Green Timiskaming joins community power federation

August 7,
2012, Charlton, Ont. – Green Timiskaming Development Co-operative, a group promoting
renewable energy initiatives, has joined with similar organizations across
Ontario to form the Federation of Community Power
Co-operatives, with the goal of facilitating project development by sharing experiences,
expertise, and development tools and resources.

By
unifying the co-op sector and sharing resources, the FCPC expects to support at
least 100 megawatts of community-controlled projects by 2015 under pending new
FIT rules from Ontario Power Authority. Debates over land use, energy
prices and the impact of renewable energy have been a challenge for Ontario’s Green
Energy and Economy Act FIT program; however, with a recent energy minister directive,
the new rules, known as FIT 2.0, will contain explicit provisions for co-ops
and First Nations that are developing renewable energy projects.

“Communities
can start with smaller projects and then expand into larger projects-of-scale
that can stabilize the economy of our local economies. By learning how to invest
in ourselves we can develop a prosperous local economy,” says Ambrose Raftis, chair
of Green Timiskaming.

The rules
prioritize community projects through a points system and set-aside of 10%
capacity for renewable energy projects that are majority owned by co-ops and
aboriginal communities.

By forming
a federation, community power co-ops will have a common voice to negotiate with
government and private developers, says Green Timiskaming in a recent press
release. Co-ops will also work together and share their resources, tools and
knowledge to help the sector meet its community power set-aside.

Review
drafts of the new FIT 2.0 forms.