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  • Thursday, October 22, 2015 10:03 AM | Christine Koenig

    The OCEC is very happy to let their members, investors and supporters know that the appeal to the Renewable Energy Approval for the Gunn's Hill Wind Farm has been dismissed. Construction has started and the turbines will be up and running in summer 2016.

    For more information click here to download our latest press release on this.

  • Friday, October 16, 2015 1:31 PM | Christine Koenig

    OCEC is proud to announce that a total of 3.68 MW of solar projects across Oxford County have been submitted under the current FIT 4.0 procurement window. The capital expenditure for these projects, should they all be awarded contracts, is anticipated to be in the range of $10 -11 million.

    We expect to learn from the IESO if and how many of our project applications are successful in summer or 2016 latest.


  • Friday, October 16, 2015 1:04 PM | Christine Koenig

    On October 3rd 2015 Woodstock Hydro, Arntjen Solar, Ecamion, Fanshawe College, Ryerson University, Oxford Community Energy Co-op, Oxford County and the City of Woodstock met with close to 200 guests, politicians and media during a ‘Passport Station Tour’ theme to learn about sustainable energy development in Woodstock Ontario.

    Watch the video of the event or read what the media had to say or view more

    photos in the SNAPD.


  • Monday, October 05, 2015 6:10 PM | Christine Koenig

    Here's a link to the full speech Mark Carney gave in London on September 29th at an insurers' meeting:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=25&v=V5c-eqNxeSQ


    "For Carney's audience at a Lloyd's of London black tie dinner, the issue is not a matter of left or right politics, but a matter of profit and loss.

    Insurance companies often pay the bills when storms and flooding do their damage. Climate change is likely to make those insurable crises worse.

    But perhaps more important, against those potential losses, insurance companies hold trillions of dollars in assets invested in all kinds of stocks and bonds. And Carney said those assets were threatened. Carney warned that oil, gas and coal companies may be worth far less than their current book value would suggest.

    That's because a big part of their assets includes fossil fuel resources discovered but not yet extracted. Fears about climate change could render the vast majority of reserves "stranded," said Carney. In other words, the reserves would be left in the ground and unextractable.

    The other part of Carney's warning was the danger that climate change would mean the entire global economy would become less productive, shrinking the future value of certain investment holdings.

    "In the fullness of time, climate change will threaten financial resilience and longer-term prosperity," Carney said in his speech. "While there is still time to act, the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking."

    writes CBC reporter Don Pittis about Carney's speech

  • Wednesday, September 30, 2015 2:30 PM | Christine Koenig

    OCEC's Director Christine Koenig was invited by the World Wind Energy Association to provide insights into community wind projects in Canada at the international HUSUM WIND tradeshow and congress on September 15th in Germany. She was further invited to join the panel discussion on the effects of tenders on the ability of renewable energy co-operatives and SMEs to participate in the wind energy developments of the future.

    Christine's presentation "Sharing the Wind in Canada" can be downloaded here!

    A link to the event and a summary is provided below:

    http://www.wwindea.org/community-power-husum-wind/

  • Monday, June 15, 2015 1:24 PM | Christine Koenig

    Follow the link below to get a snap shot of how other Canadian communities are harvesting the benefits from wind energy:

    http://ourpower.ca/2015-06-11-wind-energy-blows-close-to-home-for-these-communities/

  • Wednesday, April 29, 2015 2:39 PM | Christine Koenig

    The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce hosts a one day workshop that explores the basic concepts behind the Passive House standard.  Participants will learn how the world’s leading energy efficient building standard sets a new bar for health, comfort, quality, and affordability in the construction sector.  They can discover how others are successfully meeting the standard and reaping the rewards. The seminar will help to understand why jurisdictions at home and abroad are setting the standard as the minimum requirement.


    For more infiormation and registration to thi sgreat opportunity please visit:

    Passive House Breakfast & Workshop

  • Tuesday, March 17, 2015 7:00 PM | Helmut Schneider (Administrator)

    Dear members and shareholders, 
I would like to welcome you all to the first Annual General Meeting of the Oxford Community Energy Co-op

    Good morning and welcome to Oxford Center, the location of our key project, the Gunn’s Hill Wind Farm. Thank you for being with us today

    Today’s meeting will show you how we serve the needs of members and shareholders by building this great Co-op and creating an exceptional trust relationship through strong financial and operating discipline in everything we do. We take our responsibility to serve our members, our investors and our community seriously and this commitment drives our actions every day.

