Bear Mountain Wind Park: Renewable Energy and Investor Communications - Dissertation Example

The Peace Energy Cooperative is an education and investment cooperative that promotes the development of renewable energy and looks for investments to make these developments happen while making a return on investment for their member investors. Their only investment to date has been the Bear Mountain Wind Park, described below, although they are also involved with research and development with several other concerns. PEC boasts 400 members from coast to coast, with most of the members coming from the British Columbia area, particularly the Peace River district of British Columbia. Membership is open, and everybody is welcome to join. The amount of investment in the project is not public information, and the financials are only available to members.
The Bear Mountain Wind Park (BMWP) is an electricity generation plant located in the Peace River district in British Columbia (B.C.), Canadian-owned by Bear Mountain Wind Limited Partnership (LP), which commenced operations on August 6, 2009. With a total generation capacity of 102 megawatts (MW), BMWP has 34 Enercon turbines with individual generation capacities of three MW each (Canwea, 2010). The project consists of wind turbines, access roads, a transmission network, and a substation located 16 kilometers (km) away from the main station. The project was funded at the cost of $200 million by the Eco-Energy for Renewable Power, a project of the Canadian government (Government of Canada, 2010). In a document, created by Hemmera Envirochem Incorporated (2006) for Bear Mountain Wind LP it was stated: "The Project is proposed to become a valuable contributor towards achieving Canada’s legal commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. One of the objectives of the protocol is to provide a cleaner environment and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and wind energy is a clean, renewable form of energy production" (p. 17).