Renewable Energy Summit

Building Community Power CO-OPeratively: Renewable Energy Summit EVENT TO BE HELD AT THE FOLLOWING TIME, DATE, AND LOCATION: Attend Event Sunday, 10 June 2012 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PT) Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) 680 Plains Rd West Room 1 Burlington, Ontario L7T 4H4 Canada View Map The Hamilton Halton Renewable Energy Action Team (HHEAT) presents:   Building Community Power CO-OPperatively: A Renewable Energy Summit   Doors open at 12pm.   Workshop from: 1-5pm with sessions featuring:   Greetings from Burlington’s Mayor... Read More Share this event on Facebook and Twitter We hope you can make it! Cheers, Hamilton Halton Energy Awareness Team (HHEAT)

This email was sent via Eventbrite. Anyone can use Eventbrite to spread the word, collect money, and track RSVPs for an event. See how you can too! Click here to unsubscribe from invitations by Hamilton Halton Energy Awareness Team (HHEAT). Eventbrite is located at 651 Brannan St, Ste 110, San Francisco, CA 94107.

Measuring the Co-operative Difference

Here's a neat site that readers will find useful. We have added it to the resource section as well.
They offer all sorts of free webinars.
http://cooperativedifference.coop/page/4-Events-Opportunities#Past%20webinars
People-Power-Profit: The Emergence of Renewable Energy Co-operatives in Canada

March 14, 2012 

This webinar toured the audience through renewable energy development across Canada, celebrating the successes and articulating the challenges of this exciting new co-op sector. The webinar also featured a few case studies in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The session also created space to discuss the following questions: What are the policy and regulatory contexts? And how do we build stronger cohesion across the country?

Featured presenters:

Judith Lipp is the Executive Director of the TREC Renewable Energy Co-operative, a position she has held since 2008. TREC is a a non-profit, co-operative that incubates, builds and administers renewable energy co-operatives in Ontario and educates the broader public about the importance of renewable energy, energy efficiency/conservation and the community power model. Judith has worked in the renewable energy sector since 1998 and has extensive related policy, research and project development experience.

Judith Lipp,Executive Director 
TREC Renewable Energy Cooperative 
Email: jlipp@trec.on.ca
Phone: 416 977 5093 
www.trec.on.ca

Judith's Presentation - Opportunities & Realities of Renewable Energy Co-op Development

Paper - Renewable Energy Co-op Review: Scan of Models and Regulatory Issues, January 2012

Ontario Community Energy Partnership Program

J.J. McMurtry is an Associate Professor in the Business and Society Program at York University. Professor McMurtry's areas of specialization include co-operative theory and practice, alternative economics, the Social Economy, and social and political thought. He is one of the founders of Green Campus Co-ops and is on the National Research Cluster for the Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network CURA.

J.J. McMurtry, Associate Professor
Business and Society Program, York University
Email: jmcmurtr@yorku.ca
Phone: 416 736 2100 ext. 77820

J.J.'s Presentation -  So What is the Co-op Difference in Alternative Energy?

German Energy Revolution

Wayne Groszko, Ph.D. is currently president of the Community Energy Co-operative (New Brunswick), an organization working at the community level to facilitate the transition to renewable energy. He has nine years experience in the field of renewable energy assessments, education, consulting and community-based social marketing. He teaches courses in environmental sciences at Dalhousie University and has published and presented several times regarding renewable energy.

Wayne Groszko, Community Energy Co-operative
Email: wayne@communityenergynb.ca
Phone: 902 482 8817
Toll-free: 1 866 315 9201
Wayne's Presentation - Community Renewable Energy in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia Community Feed-in Tariff Program

Nova Scotia COMFIT Guide

FIT and MicroFIT Workshops

We held the FIT and Micro FIT Basics workshop in Hamilton (April 23rd) and Halton (April 24th) and we were quite surprised by some of the new recommendations. For example, the portion that says that members of a co-op must be property owners.
Community Projects
• Small FIT - need 35 Members who are Property Owner
in Community
• Large FIT - need 50 Members who are Property Owner
in Community
Property Owner defined as:
“a natural person that, as of the date two years prior to the
date of an Application, and at the date of such Application
still is, the registered owner of real property in a Municipality
in which a Project described in such Application is (in whole
or in part) located.”

Leasing and Renting seem to be Excluded!

Deadline to Submit your feedback to the OPA on the draft FIT 2.0

April 27th is the deadline to submit your feedback to the Ontario Power Authority on the draft FIT 2.0 rules, contract and definitions. 

Do you want to help improve the program? Then get your input in to the Ontario Power Authority to ensure that they have your great ideas on how to improve the program.

Haven't had time to go through everything yet? OSEA has pulled together helpful documents that can assist you based that include the following:

1. Priority recommendations
2. Secondary recommendations
3. Black lined edits in support of the priority recommendations (already inserted into the OPA reporting form for easy copy and pasting).

You can download the full document here:

OSEA Submission on the Draft FIT 2.0 Rules (PDF)

Here is their summary slide deck of the Priority recommendations which can be downloaded here:
7 things to make FIT 2.0 a success - Minister of Energy and OPA briefing notes(PDF)

They have also left the Appendix containing the black lined recommendations in word format using the OPA's form for easier editing here:

Download the Priority recommendations (Word doc)

The Appendix provides the black lined specific edits to the rules that OSEA is recommending in support of the Primary Recommendations. You will need to cut and paste the comments into your own form which is available athttp://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/comments-welcome-draft-fit-program-rules-and-contract for the FIT and http://microfit.powerauthority.on.ca/results-microfit-program-review-now-available for the MicroFIT programs respectively.  

Email your submission to to the Ontario Power Authority at FITsubmissions@powerauthority.on.ca and CC Minister Chris Bentley at christopher.bentley@ontario.ca

Environment Hamilton's Annual General Meeting

Come on out tonight and meet some of the folks behind the HHEAT project as well as hear from the Environment Hamilton staff about their projects. We will also be hearing from eco-youth across Hamilton and  their involvement with local environmental initatives.
April 19th, 7pm-9pm at the Hamilton Public Library (Central). 55 York Blvd. Hamilton.

HHEAT Guidebook

The HHEAT Guidebook is now available!

This guidebook is for the development of wind, small hydro, solar, and biomass projects in Hamilton and Halton communities under Ontario’s Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) program.

Launched in October 2009, the FIT program makes the vision of a decentralized, community owned power grid much more viable. Ontario’s FIT Program provides long-term fixed price contracts - called Power Purchase Agreements or PPAs - for the energy generated by various types of renewable energy technologies.

This guidebook is divided into three sections. From project conception and development, identifying information and contacting the right groups, we’ve provided links to relevant web sites, resources and reports in three sections:

1. Starting Your Renewable Energy Co-operative
2. Financing Your Renewable Energy Co-operative
3. Co-op Administration and Promotion