Wind Farm Investment

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 at 05:52

Oxford Community Energy Co-operative is now fifty percent to their fundraising goal..

NORWICH TOWNSHIP - Oxford Community Energy Co-operative now has more than 25 percent ownership in the Gunn's Hill Wind Farm project.

This comes as OCEC announces their partnership with Bullfrog Power, a leader in green energy in Canada.

Senior Vice President of Operations at Bullfrog Power, Ron Seftel says the partnership will allow Bullfrog to support another Ontario wind farm through their Bullfrog Builds Renewable Accelerator program.

"We're investing in the bonds which is basically going to go towards the up front capital that is required to build the project."

Seftel adds their contribution is timely in that it contributes to the co-operative achieving 50 percent of their targeted fundraising on the program.

Seftel says they have an initiative called Bullfrog Builds in which they help community based renewable energy initiatives at the very early stages of the project to help them move forward.

"We thought it was a fantastic opportunity to help them out, invest in that project but also, that investment helps local residents get more involved directly with a renewable energy project where they can help contribute to more renewable energy but also, hopefully have a financial benefit by participating in that project."

President of OCEC, Helmet Schneider says the co-op will benefit from the vast number of contacts that Bullfrog Power has built up over time, people who look for opportunities to support the green energy movement.

"We do our banking here in town with a Credit Union because a Credit Union is based on the principals of co-ops so we want to partner with those that support the principals that we have. This is the same way. It's a partnership with an organization that has proven and established themselves as an organization that supports green energy."

Schneider adds the co-op now has 100 members with half of them living in Oxford County.

The Gunn's Hill Wind farm in Norwich Township will include 10 turbines, created 18 megawatts of electricity.