Announcement about breaking ground on the Pukwis Community Wind Park, a joint venture wind project of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and Windfall Ecology Centre.
Videos interviews from the office warming party. Members and friends share updates and talk about their involvement with OSEA.
Farmers and business owners with a stake in ground-mounted solar systems upset by price change.
The Ontario government is using April's eco-friendly spirit to make everyday earth day, signing almost 200 contracts for renewable power projects, on top of the seven-billion dollar wind farm deal inked with Samsung earlier this year. The premier is promising job creation in the green energy sector, however, these innovations set Ontarian’s up to have the heftiest electricity bills in the country. OSEA's Kristopher Stevens and Tom Adams, an independent energy and environmental advisor, discuss.
Government incentives make solar energy more viable for those who couldn’t afford it before, including small farmers trying to survive.
Joe Botscheller from the Farmers for Farmers for Economic Opportunity, is quoted.
Wind Simplicity™ selected as finalist in ISRI's Design for Recycling® Award for its commitment to recycling in its design and manufacture of the Windancer™ horizontal-axis small wind turbine.
A bold new campaign launched by Bullfrog Power is asking people to pay more for energy. Their intriguing strategy aims to spark public discussion of energy policy.
Glen Estill is one of a small group of entrepreneurs across the country trudging along a narrow green path.
After seeing this week's federal budget, which effectively ended a popular subsidy program to encourage renewable energy producers, the president of Sky Generation Inc., a small wind energy firm in Lion's Head, north of Owen Sound, Ont., says he may have to cool his heels.
Solar Semiconductor Inc., a maker of solar modules based in India, is expected to announce Friday an investment of more than $60 million to establish a manufacturing plant in Oakville this year.
Wawa EDC recruits consultant to steer municipality's environmental mandate
Risk-averse investment community prodded to provide capital for renewable-energy plans
The Harper government is distancing itself from U.S. President Barack Obama's clean-energy agenda, warn some of those involved in one of Canada fastest-growing clean-energy sectors.
Switch, the Sustainable Energy People, a non-profit organization, spoke about the feed-in tariff and sustainable energy to an audience of farmers, businesspeople and alternative energy advocates last week in a seminar hosted by Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation.
Plan to boost renewable projects at the local level has beaten all expectations since its October launch
The most thorough study to date into the potential health effects of living near wind turbines says the evidence so far is clear: they don't directly make people sick.
Ontario hopes with its ambitious Green Energy Act to phase out coal-fired plants within five years. Ijaz Rauf of the Bethel Islam Mosque discusses his optimism about the act and how it aides his planned 200-home rooftop solar project.
Project developers are getting increasingly creative with financing. The Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Toronto is selling $110,000 worth of debentures to the public to raise money for a 20-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system it wants to install on the roof of its church.
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has confirmed that it will pay Ontario farmers $0.145 CAD/kWh for their wind generation under the province's new feed-in tariff program launched October 1, 2009.
The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) hosted it's first Community Power Conference on November 15-16 with international speakers, 450 conference delegates, and over 2,500 trade show attendees. The conference was chaired by Dr. David Suzuki, the well-known scientist, host of The Nature of Things, and author of many books including the recent The Big Picture: Reflections on Science, Humanity, and a Quickly Changing Planet.
Perth's quest for viable alternative energy projects has led to a solar energy proposal for the town-owned former Darou Farm property.
Three major conferences signal that real change is happening to Canadian industry.
Investors Beyond Borders attended the Community Power Conference 2009, held by the OSEA (Ontario Sustainable Energy Association). Many industry professionals from various backgrounds, such as investors, developers, energy companies, legal and accounting firms, attended to this prestigious conference. This trade show is specifically geared towards the Renewable Energy industry, and IBB was there to network with everyone!
"We want to jump-start the whole solar energy market in Kingston and create jobs over the next couple of decades. Solar energy is big in the 21st century."
"This is a chance for players in the sustainable energy and community power sectors to come together, exchange knowledge and share best practices," remarked Kristopher Stevens, Executive Director of OSEA. "It's a unique opportunity and one that will definitely change the landscape of Ontario for the best."
