About
The Ontario Sustainable
Energy Association
(OSEA)

The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) was established in 2001 as a non-partisan, member-based, non-profit dedicated to advancing a sustainable energy economy in Ontario. OSEA has built a reputation for credibility, technical analysis and consensus building among stakeholders through its long history of advocacy and removing barriers to growth for Ontario’s sustainable energy industry. OSEA has become an influential advocate for energy efficiency, climate mitigation and sustainable communities.

OSEA has contributed to critical policies and milestone legislation affecting the sustainable energy industry in Ontario over the past two decades. For example, OSEA was instrumental in the development of Ontario’s Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) launched by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in 2006. As a founding member of the Green Energy Act Alliance in 2008, OSEA created a coalition—comprising farmers, First Nations, union workers and environmentalists—and played a pivotal role in the development of the Feed-in tariff (FIT) program launched in 2009.

OSEA has been a longstanding champion of community power, where community residents have a significant stake in the ownership, development and control. In 2007, OSEA launched the Community Power Fund to provide grants to Ontario communities for power generation projects, which included rural and indigenous communities. OSEA subsequently created the Community Power Services Group to assist these communities in the early-stage development of renewable energy initiatives. 

OSEA is an important industry connector among a wide variety of sustainable energy stakeholders to promote dialogue and create new platforms to elevate promising new clean technologies and companies. For example, OSEA collaborated with the World Wind Energy Association to jointly host the 7^th Annual World Wind Energy Conference, an international exhibition that showcased community power in Kingston, Ontario, in 2008. OSEA followed up by hosting three subsequent Community Power conferences and an “All Energy” conference in 2014. 

In order to recognize successful projects and industry leaders in the sustainable energy sector, OSEA launched its first “Powering for Prosperity” gala events in 2011, and subsequently hosted seven additional gala events. In 2012, OSEA launched the Green Energy Doors Open™ (GEDO) to showcase promising new clean technologies and companies in Ontario. GEDO has become OSEA’s signature annual event that gathers sustainable energy stakeholders and recognizes Ontario companies with promising clean technologies by showcasing the winners from different sustainable energy sectors. In 2021, GEDO showcased winners in up to ten distinct sustainable energy areas. Additional information can be found here.

OSEA plays another critical role in the sustainable energy industry as a designated Intervenor status with the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), held since 2016.  As an Intervenor, OSEA is permitted to actively participate in OEB meetings, which it does with the assistance of Willms & Shier LLP, in order to remove barriers to growth for sustainable energy companies and to ensure a greener and healthier community for Ontario residents. For more detailed information about OSEA’s filings with OEB, click here.