By David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca
The Bow Valley Renewable Energy Cooperative was incorporated in May 2020 and in just over a year had signed their first power purchase agreement and installed their first solar system.
This is lightning fast for a renewable energy cooperative in Canada.
This is partly because the cooperative has attracted high-quality volunteers with legal, accounting, engineering and project management experience. People seem to believe in the mission of the cooperative.
“The Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative is a group of individuals who have banded together to drive the energy transition forward within the Bow Valley,” says Roberts, himself formerly of the oilsands industry.
The idea for the cooperative arose after the Canmore-based Biosphere Institute undertook a feasibility study to “find suitable locations for a community-owned solar project in Canmore.”
“We are proponents for renewable energy…we’re focusing on solar installations, but we have our eye on geothermal, biomass and wind,” says Roberts.
Community Energy
Not everyone has access to renewable energy because they rent, live in apartments or have roofs that are not suitable for solar. Community energy allows local people and businesses to invest locally, create jobs and reap the profits right in the community.
The Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative is run by the members and members can also invest in projects.
“One of the ways we fund our installations is through investors. We’re looking for individuals or members who are passionate about driving change within the energy industry,” says Roberts.
“We get about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of our funding from investors,” says Roberts. The cooperative also receives some grant money, rebate money and “we do have some large loans.”
The coop has about $750,000 invested in four projects mostly in the Bow Valley area.
- Ralph Connor Memorial Church (Canmore) 11 kW solar
- IPlace commercial development (Canmore) 125 kW solar
- BayMeg industrial facility (Ekshaw) 300 kW solar
- Temple B’Nai Tikvah (Calgary) 20 kW solar
The cooperative has spent a couple of years building up financial reserves, but hopes to offer a return on investment “equivalent to what a renewable energy company on the TSX would pay from a dividend perspective,” says Roberts.
Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative has about 100 members today and after a few short years is doing very well.
They even set up an energy retailing arm called Rocky Mountain Community Energy which offers electricity, natural gas and internet which in turn invests its proceeds in renewable energy projects.
While many provinces in Canada have legislation supporting cooperatives, but there is very little support for setting up cooperatives in the complex electricity generation landscapes in the provinces.
In Germany, 896 cooperatives were set up since 2006 and they formed the backbone of the green energy revolution in that country.
For background on community energy and cooperatives see our story: 283. Solar co-operatives helped unleash renewable energy booms around the world – should we do more?
In Canada, a number of cooperatives are slowly emerging. Here are stories about a few of the successful coops we’ve run across.