Want to know how your community (or the whole NWT) is doing at saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions? We’ve just launched a new web-based tool that tracks the results of energy-saving projects for every community in the territory.
It also covers remote locations, like cabins and camps, and the totals for the entire NWT.
What does it show?
Titled “How is the NWT Making a Difference?: Energy and GHG Savings in your Community,” the tool allows users to see an Energy Report for each community. Each report shows how a community has saved on energy costs, electricity, greenhouse gases and fossil fuels over the past five years.
The savings are estimated from energy-related projects completed by homeowners, businesses, community governments and non-profit organizations, and that the AEA provided funding for. The projects cover both energy efficiency and renewable energy, and include the following:
- Purchases of energy-efficient versions of everyday products, such as LED light bulbs and ENERGY STAR® certified fridges
- Energy-saving upgrades to buildings owned by businesses, community governments and non-profit organizations
- Major energy-saving home improvements
- Simple home-winterization initiatives for community members
- Renewable energy systems, such as solar electricity or wood-pellet boilers
- Wood stoves for community members in need
- Electric vehicles in communities that use hydroelectricity
It’s important to note that although the AEA provided funding—and other services in some cases— it’s the people in the communities who are making these projects happen.
Who can use this tool?
The new tool is available to the public. Anyone can use it to see the impacts of energy savings across the NWT.
While time will tell exactly who will use it and how, here are a few examples that we thought of while building it:
- Community governments can use it to help make decisions about energy planning.
- Researchers can use it to gather preliminary information.
- The organizations that provide funding to the AEA can use it as another tool to see what the AEA is doing and the impacts that their funds are making.
- We can use it internally as another tool to track the results of our programs and special projects.
- Anyone who is curious can use it to see how their community is doing.
Where can I find it?
The new tool is available at https://energymap.aea.nt.ca/
Where did our funding come from?
We’d like to thank Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, which provided us with funding under their Northern REACHE program to help us build this new web tool. And the governments of the Northwest Territories and Canada provided the funding for us to offer the programs that are tracked in the tool.