The secret of Denmark's success is community power: A staggering 65% of wind power projects in the country are owned by farmers, and another 24% owned by communities. The simple principal that allowed Denmark to create the wind market is that when people are involved in the decisions that affect their community, they are committed to the outcome and the placement of wind projects in their towns and villages. It's a powerful form of community economic development -- local ownership means that the profits remain in the community.
Canada has one of the best profiles for wind power of any country in the world. P.E.I. produces 15% of the province's electricity from wind, and the provincial government wants to double that by 2013 as well as export power to the North Eastern United States.
Canada has the opportunity to become a world leader in wind power. The Danish lesson is that community involvement and ownership drives uptake.
If you're interested in learning more, the Ontario Sustainability Energy Association is having its first ever community power conference in Toronto Nov. 15 and 16.
OSEA knows first-hand what a difference public support can make to getting a renewable energy project off the ground. The organization was born out of an effort to install a wind turbine down on Toronto's waterfront that is owned by a co-op that is the result of a partnership between Toronto Hydro and WindShare.
She believes that the FIT program is conducive to furthering community projects and that these projects are the way forward in terms of gaining the acceptance of communities.
"Farmers are in the forefront of the energy revolution because the farmers have the land," Ms. Story says. "They are uniquely set up to lead the way to renewable energy. "
Ontario's Green Energy Act is making way for farmers to sustain their living by selling renewable energy.
The Mississauga call centre features 800 photovoltaic panels as part of a solar power system capable of generating 165 kilowatts, making it the largest in Canada followed by the Horse Palace building on Toronto's Exhibition Place grounds at 100 kilowatts.
With the increasing backlash against private companies looking to develop wind power on Manitoulin, one solution proposed by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association is community-based projects that leave the decision-making in the hands of citizens.
It was the Alliance that thrust the act on the table and convinced the province to give green and community power priority access to the grid, tantalizing us all to go green with world-class feed-in tariffs.
The conference also paraded some diametrically opposed views on biomass from district heating concept espoused by Ambrose Raftis, an official with the Green Temiskaming Development Corporation to Ontario Power Generation's more centralized plan to transport and burn wood pellets at provincial generating stations.
“Community energy is smart energy because it is produces energy where it is needed,” said Raftis, who wants to roll out these heating plans to towns across the North to create energy self-reliant communities and local jobs.
Homeowners who eagerly jumped the gun on an Ontario green power program, only to find out they didn't qualify when the program launched, are being given a second chance. Some people who got 20-year contracts under the province's earlier standard offer program, which was discontinued last year, are being automatically upgraded to the new feed-in-tariff program.
Farmers are usually a fairly conservative lot. However, in the energy revolution long underway in
Europe and belatedly here in Ontario, farmers are in the forefront in the fight against climate change
by pioneering the generation of renewable energy. For, while the sun and the wind are infinite and
free to everyone, it is mainly farmers who have the requisite land, writes Jane Story, communications
manager of OSEA.
When former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Toronto over the summer, he was asked what he thought of the city. Without missing a beat, he replied: Any city that has a wind turbine in the middle of it has to be good.
Graham Findlay installed a $10,000 solar panel at the back of his house in Westboro this spring. He also bought an inverter to allow him to send electricity to the Ontario power grid.
But Findlay recently learned that his solar panels might not meet the province's funding requirements.
"In his letter to the editor, Listen to those who live near wind turbines, Lorrie Gillis misrepresents the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association when he states that the organization is "made up of mainly wind industry people," says Manager, Policy & Communications, Jane Story.
Until recently, green power was given about as much nourishment in Ontario as a dandelion in a concrete crevice.
Now that the new Green Energy Act has made renewable electricity the belle of the ball, how can Toronto, rich in lake breezes but far from the strongest gusts and rushing rivers, cash in? Will our power lines be blown over by Big Wind 100s of kilometres away, or will a city largely juiced by dodgy nukes finally get power to the people through community-controlled green voltage?
Paul Gipe, author of 'Wind Energy Basics' tells how Canadian province, Ontario plans to close all its coal power plants by 2014, how people in Vermont wanting to own their own energy sources pushed politicians into instituting feed-in tarriffs, and much more. And a warning for Australians: Beware FITINOS - Feed-in Tarriffs in Name Only!
