RESCo Energy Inc.

RESCo Energy Inc. is proud to support the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. Shawn Speed, VP of Purchasing and Installation, has been Certified in Knowledge by NABCEP.

NABCEP is the national certification organization for professional installers in the field of renewable energy in the United States and is recognized in many other jurisdictions for its rigorous training and certification standards.

As we understand it, the ground breaking Feed-In Tariff program in Ontario is to be launched as early as next Tuesday, Sept 8th. With only a final legal review and translation to go, the program is now set and ready for launch. All consultations are concluded and all program documents are in final draft. Local content requirements have also been finalized and will be disclosed at the program launch.

A big congratulations to the folks who have lead to this success including, but in no way limited to, Deb Doncaster, Paul Gipe, Jose Etcheverry, Mike Brigham, the Community Power Fund, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, Environmental Defence, the First Nations Energy Alliance, Marion Fraser, The Toronto Renewable Energy Co-op, Pembina, the Ivey Foundation, and The David Suzuki Foundation.

Of course an enormous congratulations to Minisiter Smitherman and his team (Jordan, Jennifer, Yuri, et al) for the relentless pursuit of excellence in government policy and the satisfying of stakeholders while creating the most progressive jurisdiction in North America for the development of renewable energy.

A large round of applause goes to the great work of Jim McDougal and his team and colleaugues at the Ontario Power Authority for launching the RESOP program and then following it up with a fundamental shift in the procurement of green power.

RESCo Energy joined a coordinated global campaign by prominent corporate leaders on the critical topic of climate change by signing onto the Copenhagen Communique.

On the 22nd of September the Secretary-General of the United Nations will be gathering more than 100 world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York City for a negotiation session, which will serve as the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen Communiqué will be presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a global media event at the UN General Assembly. The Communiqué has achieved international credibility and is gaining momentum toward its objective of securing 500 high profile corporate signatories across the G20.

As part of our commitment to Habitat for Humanity affliates, Fidel Reijerse and Shawn Speed spent a day building with the Macomb County affliate in Michigan. The weather was great and the volunteers and staff were amazing! It was a great pleasure to build alongside the partner family. The affliate was celebrating their 50th build - congratulations!

RESCo proudly supports affliates in Toronto, Mississauga and the Detroit area through the volunteer activities of our senior staff.

Just when it seems that we will see more solar projects up, those that are in the City of Toronto and are in permit have to idle while the strike continues. This compounds issues around rebates that time limits set on them. It seems that for all the good intentions, bureaucracy continues to tangle the development of the industry. City staff were already short staffed on renewable projects resulting in delays getting out approved loans and delivering projects. In spite of this, Toronto and its dedicated and enthusiastic staff remain huge proponents of renewable projects. Now, if we could just have that committment translate into reduced barriers and challenges.

Fidel Reijerse, President of RESCo Energy Inc., joined the Ontario Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, George Smitherman, Burlington Mayor Cam Jackson and Burlington Hydro Electric Inc. today in announcing the Official Launch of a GridSmartCity™. The new program will showcase how smart grids integrate electricity production, and delivery and consumption to produce a more efficient, reliable and responsive system that is better for the environment.

The launch was at Mountain Equipment Co-ops Burlington Store that boasts a solar thermal and photovoltaic concentrating array as part of a design/build by RESCo Energy Inc. A number of leading energy industry companies and corporate environmental leaders are among the first organizations to join the GridSmartCity™ Program including, Grant Buchanan, President of S&C Electric, Jack Robertson, President of Elster Canada, Mel Ydreos, Vice President of Union Gas, Scott Leslie, Chief Financial Officer of Menova, Fidel Reijerse, President of RESCO Energy Inc. and Sandy Treagus, Chief Financial Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Last night at Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto there was a celebration of the Green Energy Act currently before the Ontario Legislature. It struck me how appropriate the venue was especially as Denis Hayes (the founder of Earth Day) was addressing the crowd. Along with David Suzuki and Preben Maegaard, Denis provided a context rich in history and a vision filled with direction. That is the material of convocation speeches. Though Denis didn’t get the standing ovation that Suzuki got (and deserved), I thought he took the time to impart the wisdom that four decades in the environmental movement while leading major US reseach instutions truly demonstrated how the industry had grown, become educated, and was poised to take on the world.

We sit on the verge of the first North American feed-in tariff program. One that rivals those that perfected it in Europe. This morning at a subsequent event, John Geesmann, the former California Energy Commissioner, echoed that all jusidictions are now recognizing this is the Best Practice - the most cost effective way to get renewables into the mix.

To all those in the ‘Green Graduating Class of 2009′ in Ontario may all your hard work pay off going forward!

This new movie, produced and narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio is an appropriate follow-up to the Inconvenient Truth. As with Al Gore’s movie, the point seems to be to raise the common knowledge associated with climate change, and serves to reinforce these concepts through the use of many talking heads.

It is limited in terms of new material. However, the information is presented in context, and they did a particularly good job of getting across the unsustainability of constant growth in a fixed biosphere.

Where it lacks, is in the presentation of solutions.

It does however, present Leo as “Gore 2.0″ when it comes to raising the public awareness of the causes and challenges of climate change.

Yesterday, at ECCO 2007, the pundit’s panel responded to my question on where they see the major paradigm shifts in global energy and climate change. I was interested, not in the areas of improvement, but the true breakthroughs that are often found when there is extreme need and pressure.

Louise Comeau, (Exec. Dir., Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity) pointed directly to our business, saying that she sees buildings as the ‘new spine’ for energy generation, where buildings are no longer consumers even at the net-zero level, but generators - helping to support local need through distributed generation. You can imagine how happy that made me! This was backed up by Tyler Hamilton (Energy Reporter,Toronto Star).

Tyler added that storage was also going to be critical as it would allow renewables to respond as needed. Tyler also identified cheap carbon sequestration. Dan Gagnier (Chair, Int’l Institute for Sustainable Development) concurred on the cheap carbon sequestration and pointed to the ability to use inert anode methods in the production of aluminum as another major shift in energy use. Dr. Stuart Smith (Former Chair, National Roundtable on the Env. and Economy) took a more global position suggesting that due to the extreme future pressures for clean water, desalination would create an enormous energy demand that would benefit from safe, small nuclear generation.

Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto has invited those who played a role in the design, construction, and management of their green features to be on-site during Doors Open. MEC both leads and educates when it comes to helping the environment, and this is another example of MEC helping others better understand how they, too, can make a difference in their buildings. RESCo Energy and Menova Energy will be on-site to profile MEC’s 2007 project – the installation of the first solar photovoltaic and thermal generating system in Toronto.  MEC will be providing tours of their green roof as well. MEC expects approximately 4,000 people to visit the store that weekend, of which 700 will get a chance to see the green roof. For more information go here.