Oxford County Looking to Become a Leader in Renewable Energy

Friday, 29 May 2015 16:37

Oxford County is looking to stay ahead of the game when it comes to renewable energy

Oxford County is looking to stay ahead of the game when it comes to renewable energy.

York University Professor Dr. Jose Etcheverry came to Oxford County council on Wednesday to do a presentation about committing to 100 percent renewable energy targets. Warden Mayberry tells Heart FM they have been giving Etcheverry a tour of the County. On Thursday they visited a number of Woodstock Hydro sites and they took a closer look at the work being done at Oxford Gardens around solar thermal. Then on Friday they visited the outdoor farm show and the bio gas generation place in Embro where a farmer is turning waste into energy.

Oxford County is a leader in Canada when it comes to renewable energy just for even considering the 2050 plan. The 2050 plan if it was implemented would see Oxford commit to 100 percent renewable energy in the future. Warden Mayberry says " Oxford is looking at should we just simply say we're going there and let's start planning and working towards it at the high level, so I would expect council will be looking at that issue in the next month and making a determination if they want to be leaders in this industry or if we want to follow along in someone else's footsteps. My preference of course is for Oxford to always be a leader over the last week we have had international students here looking at all of the things Oxford County is doing in renewable energy and these are individuals and small groups in the County who are making huge differences and I think the municipal government should be encouraging and supporting them."

Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch is a big supporter of the 2050 project and he wants to see Oxford be a leader in this industry in Canada. Birtch says already communities across the globe have taken the steps to become 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2050 and he thinks we should take a leading role in Canada to achieving that goal. He says " we have local business and industry that are leaders and being looked at the world over for the technologies they are using right now and were looking at positioning ourselves to be a world leader in renewable energy."

Renewable energy is going to be a huge part of the future oxford steering committee report which will be coming to council on June 24th.