Even if wind falls short of equating coal, says Kristopher Stevens, executive director at the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, the more renewable energy on the system, the better.
“If wind energy only grows a little – by virtue of its fixed price over time – the more it will push down electricity prices,” he says. “The less you have to rely on natural gas, the cheaper the price for energy.”
The community power sector, sometimes written off as too small to make a difference, is expected by many to mushroom in Ontario in the next year or two, and bring with it a wide range of innovation in both technology and business models. In fact, Ontario has positioned itself to be a world leader in encouraging community-based power generation.
It may come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t been keeping an eye on it, but among First Nation and Métis peoples, the energy pot is beginning to bubble.
Starting with a few projects like Black River in the 1980s, First Nation and, increasingly, Métis communities are moving from simple job creation to project initiation and ownership in the energy sector.
Copyright © 2009 by APPrO, the Association of Power Producers of Ontario (www.appro.org)
OSEA's manager of policy and communication, Jane Story, makes the argument for renewable energy, including wind power.
“The big thing is consistently having a clear signal to both investors as well as developers,” said Kristopher Stevens, the executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association.
Recently announced rules restricting solar power projects on Ontario’s best farmland has made Don McCabe a happy man.
The Lambton County farmer is vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and an outspoken opponent of building solar farms on land where crops could grow.
“I’m more than happy to eat in the dark if my only power can come from solar panels on farmland,” McCabe said.
The Ontario government fired the starter's pistol today for thousands of homeowners, farmers, community cooperatives and energy developers eager to become generators of green power for the province.
Premier Dalton McGuinty formally launched the province's new feed-in tariff (FIT) program, through which electricity generated from the wind, sun, biomass and water can be sold into the grid at a premium - from as low as 10.3 cents for generating power from landfill gas to 80.2 cents for the electricity that comes from a small solar rooftop system.
Kristopher Stevens, executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, said Ontario has learned a lesson from European countries that have brought significant renewable power on line. The province will offer long-term contracts and attractive tariffs for renewable power.
Attention farmers, you might have an ace up your sleeve when it comes to alterative energy. That ace is land – a place to site wind turbines and solar panels and grow biomass crops. “ Farmers have lots of it,” says Joe Botscheller, as he talks about land being a crucial component of alternative energy production. Botscheller, a director with the Ontario organization Farmers for Economic Opportunity, thinks farmers are poised to reap the benefits of an increasing demand for renewable energy.
A handful of First Nations in Canada are looking to go greener than ever, and in more ways than one. They are hoping to create a sustainable economy without compromising the environment with partnerships in the wind energy industry.
The uncertainty over Ontario's fledgling biomass economy has a northeastern Ontario community dropping a biomass energy project and switching to solar.
The province’s gambling habits have boosted plans for an Amaranth wind turbine co-op effort. Orangeville and Dufferin Wind Corporation received a $75,000 Trillium grant earlier this week to help move its Orange Wind project forward.
Just outside of Bradford, a 50-foot-tall wind turbine is generating curiosity and electricity.
At Hadeeqae Ahmad, a property owned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Canada on 10th Sideroad, just north of 11th Line, the turbine stands as one of Ahmadiyya's three experiments in green technologies in Ontario.
Ontario has begun setting the pace for North America’s change from fossil fuels to renewable energy and that pace appears to be quickening.
First, the Canadian province’s government passed a landmark Green Energy Act (GEA) in May of this year. Then three weeks ago, Ontario’s deputy premier and minister of energy and infrastructure, George Smitherman, halted plans to build two new nuclear reactors because of excessive costs, pleasing anti-nuclear activists who had objected to the GEA’s continuation of provincial reliance on nuclear power.
Municipalities and farms across Ontario could use anaerobic digesters to convert such waste into methane. This could be burned for energy immediately, or it could be stored to produce power when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
PRENEAL Canada has signed an agreement with landowners on the Bruce Peninsula to option several thousand acres of land for the development of a wind farm that could produce up to 200 megawatts of electricity in the former Lindsay and Eastnor townships.
