Heavy equipment and bins are now staged at the city of Medicine Hat's solar-thermal energy facility located above the city's main river valley power plant. This spring the city called for proposals to decommission the plant that cost close to $13 million to build and was used to preheat water in steam-driven turbines.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat’s experimental solar-thermal facility’s days are numbered, the News has learned, as city utility department plans to dismantle and reclaim the site in October.
Machinery bins were visible near the mirror arrays on Friday, and administrators say work will progress as soon as utility regulators sign off on the decommissioning.
“We look forward to repurposing the site in the future,” said utility commissioner Brad Maynes.
Last year the city announced it was seeking proposals from other utilities or companies in need of heat-production or the equipment to purchase and take away the structure built eight years ago at a cost of $13 million.
In June they cancelled that process and officials now say they will manage the demolition internally.
What can be recycled or sold will be, said Maynes, while stressing local contractors will be involved.
The facility was built as a three-way partnership between the city utility, and provincial and federal innovation agencies.
Each was responsible for one third the original $9-million cost, but the city paid overruns when costs rose while installing and certifying the high-pressure system that was new to northern climates.
The required period to operate and monitor data in the grant agreements expired in 2019, and administrators said since the project proved uneconomical compared to lower cost natural gas heating, it should be wound down.
The system uses huge mirrors to concentrate sun rays and heat brine that is pumped to the main steam turbine at the main power plant below the site.
Most solar projects are “photovoltiac,” meaning panels produce electricity directly.
