After the birth of our daughter in 2006 we decided to make some significant life changes, including downsizing our home. As we searched for a home and location to grow old together and raise our 7 year old son and new daughter we stumbled across the beautiful wooded community of Three Brooks in Hubley, Nova Scotia. We found an attractive small home tucked amongst the trees on a heavily wooded lot. As fate would have it, we sold our old home in Kingswood and bought this one in the matter of one day – talk about fate!
The only problem with buying an existing home was that we couldn’t fulfill our ambition to reduce our oil dependence by building a green home, including a ground-source heat pump.
Or so we thought …
After a little investigation we found out that we could retrofit our home if we were willing to endure renovations to replace the current heating with forced air ventilation. We also discovered that we could add the full cost of the renovation and ground source heat pump to our new mortgage as part of the CMHC energy retrofit program.
This – to us – was a no brainer. In addition to taking personal responsibility for our energy future, we wanted to show our children that they do not have to accept things just because “they’ve always been done that way.” Each of us – individually – can make responsible changes to lifestyle. We arranged for the renovation to start as soon as possible which coincided pretty much with our move-in.
Imagine: purging for the downsizing, moving in, not purging enough, house stuffed to the gills, packed boxes, unpacked boxes, too much furniture, an eight year old, a one year old learning to walk, Paula starting back to work, Bill trying to find space to work (as he works from home) and renovators tramping willy-nilly through the house adding heating vents and moving everything so they could reach the areas they needed! Paula’s parents stayed overnight two days a week throughout to watch our daughter while Paula was at work. The definition of insanity … that was us.
Oh, but the day the oil tank was disconnected and was driven away we cheered (have to say it was a real sphincter workout, as an error at this stage could be a disaster). When all the “dust had settled,” we really felt like we had taken a major personal step in helping to protect the wonderful environment we had found to live in.
In hindsight though, we should not have been so quick to disconnect the only working heat source for the house. The renovations seemed to be going along on schedule and we were so eager to eliminate our dependence on oil that we had it removed. But only days later delays occurred and the renovation that started in late August and was only supposed to take two weeks to complete stretched into September and then October. We were fortunate that that Fall was particularly mild but with the end of October approaching we knew that the cold weather would be on us at any time. Then a wire for the pump in the household well broke. No heat, no water, a trench dug in the backyard and driveway for the heat pump and another hole in the driveway where the well was dug-up. We’re not quite sure how we survived but by Halloween everything was sorted out and we had water and heat – and we’re still unsure about the sanity.
Yet, it didn’t take us long to start to rankle about the fact that, although we had done away with oil dependence to heat our own home, we still needed to use “dirty” electricity for the pumps and fan. Wouldn’t it be nice to to be completely green in all our household utilities?
For two years we would return again and again to how we could use wind or solar for our household electricity. But our home is nestled in the woods amongst very tall pine trees, so neither solar nor wind were feasible for us on our own property. At some point, though, Bill wondered why we couldn’t find a spot that might be viable for a large wind tower that could be shared by the community.
With that in mind we started to focus on this concept: What it would take to organize something like that? Would the community be interested? What are the pros and cons? Would it be viable? How do we create a community cooperative? We had some excited and long conversations exploring all of these issues.
The individuals that we discussed the idea with were supportive and intrigued. We felt it would not be a stretch to have the support of the community – given Three Brooks commitment to living “in harmony with nature.” In this time Bill also thought it might not be difficult to approach government with the idea of financing the project with the excess electricity sold back to the grid being used to pay back the loan (interestingly they are now pilot studying doing just that with solar hot water heating!). Add to this to the new Community Feed-In Tariff (COMFIT) which would make community energy projects a priority in Nova Scotia and things really started to take on some substance.
As we occasionally brainstormed the idea, an opportunity to attend a green energy workshop in Truro arose. Paula attended and came home excited and ready to try to get going with the project. She had learned of the Nova Scotia Wind Atlas and started looking for locations close to our community with viable wind speeds (you’re looking for areas in yellow with average wind speeds of 6.51-7.0 m/s).
As it happened there WAS one viable spot adjacent to Three Brooks and since it was close to existing electrical grid it seemed like a spot that would warrant further investigation through a feasibility study. The only potential issue was that this small study area is on the fringe of the candidate wilderness area. While we fully support the importance of protecting wilderness area, developing renewable energy is equally crucial for our future.
Our next step was to talk with Bill Estabrooks, our MLA and Minister of Energy at the time. We met with Bill and then with his Executive Assistant in May 2010 and followed up with a meeting with a number of representatives of the Department of the Environment later that Spring. In the Fall, we were asked to a meeting at the Department of Energy to discuss our plans and so they could answer questions on COMFIT as they may pertain to our concept. Finally, we met with Wayne Grosko at the Ecology Action Centre to discuss both wind power and how to work with environmental stakeholders.
So, that’s a bit of our story up to now.
And where do we stand now? We are currently requesting a meeting with Sterling Belliveau, the Environment Minister. But before scheduling a date for the meeting we wanted to determine if there really is interest in the community to continue the process.
Our petition is not about approving a wind project, but simply gauging support to continue working with the environment ministry so that we have the opportunity to study this small corner of the candidate wilderness area. That is what you will see in the petition on this page.
This is just the first step in a very long undertaking. If our request is approved there will be ample opportunity for input from the community on issues ranging from the development of a community cooperative to the raising of development funds and financing.
We welcome comments on our initiative and look forward to hearing from you.