Renewing rural communities' energy

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Wind farms could help rural communities while providing a sound investment, farmer Dan Mazier says. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

Dan Mazier doesn't recall hearing the word "struggle" associated with maintaining the local community hall as he searches through his childhood memory bank.

"I didn't hear the word growing up, but I seem to be hearing it now," the 47-year-old Forrest-area farmer says.

As a small farmer in an economies-of-scale industry, Mazier is well aware of the need to adapt to changing economic times, either by ramping up the size of the operation, diversifying or finding off-farm employment. Likewise for communities, where the struggle for survival intensifies as more people are pushed from the rural landscape.

To Mazier's way of thinking, the future looks pretty bleak unless communities can come up with a better model for economic development.

"Our whole economic development plan is about competition -- who can give away the most," Mazier says. "To me, that's not a good model to be working under."

Much of the economic activity on the rural landscape today is about extracting value from the resource base -- whether that's the land or a community enterprise -- and sending it elsewhere. Even when manufacturing or processing investment is attracted, it is often lured to a specific location with infrastructure or financial incentives, and the profits are exported to shareholders outside of the area.

In the process, wealth is disconnected from Manitoba-based enterprise, people are disconnected from the landscape and communities are disconnected from each other.

Mazier sees renewable energy as a means of re-establishing those linkages.

He first got involved in discussions with Manitoba Hydro back in the days when the publicly owned utility was initially exploring the potential for generating electricity from wind power in Manitoba. Since then, two wind farms have been established on the Manitoba landscape, both based on an out-of-area investment and profit-extraction model.

A group of interested western Manitobans formed the Elton Energy Co-operative in 2006 to investigate the potential for renewable energy developments in the Rural Municipality of Elton, located just north of Brandon. A two-year pilot project proved the wind energy is out there to be harvested.

The idea has since evolved into a business model that would see a commercial-scale wind energy project based on a network of smaller, regionally dispersed wind projects producing 50 megawatts of community-based power.

What makes this concept unique, however, is the investment would come from Manitobans and the returns would flow back to them and their chosen communities.

For a relatively small investment -- $1,000 to $2,500 -- and based on a conservative estimate of rates of return in existing wind-energy projects, an investor would see a 12-per-cent return, with five per cent of that designated for supporting local projects in the community.

It could go to anything from the local hockey rink to youth scholarships or other development opportunities.

The actual wind tower projects could be as small as two to three turbines, making them less likely to spark opposition in the areas where they are located. But because they would be part of a larger network, co-ordinated by a provincewide renewable energy co-operative, the project could achieve the same economies of scale as the outside investor-driven wind farms currently in operation.

"It's not going to break the bank if a bunch of us got together," Mazier said.

Even if the project wasn't situated in their home community, investors could designate their contributions to the community of their choice.

Some would argue mixing investment opportunities with ethics, such as community economic development, is a bad idea that simply won't fly with venture capitalists.

But that's not who Mazier is targeting. He's banking on people like himself, who like living in rural communities and hate what's happening to them.

"As long as they know they aren't being taken advantage of, again, it's surprising how much money they have to give to a cause," he said. "It gives people a tool to give back to their community, if they want."

It also gives Manitobans a more direct connection to the energy utility that they own and cuts into the $2.5 billion to $3 billion that leaves the province each year to pay for non-renewable energy imports. That's close to $2,500 for every person in the province.

But before the Elton Energy Co-operative can even put a pilot project on the table to gauge the level of investment interest, it needs a commitment from the Manitoba government that Manitoba Hydro will buy the power.

Jurisdictions across North America have come up with renewable-energy strategies. Where is Manitoba's?

Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator. She can be reached at 792-4382 or by email: laura@fbcpublishing.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 19, 2011 B11