AN
ENERGY
AND
SUSTAINBILITY
FOCUSED
ADVISORY FIRM
excelling
in strategic
project
development
Meridian Sustainability Partners is a boutique energy and sustainability focused advisory firm that works with Indigenous communities, municipalities, and private firms.
Our strategic project development and management services can help your organization generate revenue and reduce energy costs by planning and developing a renewable energy project.
Meridian can investigate multiple renewable energy sources to find the best option, evaluate a project’s financial viability, navigate challenging regulatory frameworks, and help you take action to reach your organization’s sustainability goals. Our team will help take your project from an idea, all the way to an operating facility.
Our multi-disciplinary team has a rich breadth of experience garnered from experience in both Canadian and International Markets, working with large, publicly traded renewable energy finance, installation and construction companies in the U.S.A., as well as international banks and private equity firms.
determined
to make a more
sustainable
and renewable
world.
WHO WE WORK WITH:
Corporate electricity buyers
indigenous communities
and municipalities.
WHAT WE DO BEST:
A renewable energy project can have multiple benefits for your organization or community including energy cost savings or long term revenue from electricity sales, job creation in the growing clean energy sector, reducing the carbon footprint and, and the pride that comes with making a difference. We help leaders study, plan, and develop community-scale renewable energy projects from an idea stage into an operating project. We then facilitate partners between industry and the community to get a project financed and built.
We take your organization's GREEN ENERGY & CARBON REDUCTION GOALS and help make them a reality.
SOLAR
WIND
HYDRO
GEOTHERMAL
BATTERY STORAGE
LOCAL BENEFITS OF COMMUNITY SCALE RENEWABLE ENERGY
REDUCE EMISSIONS
INVESTMENT CREATION
Local, green energy projects reduce emissions by offsetting power production from more carbon heavy sources and by siting the supply closer to the demand.
Going green isn’t just good for the environment, its a good investment. Renewable energy is a safe and secure investment that offers healthy returns.
JOB CREATION
Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing job creators in the world. Creating more jobs in your community can help make a prosperous community throughout.
ENERGY PRODUCTION
Local power, local benefits, local change, and the pride of community ownership.
Plus the ability to harness local renewable energies.
WHERE WE BRING VALUE:
ACCESSING GRANTS
OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT FINANCING
NAVIGATING REGULATIONS
There are numerous grant opportunities to support your community’s green energy ambitions. Meridian can help you find and successfully win grants to improve your project’s economic viability.
Decision makers must have the key facts to properly consider questions of “Is it possible?” and “Is it financially viable?” Let Meridian’s experienced team lead you through this process to assess your project idea’s economic and technical viability.
Planning power projects requires a multi-disciplinary understanding of the energy resource, the technology, the financial considerations, and the regulatory framework that governs a project’s development. Meridian’s experienced team has developed expertise from international experience developing projects with some of the largest and most experience renewable energy companies in the world.
Proper planning, corporate structuring and assessment of risks from an early planning stage is crucial to raising money to build your project. Meridian’s team has successfully raised millions in financing for renewable energy projects and can help successfully finance your community scale project.
Conducting the necessary studies and acquiring the necessary approvals from various regulatory bodies is a crucial part of developing an energy project. Our team is knowledgeable and well versed in the changing energy policies to ensure your project gets the approvals required without major delays.
OUR TEAM & EXPERIENCE:
RYAN DICK~Project Development Team
The lead project developer and Principal of Meridian Sustainability Partners, Mr. Ryan Dick is an experienced international project developer, consultant, and entrepreneur who has worked in South America, the United States, and Canada in the renewable energy sector. As an entrepreneur in Ecuador, his company Radical Energy originated, developed, raised capital for, and negotiated two power purchase agreements with the federal government for a 30 MW and a 20 MW solar project. Radical Energy sold these projects to an international consortium of investors and a large energy and aerospace EPC company. Having worked with the Ecuadorian Federal government, a local Indigenous community, several international development banks, and an international EPC company, Ryan gained invaluable experience.
