Solar power capacity in Alberta has grown tenfold in just over a year, thanks to major new plays coming on line in southern Alberta. The massive growth curve is expected to continue.--CP FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Solar power capacity in Alberta will be 10 times larger than it was a little more than a year ago when two new facilities begin producing electricity later this month.
The Hays and Jenner solar projects will be added to supply trading board of the Alberta Electric System Operator on June 23, it was announced Thursday.
Both plants, located in hamlets of the same names west of Medicine Hat, are owned by Bluearth Renewables and will add 23 megawatts of production capacity each.
That will bring the cumulative solar generating capacity to 336 megawatts, up from just 37 in early 2020.
The rapid growth of the sector has led Alberta’s grid operator to change how it reflects solar-produced power as part of the province’s generation mix.
“It reflects the need for transparency and for people to see exactly what’s happening,” said Mike Deising, communications director for AESO, which will create separate categories for solar, battery storage and dual gas-coal plant conversions.
The figures are used by utility companies to track and forecast production to develop pricing strategies. The general public, academics and other industry groups can track them as well. A Twitter account “Reliable AB Energy” sends out hourly reports about which fuel source is supplying what percentage of Alberta’s power needs.
Currently solar power production is grouped with “other sources” including biomass plants, heat recovery and co-generation facilities.
Those provide the smallest combined portion (aside from interprovincial imports) at 743-megawatts of generating capacity. It is still well behind totals for natural gas facilities (8,400 megawatts), coal (4,700), wind (2,000), and even hydro-electric (900).
Average demand in the province is about 9,200 megawatts, and the all-time high record demand is about 11,200 megawatts.
Right now, owing to its relatively small size, solar power from utility-scale plants can provide about 3 per cent of the province’s maximum production during daylight hours.
But that’s up from zero before 2017, and it will double again over the next 18 to 24 months.
“We have 10 facilities operating right now in the province, and another 13 under construction,” said Deising. “We’re seeing solar projects come into service, more projects are moving from planning to development stages, and much larger projects being proposed.”
Projects already underway will bring the total solar generation capacity to more than 720 megawatts in 2023, said Deising.
Deising owes the growth to Alberta’s energy only market, in which power producers can bid in to the market rather than through contracts with crown corporations or large distribution companies.
Projections include the planned 465-megawatt Travers Solar Facility in Vulcan County, but at least two other 300-megawatt facilities are now before the Alberta Utilities Commission for approval, including the Brooks Solar Farm and Dunmore Solar, near Medicine Hat.
Along with a growing list of smaller project proposals, the sector could easily be capable of supplying 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) in 2023.
That would mean the size would have doubled five and a half times over three years, partly due to the fact it was so small to begin with.
In February 2020, a solar farm in Vauxhall came online to become only the second utility-scale solar panel array in the province.
Along with Brooks solar plant, commissioned in 2017, total generation capacity at that point was 37 megawatts in peak conditions.
Three more facilities were added in the 2020 calendar year, and five in early 2021, including Claresholm Solar, a two-part facility with a capacity of 132 megawatts.
It was built by Toronto-based Capstone Infrastructure and the production is sold under an off-take contract to TC Energy.
