As Grant Arnold strolled down the long rows of black and silver panels at his company’s solar farm near Burdett, a hamlet along Highway 3 in the southeastern corner of Alberta, the October conditions could not have been more ideal for generating clean power. The sun beat down on the 72,500 south-facing solar panels, as a pair of miniature donkeys named Starsky and Hutch kept the facility’s groundskeepers – a herd of a sheep – in line.
Also called the Crowsnest Highway, the road starts at Medicine Hat in the southeast, then extends 324 km through Taber, Lethbridge, Fort Macleod and on past Pincher Creek in the Rocky Mountain foothills. From there it cuts through the Crowsnest Pass and continues west into British Columbia. There’s also a nascent renewable natural gas industry along Highway 3, in which the fuel is generated from agricultural and municipal waste, and plans for increased storage and other technology to level off the variable power supplies from wind and solar.
When BRC was established as an initiative of the Pembina Institute three years ago, it set a daunting target of reaching 2 gigawatts of renewable energy contracted by 2025. Alberta has already surpassed that, after $3.75-billion in spending on new generation. All that activity, the organization says, has created 4,500 jobs. Five deals have been signed this year, adding 333 MW of solar and wind power. More is on tap.
The development has jolted local economies, which suffered with the downturn in oil and gas that began in 2014. Medicine Hat, known historically as The Gas City, has embraced renewables. Across southeastern Alberta, hotels are booked, restaurants are busy and the real estate market is strong, says Jon Sookocheff, economic development consultant with the city government.
“The grid, technically and commercially, facilitates that transaction,” Mr. Arnold, the BluEarth CEO, says during a tour of Burdett. “It’s unique in that it’s the only market in Canada that facilitates that growth if the buyer and seller want to do that, and there are a lot of buyers now. And the only place they can buy that is in Alberta.”
Calgary-based Greengate, in partnership with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is nearing completion of the sprawling 465 MW Travers solar farm in Vulcan County, 60 km north of Highway 3. The project comprises 1.3-million panels and covers 1,300 hectares, more than twice the area of downtown Calgary. E-commerce giant Amazon has signed a contract to buy most the electricity it generates.
'unlikely' Even when Alberta does something right, Canadians need to be told that it's essentially just pure chance, like a broken clock being right twice a day. SovereignAlberta
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Source: CP24 - 🏆 30. / 67 Read more »