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The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) is a non-profit organization supporting the growth of Renewable Energy and Community Power projects in the Canadian Province of Ontario. OSEA has approximately 130 community and industry members as well as individual members. The bylaws ruling the association are included in the external links section below. The affairs of the Association are managed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership.
History
OSEA was incorporated in 2001, sponsored by a number of community and environmental groups to be a focal point for consolidating activities promoting sustainable energy especially Community Power. These included advocacy, outreach and capacity building. OSEA focuses on creating practical advice and guidelines such as Community Power Guidebooks which explain the financial model for community-based cooperative ventures.
OSEA has also offered guidance through various policy papers which have helped inform the creation of key policies, regulations and programs such as the Renewable Standard Offer Program (RESOP) and the Green Energy and Economy Act.
OSEA co-hosted the 7th World Wind Energy Conference in Kingston, Ontario. Previous conferences had been held in Beijing, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and New Delhi. It was at the Kingston conference that the Green Energy Act Alliance was launched with the intent of bringing together a single voice to make conservation and renewable energy the priority in Ontario.
OSEA has approximately 130 community and industry members as well as individual members. The bylaws ruling the association are included in the external links section below. The affairs of the Association are managed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership.
Policies & Positions
The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association inspires and enables the people of Ontario to improve the environment, the economy and their health by producing clean, sustainable energy in their homes, businesses and communities. The OSEA community - staff, interns, volunteers, members, friends and supporters - are actionists (as opposed to activists) looking for (and working on) solutions. They work pro-actively to build bridges between stakeholders and seek ways to improve Ontario's energy system collaboratively recognizing that community, industry and government should all play a role in shaping Ontario’s energy future.
OSEA defines Sustainable Energy as including:
- Renewable energy (bio, wind, hydro, solar, tidal, geo-thermal)
- Conservation, energy efficiency and demand management
- Combined heat and power (CHP) and District energy
- Storage
- Smart-grid with the convergence of the electric, thermal and telecommunications grids
- Community, public and commercial ownership of any of these structures
OSEA supports the growth of Community Power in Ontario. Community Power is a class of community-based energy projects that are owned, developed and controlled in full or in part (50 per cent or more) by residents of the community in which the project is located. Community Power proponents include local residents, farmer collaboratives, co-operatives, First Nations, municipalities and other institutions working to develop local sustainable energy projects.
According to the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, in conventional energy systems like that of Ontario, at least 75 cents of each energy dollar leaves the local economy. Community-based sustainable energy developments provide an excellent opportunity to help keep energy dollars in the community, create economic development, empower residents, cut pollution and greenhouse gases and address energy security concerns. According to the Iowa Policy Project locally owned renewable energy project generates 5-10 times the local economic benefits than do conventional ownership models. From a solely economic perspective every dollar invested by local community members results in a 3 times multiplier within the community.[1]
Selected Achievements
Outreach and Education
Research Resources
OSEA has produced a number of well researched resources to help inform the discussion about Ontario’s evolution towards a 100% sustainable energy system including:
- Nuclear Power: Where's the Business Case? – December 2011 [2]
- Getting to FIT 2.0 – December 2011 [3]
- Storage
WattsNEXT Public Education Campaign
Centered on conservation and renewable energy success stories, includes:
- Video contest on renewable energy projects
- Real time online map showcasing green energy supporters, conservation and renewable energy projects
- Community engagement and partnership best practices
Conferences
- Community Power 2011[4]: brought the community and commercial power sustainable energy sector together to discuss the FIT review, Green Energy Ontario 2.0, and practical training on how to drive community-led and community-commercial project partnerships.
- World Wind Energy Conference in Kingston, Ontario, 2008: hosted jointly with the World Wind Energy Association, focused on Community Power and drew more than 800 delegates from around the world including five provincial ministers.
Manuals and Toolkits
- Community Power Financing Guidebook: Resource manual covering pre-development financing, land acquisition, permitting and approvals, legal contracting, resource assessment, community engagement, and membership development and relations. This guidebook is intended to familiarize Community Power proponents with these early project activities and their financial implications given Ontario's current renewable energy and fiscal policy context.[5]
- Initiating Your Co-operative Solar PV Community Power Project: This toolkit is designed for those interested in solar photovoltaic (PV) and renewable energy co-operatives. This resource kit provides essential information on starting a co-operative solar PV renewable energy project.
Webinars
- OSEA FIT Webinar Series: This is a series of webinars addressing issues around the Feed In Tariff. For example the Friday February 10th, 2012 instance addressed Hydro One connection including the role of Hydro One, third party contractors and the rules regarding alternative bid options recently clarified by the Ontario Energy Board. It included hearing directly from Hydro One on progress being made on grid upgrades and policies regarding capacity and what they mean to projects.
- Special OSEA Interview Series: This series addressed the political outlook on the future of renewable energy and conservation in Ontario. It included interviews with three of the four main parties on the future of Green Energy in Ontario. The interviews, conducted by Kris Stevens, were held just prior to the provincial elections in 2011.
Workshops
- Building Capacity Through a Multi-Skilling Model: A research workshop held at the Earth Rangers Centre at Woodbridge Ontario, it addressed the development of a vision and strategy for Building Capacity Through a Multi-Skilling Model. The 44 attendees included NGOs, colleges, companies, First Nations, unions and consultants and their discussion is published as a whitepaper.
- Community Power Roadmap To Success: Aimed at engaging established community-based organizations and institutional groups with assets and to build up their capacity to collaborate on their own community power projects, this was a series of 14 hands-on workshops where attendees walked through a prospect for a project to give them the basic tools required to get a community solar power project started.
Policy
- The creation of the feed-in tariff programs: OSEA advocated an advanced renewable energy Feed-in Tariff program for Ontario, resulting in the creation of the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program, a precursor to the Green Energy Act and, in 2007, the most progressive energy policy in North America in a decade.[6]
- The campaign for the Green Energy and Green Economy Act – OSEA successfully campaigned for a Green Energy Act for Ontario, resulting in the adoption of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (2009) and the Feed-in Tariff program, making Ontario a leader in renewable energy policy.
- The creation of the Community, Aboriginal and Municipal Energy Partnership programs
- The aboriginal loan guarantee program
- Creation of the Community Power Fund
- Current work focuses on the evolution of the FIT program and the transition to integrated energy policy.
Projects
The Community Power Services Group of OSEA helps communities with the earlier stages of their projects. Examples include:
- Whitchurch-Stouffville Community Energy Co-operative has an agreement with the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville to develop a 250KW solar power project on the roof of the Clippers Sports Complex with the intent of returning surplus revenue to the broader community and to local investors. The CPSG has assisted the co-op in securing development stage funding and has been retained as project managers.[7]
- Beach Community Power Association is an association of neighbours and parents of students of Kew Beach Public School in Toronto. The Toronto District School Board has approved capital funding for 23KW of solar power capacity and an additional 50KW will be developed by the Beach Community Power Association as a community investment opportunity open to all residents. The CPSG has assisted the association in securing development stage funding and has been retained as project managers.[8]
- In 2009 and 2010, neighbours and members of Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation collaborated to develop a 25KW solar power project on the south face of the church's roof. The CPSG assisted NUUC in raising the remaining $110,000 required to purchase and install their solar system by marketing their debenture investment offering to OSEA's network of 7,000+ individuals, community groups, and businesses.[9][10]