Afterward, Mr. Dick worked in Silicon Valley and San Francisco for two large solar finance and construction companies including Sunrun and Borrego Solar Systems Inc. Mr. Dick has worked on multiple projects in clean technology, geothermal, solar, and energy policy space for both large companies and startups. Ryan has provided energy advisory and project planning services to more than a dozen communities including helping the MD of Greenview to plan a geothermal project and win a 25 million dollar emerging renewable power program grant from the Federal Government’s Natural Resource department in 2019. Meridian Sustainability Partners is working with multiple First Nation and Métis Settlement clients on renewable energy projects and community energy plans..
Ryan is also a member of the Alberta Indigenous Electricity Technical Working Group which convenes monthly with the goal of furthering Métis and First Nation involvement in the renewable energy sector as investors, developers, and active participants in Alberta’s growing green energy space. This board’s members are a mix of Indigenous technical leadership from multiple communities, as well as executive-level participation from the Government of Alberta’s AUC, AESO, AEP, Department of Energy, and Indigenous Services Canada. Ryan is also on the Board of Directors for Geothermal Canada.
Ryan has a Master of Science in sustainable energy development and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary and University of Alberta, respectively.
Alejandro Cisneros~ P.Eng, M.Sc. ~Project Development Team
Alejandro is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Alberta, with an M.Sc degree in sustainable energy development, an Industrial Engineering degree, and a NABCEP Solar PV Associate.
In various roles as Project Manager and Engineering Manager, Alejandro has designed more than 50 MW of solar PV projects at the residential, commercial and utility-scale in the USA and Canada. Alejandro boasts experience working for multiple solar EPCs, including acting as the Project Manager / Lead Designer for Solar Energy International Professional Services. He is an expert in PVSyst, Helioscope, PVWatts that are crucial to project feasibility analysis and design.
As an associate, Alejandro works with Meridian Sustainability as the Engineering Manager.
Mr. Cisneros also does project management and leads a design team at Solar Energy International. In recognition of his quality solar design work, he received the Spirit of Winnipeg Award in the Energy and Environmental category.
MARIA JOSE~Project Development Team
Maria started her career in environmental conservation working in watershed management in the Amazon, where she studied the impact that hydroelectric powerplants, mining, oil production, and agriculture have on freshwater ecosystems.
She later joined the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C., where she worked on sustainability projects with the private sector. She holds a BSc in Biology from Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador and is currently studying at the University of Oxford where she is in the process of obtaining a MSc in Environmental Change and Management.
Maria leads Meridian Sustainability’s environmental efforts to ensure
client’s projects minimize environmental degradation.
DAVE FRASER~Project Development Team
Dave Fraser is an experienced professional in the electricity generation sector in Alberta with a long career working with EPCOR / Capital Power (formerly Edmonton Power). Dave served as the Executive Vice President of Operations for Epcor for 12 years. After retiring from EPCOR, Dave continued working as a consultant in business strategy, change management, and governance. Dave’s vast electrical generation expertise in Alberta is an asset to both Meridian Sustainability and it’s clients.
GLENN FAASS~Advisory Team
Glenn is a seasoned veteran with enormous expertise in energy project finance law, garnered over decades of international experience in the world’s most important energy markets as a Senior Partner for one of the world's leading energy law firms, Norton Rose Fulbright, until he retired in 2016.
Glenn’s highly valuable insights as an advisor to Meridian help the firm identify
and mitigate project risks and ensure successful project financing.
Communication and Associations
2019 Alberta Power Symposium
Harnessing the Economic Potential of Indigenous Power Project Partnerships — Panel
Meridian Sustainability Partners' Ryan Dick spoke alongside Brookfield Renewable's David Ewing about harnessing the economic potential of Indigenous power project partnerships at the 2019 Alberta Power Symposium in Calgary alongside Canada's largest project developers, power companies, and regulatory agency leaders.
Business Renewable Centre Canada
(Member) Simplifying and Accelerating Large-Scale Renewable Energy Use Across Canada.
Meridian Sustainability gains access to an expanding suite of tools and resources, along with an annual member-only summit and training opportunities, to aid renewable energy purchases for Canadian organizations. We belong to a community committed making renewable energy a healthy part of Canada today.
630 CHED- Ryan Jespersen Show
The State of Solar: is using the sun for power a self-sustaining industry?
Meridian Sustainability Partners' Ryan Dick discusses the renewable energy industry and energy policy in Alberta.
Episode
