2009: The Fourth Quarter

2009 was a milestone year for ReGenerate

A name, a mission, many valuable relationships and a web presence were all established. I attended a number of interesting and fruitful conferences and workshops, published three quarterly reports (which have been great tools to consistently review my progress and goals), and Ontario passed the Green Energy Act – creating the Feed-in Tariff program, and making my mission easier to achieve.

What I’ve been up to

The fourth quarter included a major UN climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark (the COP15), which took place from early to mid December, and left us without a globally binding carbon agreement to replace the loosely observed Kyoto Protocol. Despite that, some positives definitely emerged; the global movement in support of climate progress grew, and a global research alliance was created by over 20 countries, including Canada, to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (currently, 18% of the total).

Massive web campaigns, like 350.org, sprung up and organized the International Day of Climate Action on October 24, 2009 – 5,200 rallies took place in 181 different countries. I like seeing the people rally behind something while governments debate and politic; it keeps me hopeful. This increased attention and focus will lead to an increase in the amount of capital invested in renewable energy projects, like biogas.

• In early October, I attended my first meeting with Transition Town Peterborough (TTP). TTP was the first official Canadian Transition Town. Founded in January 2008, it’s based on the Transition Town model developed by Rob Hopkins and first implemented in Transition Town Totnes in the UK.
  • I’m making a presentation on energy co-ops and biogas on March 2 to TTP; which I think will be another milestone in my development.

• In late October and again in late November, I attended the first meetings of Transition Toronto.  Transition Towns was designed with towns in mind, making it work on a city scale requires some adjustments to the structure and process, but the principles remain the same. It was decided, by everyone who came to the first few meetings, that Transition Toronto should act like an umbrella organization, supporting and nurturing the growth of individual neighbourhood scale initiatives, instead of pursuing all the goals of a regular one.
  • I volunteered to be a part of the steering committee, and two communities have already started transitioning – the Annex and Beaches-East York.

• In mid November, the inaugural Community Power Conference took place in Toronto. Over the course of two days, I listened to panels and presentations on topics such as the Ontario’s Feed-in Tariff program, Germany’s experience with community power (they are one of the pioneers), community energy financing models, renewable energy co-ops, changes to the electricity distribution code, aboriginal energy projects, and about the experiences of those who had developed community-scale renewable energy projects around Ontario and Quebec.
  • I made more valuable connections and learned a lot, helping to shape how community biogas is actually going to look in Ontario.  The exciting thing about being in a new industry is that most of the rules are still being written; I always have to pay attention and be ready to make adjustments to my plans.

• The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) webinar series continued, with two webinars this quarter. The first, “Connecting Community Energy Projects” [to the electricity grid] featured Marion Fraser and a representative from Hydro One and took place at the end of October. The second, hosted by the Ontario Energy Board, was held in early December and discussed a similar topic.
  • The webinars detailed all of the changes to the electricity distribution code, made to make it easier and more economical for renewable energy projects to connect to the grid – particularly small ones, like on-farm anaerobic digesters producing biogas. One of the notable changes that resulted from the passing of the Green Energy Act earlier this year pertained to connection costs, which are now shared by the local distribution company, instead of solely by the generator (a savings of approximately $100,000).

• In November, I drove to Seeley’s Bay, Ontario to see the new biogas plant at Ledgecroft farms. 470 dairy cows, 5,000 m³ of fats, oils and grease delivered annually by Organic Resource Management (ORMI), and 499 kW of electric generating capacity.
  • I had a nice conversation with the farmer, the engineers, the waste guy, the excavator, and a couple of the cows. It was really fun and educational to see how it all worked in person, and I made some valuable connections – all before having dinner with Gramma D and my wife.

• In December, I had a follow up meeting with Doug Carruthers from ORMI after meeting him at Ledgecroft farms.
  • We talked about Peterborough mainly, and how we could co-develop biogas projects in the region. We also talked about the need for a processing facility in the region; to mix all of the off-farm waste collected from restaurants and food companies, before it goes to local biogas plants.

• The RIC Centre held a breakfast at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus entitled “Accessing Government Money”. Unfortunately when I woke up and saw the snow, I went back to bed, and had to miss it.
  • I watched everyone’s presentations online the next day and got some good information about which grants could work for community biogas projects, how to apply and the eligibility requirements. Resources like investinontario.com and the MaRS cleantech funding guide, were also helpful in creating a database of all the grants that could possibly apply to my goals.

• I met up with two different members of my advisory board, Alex Chamberlain and John Nicholson, on separate occasions.
  • After talking about my progress and strategies and taking their questions, I usually ask a short list of my own questions about whatever I got going on in the upcoming weeks.  I can’t understate the importance I see in having advisers, and I’m thankful for the three I’ve got. Each of us is pretty excited about the prospects for growth in community biogas in 2010 and beyond – which is great to see!

