Community wind energy co-op gains momentum

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This article was published 25/04/2011 (5379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A community-based renewable energy source continues to brew in Westman.

The Elton Energy Co-op, now in its sixth year, is another step closer to seeing its dream — a community-based wind farm model — take flight.

A meteorological tower in the RM of Elton has been collecting wind data since June 2009. The two-year test period wraps up in June so right now, armed with a year worth of hard data, EEC chairperson and Justice-area producer Dan Mazier is busy spreading word of the proposed pilot project

"Having the quality-controlled wind data is golden … we’ve hired a developer and we can start talking to Manitoba Hydro about hard numbers like how much power are we going to produce, what sort of turbines are you going to buy," Mazier told the Sun.

"We’re at that interconnect stage and once that’s figured out, we’ll know what it’s going to cost and then go after a power-purchasing agreement."

During the final day of the Manitoba Capturing Opportunities Conference last week at the Keystone Centre, Mazier shared a 30-minute presentation — "Who Can Catch the Wind? Building a Community Power Program."

The presentation was centred around how a locally-owned wind farm of two or three turbines could be constructed and its benefits to investors, communities and long-term rural economic development.

Since the community-based energy concept sprouted up in 2005, Mazier says one of the co-op’s largest obstacles has been combating the perception that Manitoba is energy self-sufficient, producing more hydroelectricity than it can use.

"(Manitoba) still uses 70 per cent of energy from non-renewable energy … the bottom line is it equates to $3 billion a year leaving our province," he said.

The co-op-owned wind farm model would allow local members of the community to buy into the project and see a return on their investment — estimated by Mazier to start around five per cent for individual investors on a $2,500 share.

"That’s three and four times more dollars coming back into our communities," he said. "And giving our communities the tools available to put that money back into the community for rural development."

Town residents and interested investors would join what Mazier called a Community Power Investment Fund, which would be responsible for handling the accounts and paying the bills for construction of turbines.

This model would encourage communities to co-ordinate with each other in both support and information-sharing, something large corporations like Manitoba Hydro or large wind companies don’t care to do, Mazier said.

The EEC model would also have communities share expertise in the wind energy field, and would provide Manitoba Hydro with one customer to deal with, instead of several individual communities.

The community-based model is active in Europe — it accounts for 45 per cent of energy production in Germany and 83 per cent in Denmark.

"In North America only four per cent is locally owned," Mazier said.

"Our studies show us that something has to change. Wind is feasible. It’s feasible all over the world so it certainly has to be feasible in Manitoba."