Location of the approved Dunmore Solar facility, about 10 km east of Medicine Hat, shown on this map provided by the Alberta Utilities Commission.--Supplied image
@MedicineHatNews
The construction time table for a major solar field near Medicine Hat has been extended two years by regulators, who also certified the project fits under newly imposed agricultural-use and remediation guidelines.
“Dunmore Solar” was first approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission in 2021, and was to be built by March 2025 near the intersection of Highways 41 and 41A, about 10 kilometres east of Medicine Hat.
In August however, the developer told the commission that as an expansion was planned, construction had not commenced due to “disruption of project off-take agreements (sales contracts) and financing activities due to upheaval and uncertainty in the forward electricity markets,” caused by changing regulations and proposed market redesign.
On Oct. 24, the AUC approved a new layout increasing the original 175-megawatt capacity to 216, and also allowed an extension of a completion date to Jan. 31, 2027.
The commission also accepted that soil class on the land was 5M, or severely limited for cultivation. The project sits on portions of eight quarter-sections, but only comprises 623 acres, about two kilometres east of Highway 41, north of the Hamlet of Dunmore, near high voltage transmission lines that bisect the site.
A reclamation agreement with the landowner was also deemed sufficient pending further development of reclamation rules. An estimated decommissioning cost of $11.2 million is balanced against expected salvage value of $9.1 million. A posted bond is required at the halfway point of the 30-year lease.
Dunmore Solar Inc. is a joint venture of Germany-based Greencells Group and majority owner TeraLight.
Israel-based TeraLight stated in September 2023, after it acquired 75 per cent stake, that it had a memorandum of understanding to sell a majority of the power produced to an unnamed “Canadian utility giant.”
The Business Renewables Centre, which promotes and tracks the use of power purchase agreements used by corporations to offset carbon footprint, stated last month that volumes of such deals are 95 per cent lower in Alberta in 2024.
It called for fast resolution to regulatory work now underway.
Crypto near Oyen
A company that advertises services to convert stranded natural gas batteries to mine cryptocurrency has put a project near Oyen before the Alberta Utilities Commission.
Brox Energy notified the commission this week it plans to instal two 1.25-megawatt natural gas-fired power generators at the site in the Special Areas to power portable data centres that will process cryptocurrency transactions.
That could be completed in the next two weeks at the well site, described as near the meeting of Township 27 and Range 5, according to an abridged application filed by Brox related to an own-use power facility.
