We are the Renewable Sun Energy Co-operative (RSEC).RSEC was first formed in 2015 to participate in Solar PV projects, both ground and rooftop, through Ontario’s Feed in Tariff program. RSEC is part of an upsurge in small renewable energy co-operatives driven by the Feed In Tariff program. Local participation in energy projects not only contribute to the community economically but they also lead to greater awareness and acceptance of renewables as an efficient, resilient, local response to our provinces energy needs.
RSEC represents the intersection of private financing and community benefit through solar energy projects. A percentage of profits from the projects will be returned to the communities for activities determined by the membership. RSEC gives local residents the opportunity to be part of an active renewable energy project portfolio and to have a say in the direction of revenues that result once connection to the grid is accomplished. Co-ops operate on a fundamentally democratic platform. Every member gets 1 vote.
RSEC is structured as an Ontario registered for profit renewable energy co-operative. We are thus governed by the Ontario Co-op Corporations act. Under the Co-op umbrella we have a number of regional chapters established to meet FIT program submissions requirements. In FIT4, we established chapters in Simcoe, Haliburton, and Muskoka. In FIT 5, 2016, we are establishing another chapter in Bruce County. This chapter reflects a regional upper tier municipality as required by the FIT program rules. RSEC needs memberships of a minimum of 50 landowners in these upper tier municipalities to meet FIT program requirements.
Membership in RSEC allows members to benefit from private capital used to fund the projects at no cost to the member. Once the projects are connected to the grid and producing energy, RSEC will see revenues on an annual basis for the 20 years of the FIT contract. These revenues will be called out in the audited annual financial reports and presented to the membership at our Annual General Meeting. These revenues will be brought before the membership for discussion and vote around annual disbursement to community improvement projects.RSEC functions as a business. We have a board of directors, we hold annual general meetings, we audit and report on our financials annually. RSEC conforms to the standardized rules of Co-operative governance.
RSEC works closely with Abundant Solar Energy Inc, a wholly Canadian Owned Solar company based in Toronto, Ontario. Abundant sources the projects, navigates the contract application process, and will ultimately build and operate the solar projects. Abundant currently has 97 projects in development in addition to a portfolio of sites in operation. See www.Abundant.solar
In 2016, Abundant and RSEC applied to the Ontario government (IESO) in FIT4 for 31MW of contracts. Despite a disappointing oversubscription and subsequent loss of some applications, Abundant and RSEC were pleased with the 7.7 MW of awarded contracts. This translated to 19 projects that are currently under development that will benefit the RSEC membership.
Contracts awarded in FIT 4 are attributed to the regional chapters as follows:
Regional Chapter | Total Projects | Total COD | Total Terminated | Total Size COD | Total Size Terminated |
Halliburton | 3 Projects | 0 Project | 3 Projects | 0kw | 70kw |
Simcoe | 14 Projects | 0 Project | 14 Projects | 0kw | 7 MW |
Muskoka | 2 projects | 1 Project | 1 Project | 500kw | 150kw |
Contracts awarded in FIT 5 are attributed to the regional chapters as follows:
Regional Chapter | Total Projects | Total COD | Total Terminated | Total Size COD | Total Size Terminated |
Bruce | 31 Projects | 1 Project | 30 Projects | 500kw | 15 MW |
Simcoe | 7 Projects | 0 Project | 7 Projects | 0kw | 3.5 MW |
In November of 2016 RSEC applied for approximately 20 MW of projects in what will be the last FIT procurement. On September 20th 2017, the IESO posted its FIT5 contract award list. RSEC is pleased to announce that we have been awarded 38 contracts which represents 19 MW of capacity. These RSEC projects, in addition to the FIT5 sites awarded to the Solar Flow Through Fund portfolio of projects will actually assist in making many previously awarded FIT4 sites viable through interconnection cost sharing efforts. This is great news for the RSEC portfolio. Please check the table in the projects tab to see which sites are moving into active development.
Timelines
The awarded FIT 4 project documents were accepted and returned to the IESO in the first week of October, 2016. This allows the projects to move to the first phase of development, finally something to report on!
Creation of RSEC | Nov, 2015 |
FIT4 application | Nov, 2015 |
FIT Contract acceptance | Oct, 2016 |
FIT5 application | Nov 7th, 2016 |
Contracts Terminated by IESO | July 16th, 2018 |
How to join?
Simple just register and pay a $5 registration fee. You can find all the details on our Join Us page.
Renewable energy factoids in Ontario
Did you know that the average home in Ontario uses approx. 12kw of energy a year. We can power just over 40 homes by installing 1 X 500kw array!
Locally generated solar energy contributes to the resiliency of our grid and reduces transmission infrastructure requirements and costs.
FIT program projects are capitalized through private funding NOT you TAX dollar.
How much greenhouse gas does a solar power system replace?
The short answer is: It’s really impossible to say for sure, but a good estimate is little under one tonne per kilowatt of nameplate capacity.
So a 500 kilowatt system will replace around 500 tonnes of greenhouse gases, possibly more. It depends on what your annual output is, and what the local mix of power sources is in your province/state/country.