• In late December, I got in touch with the Greater Peterborough Economic Development Office and spoke with Lauren Gogo and Karen Jopling.
  • Lauren informed me that among other functions, her office could help me with grant applications, which will be very helpful. In addition, she connected me with Chris Ferguson from Carbon Control Systems, another player in the Ontario biogas market that grew out of Trent University. Karen invited me to an agricultural symposium that took place in mid-January – the inaugural “Our Fields, Our Future”.

• Throughout the quarter, meetings continued with Elastic Mind and new content continues to be added to regeneratebiogas.com.
  • If you’ve looked at the site as much as I have you may have noticed the changes. If not, I just hope you like it!

• Entrepreneurship 101 also continues. Over the quarter, talks were given by Harry Rosen, Jed Emerson, representatives from bettertheworld.com, and lecture topics included building a better business model, social enterprises, the nuts and bolts of starting a business, technology marketing, and product development basics.
  • This course has been and continues to be helpful – I get to hear from successful entrepreneurs about their experiences, the lessons learned, and pick up helpful tips on how to successfully build my business.

Looking Ahead

On January 13, I attended the above-mentioned agricultural symposium in Norwood, Ontario. I met with Chris and Karen, as well as farmers (both young and old), local politicians, representatives from the community futures development corporation, and Dr. Tom Hutchinson from Trent University.

At the end of the month, I’m attending a MaRS event entitled “The Green Energy Act Finance Forum”, which will include speakers from CIBC World Markets, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Ogilvy Renault, the Ontario Power Authority, and the Community Power Fund, among others.

Entrepreneurship 101’s UpStart Competition is beginning and I will be submitting my plan before the end of January.

In early March, I will be making a presentation to Transition Town Peterborough on renewable energy co-ops and community biogas, which I’m pretty excited about – It will be an important milestone for growth in Peterborough. (March 2nd, 7-9 pm, Sadleir House, 751 George St. N, Peterborough)

The following week is the second annual Canadian Farm and Food Biogas Conference, taking place in London, Ontario. It’s actually an offshoot of Growing the Margins, the main event that happens at the same time. The conference will focus on “case studies and lessons learned, new technologies and processes in biogas generation and use, and on the incorporation of co-substrates or off-farm organics”.

Goals for 2010

Establish a renewable energy co-op in Peterborough, raise funds through an offering statement and grant applications, complete biogas resource assessment of the region and make our first investment.

Make renewable energy co-operative presentation to 3 more Transition Towns, and begin preparing offering statements and grant applications (or possibly invite them to join the original Peterborough co-op?).

Sign partnership agreements with multiple regional waste management companies

Build more relationships with people of influence in the areas of agriculture and food production, community economic development, and renewable energy investing.

Take a second course of some kind… not sure yet, but maybe Spanish (spoiler alert! – a longer term goal is to develop community biogas projects in Central America).

Write one blog post every two weeks, give or take a couple days. There’s no better way to spread the word than by putting it out there on a regular basis… I just have to get better about the regular basis thing…

Business Description

ReGenerate is a part of the growing Ontario renewable energy market, with a focus on biogas. I help different groups from the community (farmers, food companies, municipalities and concerned citizens) with general resource assessments, project planning – including application to the Feed-in Tariff program, financing, through to project development and operation.

The main objective is to help as many communities as possible by showing them how to use all of their available resources to reduce energy costs, create jobs, reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, produce renewable energy, and earn revenue – with biogas.

Regenerative design is all about creating greater output than the sum of your inputs, which is how I see biogas production. By using a resource that is currently disposed of, sometimes at a cost to the producer, and turning it into energy, we are adding value to an existing process.

What is biogas?

• Biogas is produced through a process called anaerobic digestion, where organic matter (cow/chicken/pig manure, food waste, waste water sludge, slaughterhouse remains, etc.) is placed in an oxygen-free environment, to produce a mixture of gas that is 50-72.5% methane (natural gas is 90% methane) depending on the feedstock

• The gas is suitable for gas distribution networks or power and heat generation.

• High-quality fertilizer is the by-product

Biogas production uses a proven and established technology; ReGenerate is not a technology firm.

The Numbers (unaudited)

	10/01/09-12/31/09	01/01/09-12/31/09
Revenue	0	0
Expenses
General Admin	985	1,865
Travel (car rentals, gas)	586	968
Software	226	226
Web Costs	800	1,485
Memberships	300	300
Conferences	819	1,480
Depreciation (computer)	849	1,132
Total Expenses	4,565	7,457
Net Profit (loss)	(4,565)	(7,457)