    Review of Performance

    2014 was an important year, during which the Oxford Community Energy co-op passed a number of important milestones:

    Your co-op was formed on September 19th 2013 with seven incorporating directors as a ‘For profit renewable energy co-operative with share capital’. The incorporating directors where John Andrews, Harry French, Rochelle Rumney, Gary Zavitz, Juan Anderson, Christine Koenig and Helmut Schneider.

    The OCEC board of directors set five specific goals for their first year of operation.

    • 1.    To build a strong and determined governing board of nine directors
    • 2.    To recruit a minimum of 50 members from the local community
    • 3.    To engage in an effective partnership with Prowind who had a very attractive renewable energy project. To do so we wanted to draft and sign a Limited Partnership agreement that provided appealing benefits for our members and investors
    • 4.    To write an Offering Statement that provided relevant and transparent information for our investors which allows them to make an informed decision to become confident share and bondholders.
    • 5.    To raise a minimum of 1.2 million dollars in equity from within the community of Oxford County to prove that this community supports this renewable energy project.

    In addition to all the logistical milestones such as incorporating the Co-op, writing the Co-op by-laws, securing a business address, creating a company logo, developing marketing material, securing the operating capital and building business relationships, we have achieved every one of our goals on your behalf.

    The Limited Partnership Agreement was signed and released on January 15 2014. It is the agreement that governs our relationship as a limited partner with Prowind for the duration of this project. It is very important for the success of this Co-op to have a strong and mutually trusting relationship with our General Partner. Prowind embraces and supports the community ownership model and we continue to strengthen this important partnership. The LP agreement OCEC negotiated on your behalf provides for a very attractive return on your investment that is backed by a 20 year provincial power purchase agreement.

    In the early spring of 2014 your board of directors worked diligently on the Offering Statement – a 200 plus page document that was submitted to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario on April 22 2014 and receipted by FSCO on May 14 of the same year.

    Currently the Oxford Community Energy Co-op has 133 members, over 50 of which live in Oxford County. Of our 87 investors 35 are residents of Oxford County with an investment total of $ 2 066 000 from the members of this great community.  Our current total equity investment is $ 4 696 000 which represents a Gunn’s Hill project ownership of 27% - well beyond the minimum required ownership of 10% to be counted a community project but also about 4 million shy of our ownership potential of 49%.

    Raising almost $ 5 million in equity for this project is a significant achievement for this team and it clearly demonstrates the focus and determination of your board of directors.

    The Oxford Community Energy Co-op has become a household name in the Ontario Renewable Energy Community during the past year and many observe our success with interest and anticipation. We are setting a standard for effective cooperation in the development of a midsize project using a partnership model. In January OCEC was awarded the “Community Project of the Year” Award by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and it was a great honor for your board of directors to receive this recognition at the 5th annual Power Prosperity Gala in Toronto.

    It's inspiring and I believe transformative for a team to achieve these results. Waves of energy like this come in cycles and they create windows of opportunity where vision and leadership are rewarded. We are determined to use this energy to set new, aspiring goals for the next year ahead.

    Outlook

    The board of directors has a clear vision of the challenges for this coming year.

    We want to continue to strengthen our team with the addition of 4 new directors 3 of which are residents of Oxford County. It became clear to us that the optics of having a majority of local director on our board will be a benefit for OCEC. Recognizing that, we were careful not to compromise the need for high quality and capable directors to represent you on this board over the desire to build a more local board. I am convinced that the candidates you find on the slate of directors will be able to continue to provide the same capable governance that last year’s board demonstrated. Clearly, the outgoing directors will leave a void that is not easily filled by a new director. In order to support the transition of knowledge and experience all outgoing directors have received a request by OCEC to maintain a volunteer advisory position to the board. Harry French, John Andrews and Juan Anderson where able to commit to this request. In addition we accepted the offer from Hans Eckart who is a member of this Co-op and a chartered management accountant, to become an advisor to this board as well. The OCEC board is grateful for the generosity of these members to commit their time and experience to the board.

    Our equity position in the Gunn’s Hill project can increase to 49% in combination with a 10% ownership of our Six Nations Limited Partner. This means that we want to raise at a minimum an additional 2.3 million dollars in shares and bonds. We have a well-developed plan on how to work towards this goal before the financial close of this project but we also need you, our members to participate in this effort. If you are not an investor yet we would urge you to make this important decision now. The calculated returns in this project are unique and not easily achievable especially in an environment that is not subject to the volatility of the market and with a 20-year secure contract. If you are an investor you may want to consider increasing your investment before this opportunity closes and all of you know friends, neighbors and family members that would also be able to benefit from this investment opportunity.

    At a maximum OCEC can still raise up to 4 million in additional equity which would provide a full community project ownership of 49% and we have not given up on that goal. In that case Prowind would reduce their ownership to 41% to allow Six Nations to participate as a Limited Partner.

    The next big milestone we are waiting for is the Notice from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) that the Gunn’s Hill Wind Farm has been given REA approval. We have been waiting for this announcement since August 2014 but were made aware that the Ontario elections last year would delay the approval process. All questions from the ministry have been addressed and we received confirmation in February that no further questions are outstanding. We are expecting the REA in the near future. We will apply for the ‘Notice to Proceed’ from the IESO (previously OPA) immediately after REA approval and expect that it will be granted within 15 business days. We anticipate that the REA decision will be appealed and that we will have to go through an Environmental Review Tribunal process. We will of course continue to offer open dialog to any community members that are concerned about the Project as we have done before.

    The most exciting goal is of course the start and completion of construction. We are still hopeful that the majority of the construction will be completed in 2015 so that we can combine our next AGM with a site visit of the Gunn’s Hill Wind farm.

    Acknowledgements

    Your board of directors has agreed to continue to work as a volunteer board for the time being until we can ensure that director remunerations will not in any way impact the investor returns. In the financial report you will recognize that this board has always been very budget conscious. Using a virtual office as a mailing address, creating almost all of our marketing material ourselves and the pro bono work of your directors are examples of this cost down attitude.

    I also want to recognize the work of the outgoing directors. This is the team that made this Co-op what it is today and I will give special attention to this point later in the program

    The challenges are there in the coming year. This is a reality. Another reality is that OCEC is positioned to meet those challenges head on. Today, the Oxford Community Energy Co-op is a very good Co-operative and tomorrow we can be a truly great organization. That’s why I am optimistic about where we are and where we are going.

    Thank you very much

    Closing Remarks

    I want to thank all the members that made their way to this first Annual General meeting. The new board of directors wants to thank you for the trust you are putting in us and we will make sure to do our absolute best to honor this trust by governing this Co-op on your behalf 

  • Saturday, February 21, 2015 11:39 AM | Helmut Schneider (Administrator)

    Please see the recently published YouTube video coverage of the Woodstock Sustainable Energy Expo event.

    We would like to thank Adam Nyp and Joe Daponte for their work and creative thinking on this video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVk9d51zyFA

    The event was a great success from the perspective of attendance, presentations and quality of questions. Those in attendance really seemed to be engaged and determined to learn about conservation and renewable energy technologies.

    A special thanks to Dr. Jose Etcheverry for sharing his passion and enthusiasm for a more sustainable energy future in Ontario.


    Please see Woodstock Hydro's  

    We hope to continue with more public outreach events this year and will be sure to keep you informed as these programs take shape.

    Here are a few links related to media coverage of the events:

    http://www.1047.ca/news/local-news/sustainable-energy-roundtable/

    http://www.1047.ca/news/local-news/sustainable-energy-expo/

    http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2015/01/22/back-to-the-future-is-the-theme-at-woodstocks-sustainable-energy-expo

    https://twitter.com/1047HeartFM/status/558581692437635072

  • Friday, January 30, 2015 3:54 PM | Christine Koenig

    On January 29th, at the annual Powering Prosperity Gala hosted by OSEA the Oxford Community Energy Co-operative was awarded the prestigious Community Project of the Year price! Helmut Schneider, OCEC's President, accepted the award presented by Nicole Risse, OSEA's Director of Finance & Operations. Shortly before the awards ceremony the ~ 300 gala guests were shown the OCEC video produced by turbine supplier Senvion and responded with a spontaneous applause at the end of the video.

    Alongside awarded with OCEC was SolarShare one of Ontario's first and largest non-for-profit solar energy co-operatives.

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