Sustainable Energy students explore community-owned solar at Ottawa museum
On October 8, students and faculty from Carleton University’s Sustainable Energy graduate program met with representatives from the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative (OREC) and Ingenium to learn about the community-owned solar energy installation at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Financed and developed by OREC, the museum’s rooftop installation has expanded to nearly one megawatt of solar capacity. This makes it the largest rooftop solar energy installation in Eastern Ontario. The project illustrates how large institutional rooftops can host renewable electricity generation while creating opportunities for community ownership.
The visit connected with the program’s interdisciplinary focus on public policy and engineering, offering a concrete case for examining project development, financing, and operation. “Visits like this help students connect with practitioners in the field to deepen their understanding of energy transitions in practice,” says Professor Daniel Rosenbloom, supervisor for the policy side of the program. “Here we saw how low-carbon solutions were combined with innovative financing and institutional partnerships to support energy transitions, while also expanding who can share directly in their benefits.”
The program also benefited from having Professor Gregory Trencher, a visiting scholar from Kyoto University, join the field trip. His research focuses on decarbonization and energy policy, including the role of phase-outs and other decline policies in accelerating decarbonization, a topic he also shared with faculty and students during his week-long visit.