The company, with its Canadian headquarters in Moncton, N.B., boasts of an approach that shares the wealth around the community.
“The agreement involves maximizing local economic benefits, offers the opportunity for the community, landowner, wind farm neighbours and private investors to own a substantial interest in the equity of the wind farm,” the Moncton, N.B.-based company said in a news release.
Local people are invited to invest up to 30% of the equity of the project. Landowners who live next door to those who are host to a wind turbine will also share in the benefits even if they don’t have a turbine on their property.
This weekend marks the eighth annual Windfall Ecology Festival at Fairy Lake in Newmarket.
The festival was named by Organic Earth Magazine as one of Canada’s top environmental festivals. But the two-day fest Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., is not only for the green at heart, festival director Doug Pettigrew said.
Two more wind turbines could sprout at Exhibition Place.
They would go on the north side of Lake Shore Blvd. W. – one opposite Ontario Place, the other at the site's western tip. But Joyce McLean of Toronto Hydro says a decision won't be made til summer's end.
TREC [Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative] and Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc. – who jointly own the turbine there – last week received approval from the board of governors at Exhibition Place to lease land for them, should the project go ahead.
The Manitoulin Wind and Solar Institute was officially launched on Saturday in M’Chigeeng with a goal of fostering the island’s green energy economy.
At the event, an articulation working agreement between the institute and Sault College was signed.
“The college and the institute will work together on conservation deliverables, which will consist initially of workshops,” states a press release from the institute.
"There are legitimate concerns out there, and you've got to listen to them. That's what distinguishes between social friction and NIMBYism. But there are other concerns that aren't real," says Kris Stevens, executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association.
Stevens has closely studied the nature of social friction in Ontario's electricity sector, which is also the subject of his Master's thesis in environmental studies. Some people "don't like change," he says. "They're stuck in an older paradigm."
Investments expected to flow from new green-energy legislation in Ontario have the potential to create and sustain 90,000 good-paying jobs over the next 10 years, according to a report from the U.S. economics professor who helped inspire the Obama administration's green-jobs strategy.
The act is giving renewed hope to such people as Mike Perry of the Kawartha Environmental Energy Project. A couple of years ago, the Fenelon Falls lawyer and environmental activist and his group had to give up their plan to build wind turbines in the Kawartha Lakes. Ontario Hydro was paying only 11 cents a kilowatt hour, too little money to justify such a large initial capital expenditure.
Energy specialist Paul Charbonneau shared with a room full of local entrepreneurs, homeowners and teachers, how to build green thinking into our education system and our education buildings during last week's renewable energy alternatives for rural communities and businesses workshop at the Georgina Trades Training building.
The Windfall Ecology Centre, in partnership with the Georgina and the Georgina Trades Training Institute, hosts an engaging all-day seminar for home and business owners.
[A] grass roots organization known as Windy Hills Caledon [has] plans to place as many as five wind turbines in highlands of North West Caledon to generate as many as 10 MW of green electricity.
Windy Hills has done its homework. The winds are sufficient. Noise tests are to be completed. Resolving power distribution arrangements with Hydro One are underway. Negotiations with “landowners to secure the small amount of land needed to deploy the turbines” are in their late stages. Final decisions for the people of Windy Hills are within sight.
Ontario’s Green Energy Act seizes the opportunity to create jobs, drive investment and reduce emissions through increased development of renewable energy
"This is a chance for communities that are willing to get together and develop their own energy infrastructure, whether it be solar, wind, biomass or geothermal power. The act could be a boon for neighbourhoods in Sudbury, and across Ontario,” said Kyle Gascoigne, a student enrolled in the Energy Systems Technology Program at Cambrian College.
The Premier of Ontario has announced a new piece of legislation, the Ontario Green Energy Act, to be introduced into the provincial legislature later this month. Cambrian College is organizing a workshop with the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) to discuss the proposed legislation Wednesday Feb. 18 at 9:30 a.m. in the eDome.
Citizens from Prince Edward County and surrounding areas attended a meeting at the Prince Edward County Community Centre Hall, organized by the County Sustainability Group and the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA). The presentation was a preview of what these organizations anticipate seeing in the Green Energy Act, which is expected to be introduced into the Ontario Legislature by Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman later this month.
