Version 15, October 2005

---

Welcome to Version 15 of the Breeze

Maturity has more to do with what types of experience you've had, and what you've learned from them, and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated. – Anonymous

This month's Breeze is all about the continued evolution of Positive Power Co-op. It's about: milestones met, accomplishments achieved and plans developed. It's about the maturing of an organization and the growth of its members as they tackle new challenges and develop new skills.

As PPC evolves so too does the newsletter. This month Livio Filice has joined the team to keep us abreast of the Industry News. Wendy Elliott will notify us of new developments on the PPC website.

– Nancy Pyette, Editor

---

In this issue

Milestone Reached
Lake Erie - Cookin'
Happy Birthday to Us!
Events and Co-op News
A New Online Presence
Board Message

---

Milestone Reached

– Jen Heneberry

A successfully negotiated land agreement marks a significant milestone in the evolution of our Flamborough Project. Many people have put large amounts of their time and energy into achieving this goal. A huge step, this signed land agreement gives Positive Power Co-operative access to the Flamborough property and its development rights. This has been a major learning opportunity. In addition to providing us with a template for future projects the outcome of this negotiating process also represents a new level of organizational maturity.

Full steam ahead! Now we proceed confidently over the next 3-6 months with a community investment offering. Planning is underway to define our community share offering. This includes determining the offering price, and the process. Documentation related to these activities will be submitted to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario for approval. The next milestone, approval, will permit PCC to accept money from the community for its projects! More details will be available Wednesday, November 23rd at the Annual General Meeting. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Lake Erie - Cookin'

– Jen Heneberry

Lots of things are happening these days in Lake Erie —and not all of them are associated with the project! Our wind resource assessment continues. PPC celebrated the one-year anniversary of the tower going up over the summer. It was decided that the tower would remain up beyond this point to collect additional data. This extension will likely continue over the winter. The more data we can collect, the better our long-term results and energy production forecasting will be. We are working through the final details of the land agreements. As with the Flamborough project, this will be the next significant milestone for Lake Erie.

The community investment process mentioned in the Flamborough Report will also include financing plans for the Lake Erie Project. This is one time when our activities will reap benefits for both projects simultaneously. The next few months are undoubtedly going to be an exciting time.

Beyond the project work, PPC is involved in other events in the Lake Erie area. We are co-sponsoring, along with Grand Erie Business Centre, The Green Energy Summit. The Summit was held October 24 and 25th. Our involvement offered us a high-profile opportunity to publicize our activities and educate the community about renewable energy.

Finally, the Haldimand County planning office has recently released a draft Official Plan. For the first time this plan includes a section on wind energy developments. This inclusion signals the County's recognition of the benefits it may reap through its support of wind power development. To ensure that our voice is heard in this consultative process, we are preparing a submission to the County in response to this plan.

Happy Birthday to Us!

On October 1st, 2005, Positive Power Co-op celebrated three years working in the Hamilton, Haldimand and Halton communities.

There have been so many accomplishments since our inception in October 2002. We have initiated two wind energy projects. We have completed a year of data collection at each site. We have identified the development costs and next steps for successful construction. We have carried out a number of community educational workshops on renewable energy throughout our supporting communities, and we have been involved in numerous community environmental events. We have successfully advocated to the Provincial government on effective policies that will support community power now and in the future. We have worked with local organizations and politicians to raise the profile of renewable energy. Thanks to you and your continuing support, Positive Power Co-op will be celebrating many more birthdays in the years to come!

Events and Co-op News

This year at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, November 23rd (see the sidebar for details), we have news about the community investment offering. You will learn how you as members and supporters in the community can participate.

The Board Chair and the General Manager will be making reports on the past year, and the audited statements will be presented. Members will be asked to vote on the audited statements, and elect the Board of Directors for 2005/06.

Member sign-up and renewal will take place at the beginning of the evening, and light refreshments will be provided for all attendees. Positive Power Co-op is entering its fourth exciting year, and we hope you will join us on the 23rd to welcome in the next year of our existence.

A New Online Presence

– Wendy Elliott

A Web site is an essential communication tool. Not only does it provide information in text and pictures, its appearance and navigation says a lot about an organization. Until now, PPC's web site has evolved as the needs of the organization grew, but with no overall plan. As a result it was beginning to look cluttered and disorganized. This was not the message that we wanted to send. In the late winter, I offered to assess the site, provide recommendations for a reconstruction, and design a new PPC web site that would meet our needs now and into the future. Presenting my analysis to The Board, I was given the green light to implement a reconstruction plan. Over the spring and summer, Jen Heneberry and I worked to edit the content, pare down text, and reorganize the files more efficiently.

The new layout of the PPC Web site is simple and clean. Material is easier to find, easy to read, and appears well organized. As PPC advances toward making its first public investment offering our new Home page makes a strong statement: Positive Power Co-op knows its business and does it well.

Browse through our new site, (this one!) and judge for yourself.

Board Message

Securing the Flamborough land lease is likely a first for power co-operatives in Ontario. For PPC it represents one of the last big pieces in our project development. Everyone at PPC is indebted to General Manager Jen Heneberry and Directors Mark Lobsinger and Sam DeAth for their time and perseverance to formalize our agreement.

Now we just need development money! This puzzle piece is also falling into place. We have received funding assistance from the Ontario Co-Operatives Association. This enables PPC to hire outside expertise to help build the tools needed to secure the short and medium term financing that will move the project forward.

In addition to our project focus, the board continues to put long-term organizational building blocks in place. Thanks to all our members who attended the volunteer meeting last month. Your contributions to defining specific measurements to our Values, Mission and Vision are invaluable. One of the first tasks of the new Board over the next few months will be to refine the draft that came out of that meeting. The 05/06 Board will take ownership if its implementation.

Finally, as our AGM approaches, I would like to thank our departing Directors who have given their time, energy and passion to PPC. It has been a pleasure working with such a dedicated and committed group of community leaders. PPC is a better, faster and stronger organization because of the talents of:

• Don Brown
• Sam DeAth
• Dan Hall
• Mark Lobsinger
• Jim Salmon
• Roland Vander Straeten
• Ian Wright

My personal thanks to each of you for the friendship, humour and accomplishment that we have shared around the board table this year.

Keep your eyes posted for more updates and plan to join us at our AGM on Wednesday, November 23rd.

with best regards, Curt Hammond