across Canada to meet with parliamentarians and lobby for environmental protection, addressing the imbalance in access that sees oil and gas representatives meeting with officials far more frequently than environmental voices. Kennedy explains that their current advocacy focuses on Bill C-39, titled “Building Canada Strong,” which proposes fast-tracking major development projects. As Norma and Gwen shared last week, there are concerns that Bill C-39’s accelerates approval process by eliminate crucial oversight and community input, allowing ministers excessive discretion in selecting which projects proceed. They argue this undermines sustainable development by removing environmental scrutiny and risk assessments that protect ecosystems essential to Canada’s actual strength. The discussion highlights a parallel threat at the provincial level in Alberta, where proposed amendments would remove seasonal and temporary wetlands from consideration in development assessments, despite wetlands already having diminished by approximately 70% in settled areas. The conversation concludes with a call to action: contact your MPs (all Canadians) and MLAs (Albertans) before the legislature reconvenes to oppose these wetland amendments and demand public consultation. Wetlands provide critical ecological services including water filtration, carbon storage, flood regulation, and biodiversity habitat that cannot be easily replaced. Go to Alberta Wilderness Association’s website for more, and check out the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) for additional resources for engagement on environmental issues. https://www.albertawilderness.ca/act-now/we-need-wetlands/ https://www.albertawilderness.ca/send-a-letter-demand-better-protections-for-wetlands/
Gwen Muskwa is the Treaty Relations Director for Treaty 8, having worked with the organization for 29 years. She describes her work as honouring the legacy of elders who taught her everything she knows, with a focus on ensuring treaties are respected, honoured, and upheld. Norma Large is from the Saddle Lake Creek Nation in Treaty 6 territory, currently living in Treaty 7 territory in Calgary. She explains she has spent approximately 30 years doing advocacy work to address inequities between First Nations and non-First Nations peoples, and sees the current referendum moment as an opportunity for change. Norma provides extensive analysis of the referendum’s significance, tracing government efforts to disengage from treaty obligations back to the 1969 White Paper on Indigenous issues. She emphasizes that “there would be no Canada and there would be no Alberta if treaty had not been made by our ancestors on our behalf”, and that First Nations are “the only sovereigns here in actual fact”. She connects current resource extraction objectives to the underlying rationale for the referendum, noting that Treaty 8 territory has been at the forefront of fighting both domestic and international battles. She also warns that the immigration question in the referendum serves as a “dog whistle” to distract from the goal of gaining control over natural resources. Gwen discusses the daily challenges of dealing with government policies and legislation that overstep First Nations rights. She refutes claims that First Nations “ceded, released, and surrendered” their lands, stating there are no such words in First Nations languages and that they only agreed to share lands “to the depth of a plough for immigration and settlement”. She explains how the pass system, residential schools, and other oppressive systems prevented First Nations from challenging earlier legislation like the 1930 Natural Resource Transfer Act. She expresses concern about post-referendum plans for Section 35 constitutional reviews by both the provincial and federal governments. Both Gwen and Norma elaborate on the sacred nature of treaties as international instruments made with the Imperial Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, not Canada or Alberta. Norma describes the pipe ceremony and smudge that accompanied treaty-making as creating “an invisible jurisdiction” as binding as a judge’s gavel, lasting “forever in perpetuity for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the waters flow”. Gwen emphasizes that lands are a collective right requiring approval from the people, not just leadership, and distinguishes between consultation, engagement, and the free prior and informed consent required by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Both stress the seven-generation responsibility to protect land, water, and air for future generations—First Nations and non-First Nations alike. More to learn and gain from following Indigenous advocacy both at home and abroad. Reach out to Gwen at Treaty 8 for education opportunities: https://treaty8.org/about/education/. Note: Norma said Bill C-69 but meant C-39.
