Energy project going ahead without Nicolay

By Collin Gallant on August 25, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

A three-way partnership between the City of Medicine Hat, Medicine Hat College and a renewable energy development company will continue though one of the private enterprise’s directors is set to become the city’s top administrator.

City council announced this week that Bob Nicolay would be hired in October to take over from retiring chief administrative officer Merete Heggelund.

Nicolay, a former top manager with the city, returned to the local scene two years ago as a director with Bluenergy Solar Wind (BWS Canada), and negotiated the deal between the parties to test the company’s equipment here.

Nicolay told the News this week that while he most recently sat on the company’s board in a purely advisory role, he receives no financial compensation, he’s not a major investor, and said he plans to resign his affiliation immediately to avoid any perception of conflict of interest.

BSW president Joel Goldblatt confirmed those statements and says the changes shouldn’t affect the project which is set to get underway this fall.

Nicolay also told the News that his 2016 return with Bluenergy to Medicine Hat, where he worked as top administrator until 1999, made him somewhat nostalgic after years working in the private energy sector.

See Nicolay, Page A2

“It’s never been far from my mind,” he told the News. “I’ve tried to attract some business into the city over the years with the BSW folks.”

He said the connection he made at the time of the 2016 talks with Heggelund remained in place after he was hired as the city manager for the City of Grande Prairie. He is expected to start here on Oct. 1.

This week Heggelund offered strong recommendation for her successor.

“He’s a very seasoned, very experienced and also a current CAO,” she said. “He can handle the municipal side and energy side. We’re very, very lucky to have someone of that calibre wanting to come back.”

A closed microgrid system at Medicine Hat College would allow students to monitor and work on equipment as part of class work. The results would be monitored and verified by city utility.

Construction could begin in September, said Goldblatt.

“We’re continuing to fundraise and complete our obligations with the college, which is going pretty well, to complete the microgrid,” he said. “We’re pulling equipment together and doing all the things we need to and expect things to start coming up out of the ground next month.

“Essentially it’s proceeding as planned.”

In March, provincial labour minister Christina Gray was on hand to announce funding to the institution to install infrastructure that would also include a solar canopy at one parking lot. It would power a car charging station and also feed the college’s needs, and could be used to attract other technology companies to what essentially is a real world testing facility for equipment.

BSW’s project involves a corkscrew-style wind turbine that could accept solar panels on its blades. Officials say combining the two mediums would add reliability of supply, and they plan to market the devices — standing 25-feet tall and 10-feet wide — to institutions, condo and commercial developments as well as remote communities.

Four would be erected at the college, according to an initial plan discussed this spring.

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