In this Feb. 14, 2017, file photo, a rooftop is covered with solar panels at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in February 2017, in New York. Alberta utility regulators gave final approval Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019 a the 23-megawatt, $45-million project near Suffield to proceed.(AP Photo / Mark Lennihan, File)
At the same time a major solar field near Suffield was approved for a development permit in Cypress County on Tuesday, provincial utility regulators gave final approval for the 23-megawatt, $45-million project to proceed.
Officials with Canadian Solar told the county’s municipal planning commission during proceedings they expected minor alternation of their facility plan and construction timeline to be approved before ground levelling work got underway in March,
Approval from the Alberta Utility Commission was granted later in the day with no concerns for some equipment changes and with a required in service date in March 2020, though company says it will be operating later this fall.
About 91,000 panels located on the southside of the Trans-Canada Highway, about 10 kilometres northwest of the hamlet of Suffield, will produce 23 megawatts of power in peak conditions. That would make it the largest capacity solar energy generation field in Western Canada.
In the AUC decision, the allowable maximum panel height was raised to 4.4 metres (about 15 feet). The company will have to submit analysis of glare coming off the facility to officials at CFB Suffield, which operates an airstrip about 4.5 kilometres from the site. Company officials state it is minimal.
NAV Canada, Alberta Transportation and Alberta Environment, which must approve a storm water runoff plan, also registered no concerns beyond standard reporting requirements.
Notification to other stakeholders within a 2-km radius of the privately-owned site began in 2016. No objections were registered during initial AUC process.