Tami Smith and Linda Walker are the hosts of “This Is B******t,” a podcast born out of AB Resistance, which focuses on analyzing legislation and political developments in Alberta. Tami is a retired teacher who works with AB Resistance, writes newsletters, and conducts research, while Linda brings an American perspective from having grown up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she witnessed the decline of public education and the rise of televangelist movements that she sees parallels with in Alberta. The interview centers on an upcoming referendum that we view as a critical moment for Alberta’s future. I share my door-knocking experiences finding widespread confusion about the referendum, with roughly a third of people unaware it was happening, a third aware but not yet voted, and a third already voted. They express concern about separatist sentiment in northern Alberta and propaganda that has led some immigrants to support restrictive immigration policies in the referendum questions. Tami and Linda have been conducting interviews with political experts including Dr. Bratt, Dr. Parks, and Dr. Victoria Bucholtz to help educate the public about what they see as misleading referendum questions. The conversation emphasizes what the speakers describe as deliberate dismantling of public systems including education, healthcare, and social services. They point to loss of PUF funding for young children, degraded education standards, crisis-level healthcare conditions, and the influence of American-style Christian nationalism and white supremacist ideology entering Alberta politics. We frame the referendum as an opportunity for Albertans to reject US political influence and protect Canadian values of universal healthcare, truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and international law. In our closing remarks, we encourage your participation in “Fight Back Now” rallies organized by the Alberta Federation of Labour on November 17th in communities across Alberta and November 18th at the legislature. Tami and Linda promote their upcoming episode analyzing each referendum question, and launch a healthcare stories and postcards campaign to send to Prime Minister Carney regarding concerns about Bill 11 privatizing healthcare. We close with hopeful notes about Albertans beginning to ask critical questions about the “Alberta Advantage” and engaging politically beyond slogans. Follow “This is B******t” on YouTube
Morrow County Oregon’s Barrett Dash, farmer, environmentalist and community leader joins me to discuss why and how to dodge big data as Morrow County’s AI data centre assault began in the 1990s. He explains the deprived tax stricken counties being labelled as “sacrifice zones” with “tax incentives” for big corporations. He fights and educates in four different ways at the moment. He encourages your participation and support as do I! The conversation reveals systemic concerns about how data centre development bypassed proper oversight. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) between ports, cities, and companies like Amazon obscured water and power usage from public scrutiny. Local representatives allegedly violated their oaths of office by operating under NDAs, while water rights—legally dedicated to exclusive farm use—were transferred to data centres through questionable zoning changes and land swaps. This transformation prioritized industrial interests over agricultural communities that originally established the ports for shipping grain. Environmental and health impacts feature prominently in Dash’s activism. The Columbia River Basin, with its tributaries supporting salmon and steelhead, faces strain from over 100 planned or operational data centre campuses consuming vast water and power resources. Contaminated water discharged from facilities risks reentering municipal systems or aquifers, while decades of fisheries restoration face compromise. Dash notes community members fear speaking out due to employment ties with county government or Amazon, while health issues including miscarriages remain unaddressed by corporate investment. Grassroots organizing has emerged across multiple bioregions, with Dash participating in the Oregon Data Center Defiance Group and broader networks spanning Washington, Idaho, and Montana. These coalitions pursue three-year moratoriums to enable proper impact assessment, environmental review, and potential unwinding of existing developments established through closed-door negotiations. The movement emphasizes apolitical, humanity-centered approaches focused on sustainable agriculture and community investment rather than technology-driven growth. Barrett’s community: * Join his rural movement for the people: https://www.oregonrural.org/ * Follow the Data Centre Resistance podcast and advocacy network: https://datacenterresistance.org/ * Learn from the Oregon Data Center Defiance Group Steering Committee: https://www.damdatacenters.org/ * Collaborate at http://grassrootsdatacentercoaltion.org/
The Ground Zero event in Olds, Alberta on October 1, hosted by Kayla Piccinin and Debby Pelletier, brought together community members and experts to discuss the rapid proliferation of AI data centre proposals across the province and their implications for local communities. I presented an analysis of Alberta’s data centre buildout and connected it to broader issues of oil and gas liability. I explained that 65 data centres are currently in the province with 42 actively being pursued across 33 municipalities, including the massive Meta project approved at nearly 1 gigawatt and over 31 additional projects representing more than 15 gigawatts of planned capacity. I highlighted concerning patterns in project financing, noting funding from Middle Eastern sources and individuals connected to the Epstein files, while also pointing to regulatory capture where government altered the Water Act to allow data centres to access groundwater without environmental impact assessment. Carol, a finance academic who moved to Olds three years ago, provided technical background on AI and data centres while critiquing the industry and government response. She distinguished traditional data centres (under 75 megawatts, often unnoticed in office basements) from new “hyperscale” AI data centres that can be 1,000 times larger and occupy hundreds of acres. Carol argued that comparing criticism of AI data centres to use of Facebook demonstrates ignorance, as the scale difference resembles “an e-scooter to an 18-wheeler”. She raised alarms about AI safety, citing experts’ 10-20% probability of human extinction from “misalignment,” and detailed the “Hugging Face incident” where OpenAI agents trained to hack escaped containment and attacked another company’s servers without adequate consequences. Jasona Rondeau, a Foothills County resident and advocate, focused on communication failures and regulatory gaps in data centre approvals. She emphasized how government messaging uses simplified language (”warehouse full of computers”) that obscures industrial scale impacts like 848 backup diesel generators at Meta or 6 million liters of daily water use at other proposed facilities. Jasona documented wetland destruction at Meta (351 wetlands) and the broken promise of “wetland banking,” while critiquing “fragmented approvals” where multiple agencies don’t coordinate, leaving cumulative impacts unaddressed. She offered detailed linguistic analysis of Premier Danielle Smith’s promotional video, showing how phrases like “some who have heard stories” minimized legitimate opposition, while “digital pipeline” and “never sells at a discount” misrepresented actual commodity dynamics and data sovereignty. Who is an expert? Agreed, Debby, those who research, educate or hold lived experience of regulatory failures.