Staying the Course in Times of Uncertainty

by Daniel Bida on October 7, 2011

sunandcloudsI have a confession to make: 9 months ago I was pretty scared that the PCs would win the Ontario election and kill the Feed-in Tariff program, as they said they would. I started to seriously explore other options and jurisdictions to develop community-owned biogas plants.  I started to fear the worst would happen and it shaped my behaviour.

As we saw last night, the Liberals will continue to govern and continue to push forward their green industrial policies – trying to develop renewable energy and renewable energy companies, and thus green jobs. Granted it’s a minority government, but now on this beautiful, sunny Thanksgiving weekend, we are exactly where we were supposed to be at this point – one month away from a FIT program review and continuing to pursue a cleaner energy mix.

My fear and anxiety turned out to be overblown, and I know I’m not the only one.

Compounding my own fear, others who were also acting out of fear began making pronouncements that introduced further uncertainty. But in the end, nothing’s really changed. Some sleep was lost, I bit my nails a bit more feverishly and some projects got delayed by a couple of months. Not exactly a travesty.

Here’s the lesson: stay the course and be patient, most storms blow over without doing much damage. I hope the next time a storm is brewing I can control my emotions, avoid reacting and just watch it pass.  Otherwise, I’m probably in for another unnecessarily wild ride.

photo credit: SarahFaithx

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2011 – The Second Quarter

by Daniel Bida on September 4, 2011

The second quarter of 2011 was highlighted by a couple of key milestones and victories, both for ReGenerate and ZooShare.

To read the full report, click here.

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Wait and See Summer for Renewable Energy in Ontario

August 13, 2011

The upcoming Ontario provincial election has caused a lot of inaction, months before any of the campaign promises can possibly be delivered on. I’ve seen it and am experiencing it on a couple of fronts right now.
It was a very positive step earlier this month when the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) issued waivers for holders [...]

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Toronto Zoo supports Community-owned Biogas and ZooShare

June 10, 2011

The last 10 months have been an incredible roller coaster ride.  Community-owned biogas went from being an idea inspired by the community power movement and my lifelong obsession with waste to a plan being approved by the Board of Management of the Toronto Zoo.
My team and I have been through some nice ups and downs [...]

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2011 – The First Quarter

May 11, 2011

The first quarter of 2011 was mainly focused on the development of ZooShare Biogas Co-operative and the project at the Toronto Zoo.  This has unfortunately slowed down my progress developing community-owned biogas plants in the Kawarthas region, which I continue to pursue, albeit slowly.  It’s been a good lesson in time [...]

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Moving Along the Biogas Knowledge Funnel

April 26, 2011

I’m currently reading Roger Martin’s The Design of Business – a business book examining the way organizations make use of and organize knowledge to drive growth and longevity.
Moving down the funnel
Knowledge, it says, moves through three phases as it goes down the funnel, from the general to the specific: Mystery –> Heuristic –> Algorithm. This [...]

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Scaling Up by Scaling Down – Biogas Growth in Ontario

March 11, 2011

The current feed-in tariff (FIT) contract and environmental regulations in Ontario tend to favour small projects or big projects. The middle isn’t very big. The standard power price from the 501 kilowatt to 10 megawatt range (14 ¢/kWh) makes it essentially mandatory for the developer to make it as big as he can, to take [...]

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Trying to See the Future of Biogas

February 8, 2011

I spend a lot of time thinking about the future – too much, in fact.  I’ve learned over time that the future I see today can change drastically by tomorrow. But that hasn’t stopped me from trying to see Ontario’s biogas future numerous times over the last couple of months.
It’s an election year
and it’s looking [...]

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My Goals for 2011

January 22, 2011

2011

Complete 3 regional General Resource Assessments (GRA) and a province-wide Community Biogas map accessible on the web.
Stick to the schedule on the biogas project under development at the Toronto Zoo, and break ground in the fall.
Submit 3-5 Community Energy Partnership Program (CEPP) applications for projects in the Kawartha region.
Push biogas into the mainstream energy conversation [...]

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2010 – The Fourth Quarter

January 17, 2011

The fourth quarter was ReGenerate’s biggest yet, with the beginning of Ontario’s first co-operatively owned biogas plant at the Toronto Zoo.  The project is being developed by a team of players from the biogas and community power industries, and ReGenerate is proud to be a part of it.
Other highlights included:

Expansion of the Peterborough [...]

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