DUNNVILLE—Rosa Flora Growers Limited is exploring a new cogeneration project that could supply electricity to Ontario’s grid as part of the province’s Long-Term 2 Request for Proposals (LT2-RFP), a program of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
The greenhouse operation hosted its first public information session on October 6, 2025 at its Plant 4 boardroom in Dunnville, where co-owner Ralph DeBoer introduced the proposed project and fielded questions from neighbours and community members.
A second session will be held on October 17.
DeBoer explained that the LT2-RFP is designed to identify sites across Ontario that can generate new, reliable electricity to meet the province’s growing demand.
“The IESO is basically the group in Ontario that oversees sequestering new electricity, managing existing electricity, and moving electricity around the province,” he said. “Most of us on a daily basis don’t see or know what the IESO does, but we all appreciate when they do a good job because the lights stay on.”
He said Rosa Flora’s proposed project, called RFGL-PL6-E, would be a 9-megawatt natural-gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) engine housed within the company’s existing Plant 6 building at 717 Diltz Road.
The system would generate both heat and electricity at up to roughly 95% efficiency, with electricity supplied to the grid and the recovered heat used to regulate greenhouse temperatures.
DeBoer said Rosa Flora has decades of experience in this technology.
“We started with some cogeneration already in 1991-92,” he said. “We’ve been co-generating now for almost 35 years. Essentially what combined heat and power is, is the use of natural gas to fire a reciprocating engine that produces two main things – the electricity and the heat – and the beauty of this is that as greenhouses we’re able to potentially use both on one site.”
The project remains in its early planning stage and must still complete Haldimand County’s site-plan approval and zoning processes, as well as the IESO’s evaluation and contract selection stages.
DeBoer said Ontario’s goal is for a mix of small, flexible power sources to support future energy needs: “If the province needs an extra thousand megawatts, and you had a thousand small sites each with a one-megawatt engine, they could be dispatched quickly and the province gets the power it needs,” he said. “It makes your power profile spread out across the province and increases reliability.”
Answering a question about where the power would go, DeBoer explained that energy produced at the Dunnville facility would feed directly into the local grid.
“If we’re pushing out one megawatt of power today on Diltz Road, those electrons will flow out and be used locally first,” he said. “It’s not like I can decide or the province can decide these electrons are going to Timmins – it’s all flowing through our local distribution.”
While the technology would rely on natural gas, DeBoer said greenhouse cogeneration systems make highly efficient use of the fuel.
“Our newest generator sets are between 40 and 45% efficient electrically, and if we strip all of the heat off that engine to heat our greenhouse, we can get another 45 to 50% thermal efficiency,” he said. “So even on the low side, you’re at 85% efficiency, which is super high in the electricity-production world.”
Several neighbours attended the session to ask about noise and infrastructure.
DeBoer said any new engines would be installed in sound-attenuated enclosures within Plant 6 and that visual and noise impacts would be minimal.
“We try to have as much sound attenuation as possible,” he said. “Typically, you get these either packaged in a sound enclosure or built into a building with sound reduction.”
He also noted that Rosa Flora expects to connect to existing three-phase power along Diltz Road using standard pad-mounted transformers.
“You physically need to be connected, of course,” he said. “In our experience it would be a matter of having a low-voltage-to-high-voltage transformation on site and then running to the nearest pole, not building a new station.”
One resident offered his support, saying the system’s efficiency made it “a great idea.”
DeBoer thanked those who attended and emphasized the company’s commitment to transparency and good neighbour relations.
“We work here, we live here,” he said. “I want to drive down Diltz Road and see things looking nice as well.”
Rosa Flora was founded in 1978 by the Bulk family and is now co-owned by Ralph DeBoer and Arielle Bulk-DeBoer. The company is Canada’s largest greenhouse cut-flower grower, producing gerberas, lisianthus, and snapdragons, and has long promoted innovation and environmental stewardship through efficient energy use.
The LT2-RFP process will continue through the end of 2025, with a municipal support resolution expected to come before Council in November. The IESO is expected to award contracts in 2026 as Ontario continues to expand its electricity capacity for future demand.
