Some need to know info for community power advocates in Ontario:
- The Community Energy Partnership Program will be open to municipalities. The grant program, which was created as part of the Green Energy Act last year and is expected to launch later this month, provides financial assistance to community groups to complete pre-feasibility and feasibility studies on potential renewable energy projects. Completing a feedstock survey and locating the optimal locations for biogas plants in your region would qualify for this grant.
- The $90,000 per megawatt commitment from local distribution companies around Ontario to help with the cost of connection for community power projects wasn’t initially available if you were trying to connect to a Hydro One line, as they are considered to be a transmission company. The regulator is aware of this oversight and a change will be made in the near future.
- A single site can now apply for feed-in tariff (FIT) contracts for multiple fuels. This opens up the opportunity for solar, wind and biogas projects to partner up and share the connection costs.
In addition, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) launched the Community Power Services Group – in order to help community groups get renewable energy from idea to operation, to act as an enabler in the same way ReGenerate is in the biogas sector. With an initial expertise in wind, solar and mini-hydro, this group will be influential in the growth of community power around the province going forward.
Traffic Jams
After the first 6 months of the feed-in tariff program, 10,000 megawatts worth of applications were received, but current capacity on the transmission grid is only 2,500 MW. The province has already committed $2 billion to alleviate this problem by expanding and upgrading the grid, but these projects will likely take 7-10 years to complete. In the near term, projects under 500 kilowatts in size, like community-owned on-farm biogas plants, which can skip the connection queue and start selling power right away have a distinct ‘time to market’ advantage over larger projects.
photo credit: Charles_Crosbie
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