While no one can be blamed for scepticism about proponent-funded research, cherry-picked statistics and misrepresentative facts from anti-wind energy groups lead to further confusion, not clarity. Erickson wants a public meeting in which local citizens can invite the experts of their choice, so "people could ask questions of somebody who doesn't have a conflict of interest." That's one way to establish trust.
Jane Story of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association offers another: neighbours should share the costs and benefits by building their own renewable energy cooperatives. "If you want to deal with the problems of where they're located," she says, "own it!"
Part of a green business strategy is also taking into account energy consumption, but the first step behind green business is an enlightened public policy not influenced by political alignment, Mr. Kopperson said.
"A green economy and green-collar jobs are created by enlightened public policy," he said. "The political act gets people and businesses to participate in the renewable energy process."
Mr. Kopperson introduced the Green Energy Act proposed by the province, through which the government plans to jumpstart a green energy economy. The act - a draft was presented to Queen's Park in December - plans to grant power grid priority to renewable energy creators.
The Ottawa River Institute is supporting the recommendations for the Ontario Green Energy Act.
"The Green Energy Act is great news for the Ottawa Valley," Richard Copeland, a director with the organization, stated in a recent news release. "We have been trying to figure out a way to get solar domestic hot water going in a major way here in Renfrew County. The Green Energy Act will really help us get this off the ground."
The development of the programs included consultation with the Durham Strategic Energy Alliance, the Region of Durham, Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and more, said Judy Robinson, Durham College's academic vice-president.
Ontario Energy Minister George Smitherman is all smiles at the opening ceremony of the Melancthon EcoPower Centre, near Orangeville. With133 gleaming white turbines, standing 80 meters tall and poised to generate enough energy for 52,000 homes, this is the largest wind farm in Canada -- and a symbol of Ontario's commitment to green energy.
As large producers continue to struggle with high commodity prices and industry cut-backs, more and more small operations are turning up across the country. In particular, Canada is home to dozens of biodiesel co-operatives from coast to coast. The development of these organizations indicates an interest in biofuels from a grassroots perspective, revealing that Canadians are taking a hands-on approach to the future of energy in our country.
As the world confronts the reality of global warming and the inevitable end of oil, the questions of what to do and how to sustain energy without oil or fossil fuels becomes more urgent. Bob McKeown and a fifth estate team travel to Germany to meet Hermannn Scheer, called "Europe's Al Gore," a parliamentarian who is leading the way to increase Germany's reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar power. To date, 15% of Germany's energy comes from renewable sources. Scheer estimates that if Germany continues on this course, by 2030 that will be 100%. So, if one of the world major industrialized nations can achieve this, why can't a country like Canada? The answer may lie in the fifth estate's investigation of the influence, in this country, of conventional energy industry on politicians.
People living near wind turbines will receive a piece of the revenue pie if Melancthon’s Bob Younker gets his way.
He’s proposing the creation of a wind power co-op designed to see more money stay in the community and a wider swath of people benefit from renewable energy generation.
There is an ongoing movement in Canada to support more community wind projects and create a more distributed, democratic energy economy. We'll take a look at what's happening within Canada to promote awareness about community wind and help this under-developed sector grow.
It’s taken nine years, but the pieces are finally falling into place for the Village of South River to generate and sell clean, sustainable hydroelectric power.
Planning began in 1999 to establish a new, community-owned generating station on the site that had supplied the town’s power until 1962. Now, the South River Power Generation Corporation has the final important piece that will allow construction to proceed – a customer to buy the power.
The necessity of good net metering laws and interconnection standards can't be understated. In order to grow the market for solar and other distributed forms of energy in the U.S., the appropriate laws must be in place to make installation easy and the investment cost-effective.
Also in the podcast: Author and Renewable Energy Analyst Paul Gipe updates us on the increased interest in feed-in tariffs around North America. In the last few months, some Canadian provinces and U.S. states have expressed support for feed-in tariffs. And while this support may not necessarily turn into action, Gipe says that the government recommendations are a positive sign that the feed-in tariff movement is making progress in North America.
