Six Nations of Grand River Territory – Six Nations Elected Council is pleased to announce the launch of community engagement to determine community support for the SunEdison Welland Ridge (City of Welland) and Norfolk Bloomsburg (Norfolk County) Solar Projects.

These two projects will each generate 10 megawatts each in renewable energy which will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority under the Feed in Tariff (FIT) program. The projects will be owned and operated by SunEdison. The Norfolk Bloomsburg project commenced operation in May 2014 and the Welland Ridge project is currently under construction. The Community Benefits include a one-time Royalty Payment of $432,392.73 based on the net present value of $2000/MW over 20 years using a 7.14% discount rate.

The community engagement process has been designed to educate the Six Nations community about the financial, economic, and environmental impact associated with the projects, and provides a community wide mechanism to gather feedback that will help guide the Six Nations Elected Council now and in the future.

The community engagement process will run from October 20th to November 21st, 2014. There will be one community meeting scheduled for October 23rd, which will include a free dinner! The community meeting will provide further information and will include the opportunity for community members to have one-on-one discussions with staff. At this time, there will also be details on the formation of the Trust that will be administering the funds from these agreements. The remainder of the engagement period will remain open to field comments and questions from the community.