ARREA: committed to building community-resilience in the Athabasca region
ARREA are an ecologically and socially responsible association of local folks committed to building community-resilience in the Athabasca region by means of renewable energy, energy efficiency, local food-security and community owned projects that contribute to local and regional sustainability.
Educating for change
ARREA’s Objectives include
Critical Awareness
Promote awareness of renewable energy through education and demonstration projects within the Athabasca community.
Empower and Support
Empower our community to reduce its environmental impact by initiating and facilitating renewable energy projects in the Athabasca region.
Cooperation
Long-term, to establish a member-owned community cooperative to implement and support specific projects that increase community self-reliance, meet basic needs, adapt to the climate crisis, and meet future environmental challenges.
Inspire
Share our experiences with solutions, and the steps to get there.
Pool Resources and Partnerships
Pool human and financial resources and partner with others to foster support for specific projects identified by the membership to further our objectives.
Technical and Social Solutions
To encourage and support local tradespeople and businesses as they adapt their technical skills and services to the energy and sustainability transitions needed in our home locale.
An Array of Arrays and more…
Our members shared some images of the energy efficiency and energy generation steps they have been taking.
A Country Solution
- Location = 240073 Twp Rd 672 (northeast of Baptiste Lake)
- 28 panels 6.2 kW.
- In use since 2016
Inside
- Drain Water Heat Recovery System (DWHR) in home of Henrik and Kathy Asfeldt. Installed around 2014.
- Heat in waste water flowing down the drain from a shower for example is transferred to cold water travelling up around the drain. This preheats the water before going to the water heater so less energy is used to heat water.
- This is a 3″ by 48″ Power-Pipe and is 47% efficient at recovering heat from the drain water. The longer the DWHR the more efficient it is. Power-Pipe makes them up to 120″ with just over 70% efficiency.
- To me this is one of the low hanging fruits for energy efficiency. There are no moving parts and no maintenance; just install it and it does it’s thing.
Athabasca Regional Renewable Energy Association 