Within a few days of moving into his new townhouse, part of the recently built Altona Towns development in Pickering, Conor Soye was armed with recommendations from friendly neighbours about the best internet and TV packages in the area. But while the 27-unit neighbourhood may seem conventional — hello granite countertops, open-concept designs and two-car parking — there’s something unique going on under the hood.

Harnessing the power of the sun, the community is hooked into a microgrid, a localized electrical grid that saves homeowners money by augmenting their power supply and also providing backup power if there’s an outage.

Altona neighbours don’t just share cups of sugar, but their green power, too.

“It’s nice to be part of something that’s not been done before,” says Soye of the project, a first in Canada. “The reliance on greenhouse gas-producing energy sources is not sustainable. At some level, we’re going to need this on a bigger scale.”

Housing is a good place to start. Buildings and their construction account for 39 per cent of energy-related CO2 emissions globally and 12 per cent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions — so any work that can be done to retrofit older buildings or to ensure new developments are sustainable can help Canada meet its emissions targets.

To that end, the federal government announced funding last June for the construction of energy-efficient residential buildings in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. And in April, Ottawa unveiled a $1.5-billion plan to boost green retrofits and upgrades of existing buildings and new construction of public institutions like community centres and libraries.

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