Led by dedicated community volunteers in collaboration with the Biosphere Institute, the Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative seeks to make community renewable energy generation projects a reality in Canmore, Banff, and the Municipal District of Bighorn.

Community renewable energy generation projects are owned and managed by local citizens. Not only do they change how electricity is generated — via renewable sources — but also how it is controlled. With these projects local residents become owners instead of large utility companies.

Through our “Canmore Community Solar” feasibility study, the Biosphere Institute laid the groundwork for the creation of the Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative (BVGEC) in 2019.

 
 

We facilitated a series of workshops from the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association, providing interested community members with the opportunity to learn about how to create and manage a local renewable energy cooperative.

Several workshop participants subsequently began meeting weekly with Biosphere Institute staff. These enthusiastic community volunteers soon formed the steering committee for a community-based renewable energy cooperative. They began to assess and prioritize opportunities for small-scale solar installations on residential and commercial properties in and near Canmore.

The Biosphere Institute now serves on Bow Valley Green Energy’s Board of Directors and is actively collaborating with its founders to make solar and other forms of renewable energy more accessible to all who live in the Bow Valley, regardless of their financial capacity, house ownership or property location.

Bow Valley Green Energy broke ground on its first community-owned and -managed solar installation in the summer of 2021, in Canmore. In collaboration with the Biosphere Institute, the Cooperative undertook a community-wide membership drive in the late spring and summer of 2021.

 
 

We’re using community renewable energy generation, or community generation, to inspire collective action to reduce local emissions.

Community generation initiatives are renewable energy projects financed, owned, and managed by residents. Our partner, Bow Valley Green Energy Cooperative (BVGEC), uses a unique ‘micro-generation model’ to give community members an opportunity to collaboratively invest in large power generation - in this case, our project will install solar power on a community building in Calgary.

Using this installation as a hub, we will directly reduce local emissions, educate Calgarians about community generation and the benefits of renewable energy, and work to expand BVGEC membership and investment.

 
 
 

solar installation

The Biosphere Institute and BVGEC have collaborated to install solar photovoltaic panels on the Temple B’nai Tikvah in Calgary. This demonstration project will be Calgary's first community generation project, partially financed by community funds under the Micro-Generation Regulations 2018. We installed interpretive signage and hosted open houses and a “Switching On” event to introduce the project to the community.

education campaign

A broad, multimedia education campaign was launched to dispel myths about renewable energy, promote community generation as a viable and accessible option to address the energy transition, and to inspire memberships in BVGEC.

By using an interactive educational approach, also worked to build relationships and identify future potential community generation host sites.

community generation - The Micro-generation model

We created an open source ‘guide to community generation’ detailing the journey of forming a community generation initiative using the Micro-generation model, in Alberta. By collaborating as co-ops, we can build capacity in order to encourage more renewable electricity generation and inspire a cultural shift to empower residents to control and profit from energy production.

This project was supported by grants and in-kind support from the following organizations:

 

Community Generation in Alberta,

The Micro-generation Model.

 
 

Are you interested in facilitating the transition to renewable energy in your community?

Welcome to the open-source ‘guide to community generation’, which details how to form a community generation initiative using a unique Micro-generation model in Alberta.

This manual is designed to introduce you to the concept of Community Generation. It makes a case study of the Bow Valley Green Energy Co-operative’s (BVGEC) journey. BVGEC is an Alberta-based community generator that the Biosphere Institute has supported from its humble beginnings.

This information is intended to help develop new renewable energy projects within the built environment.

As part of this manual, we have gathered together a series of useful templates and reference documents that we have locked behind a password to protect the intellectual property contained within. To access them, please complete the short request form below, and we will send you the password subject to verification.

In the true spirit of Co-operatives, we have not created this manual as a stand-alone resource. Along with this guide, and by specific request, comes an ‘in-person’ support team. When you are ready to take your idea from concept to reality, BVGEC and the Biosphere are standing by and ready to answer your questions. To take advantage of this opportunity, please complete the short request form below, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

By collaborating as co-ops, we look to increase the amount of renewable electricity contributing to the Alberta grid by sharing our experiences and lessons learned and building on local investments to create regional partnerships.

This manual was supported by grants and in-kind support from the following organizations:

 
 

From concept to reality …

In 2020, the Biosphere Institute, in partnership with the Bow Valley Green Energy steering committee and outside consultants in law, social finance, business, solar energy, and marketing, proposed to incorporate and launch BVGEC and prepare it to accept investments in an initial community-run solar installation in the Bow Valley.

This process involved the prioritization of three solar project sites from a shortlist of 12 sites. KCP Energy was contracted to develop a project plan for each site, including a structural assessment of the facilities on which solar panels would be installed, design of electrical systems, and financial modelling of estimated costs and returns.

This project was made possible through an Investment Readiness Program grant from Community Foundations of Canada funded by the Government of Canada’s SI/SF Strategy and the Banff Canmore Community Foundation.

 
 

Where it all began …  

In 2019, the Biosphere Institute undertook a feasibility study into opportunities for community generation projects within Canmore. We worked with a local solar company, KCP Energy, to identify and assess residential, commercial, and industrial rooftops that would be suitable for solar panel installation in Canmore. We also assessed several properties in the neighbouring Municipal District of Bighorn. We estimated the number of panels possible per property, how much electricity could be generated, what it might cost, and how the panels would connect to Alberta’s electricity grid.

We simultaneously reached out to property owners to understand their interest in renting out their rooftops or other space for solar panel installation. We began working with the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association to understand how to create a successful, local renewable energy generation cooperative to manage a community solar installation.

In February 2020, we invited community members to an open house to describe the results of the feasibility study. The entire event was recorded and is available for viewing on our YouTube channel by clicking the button below.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This project was supported by grants from the following organizations: