New Brunswick Smart Energy Communities Accelerator Pilot Program

Source: · QUEST · | April 21, 2021

Source: QUEST

The purpose of the New Brunswick Smart Energy Communities Accelerator Pilot Program (NB SECA Program) is to establish a community energy planning accelerator to assist a series of New Brunswick communities and one First Nation by equipping them with the tools and knowledge to develop and implement community energy plans and understand the net economic benefit they can provide. 

Community energy plans define a community’s priorities around energy and serve as roadmaps to becoming a SEC. While there is no standard approach for CEPs they often include community energy inventories, goals, and actions and timelines for implementation, and are ideally informed by ongoing, meaningful community engagement.

As Canada turns its attention to revitalizing the economy and establishing our new normal we must ensure the basic and critical foundations are in place at the local level to maximize the potential of stimulus funding to harness economic development opportunities and meet New Brunswick’s climate change objectives (total GHG output of 14.8 Mt by 2020; 10.7 Mt by 2030; and 5 Mt by 2050) and Canada’s net-zero by 2050 objectives. These foundations are not currently in place. Business-as-usual scenarios forecast that the amount of energy consumed at the community level could increase by 75% above 2006 levels by 2050. The inefficient production, delivery, and use of energy poses significant environmental, economic, health, and social risks to communities.  

Smart Energy Communities (SECs) have been recognised as economic development drivers and implementers, and a solution that is essential to meeting Canada’s net-zero carbon target by 2050.