Local wind projects a go, despite political uncertainties
By COLLIN GALLANT on May 18, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant Proposals by Canada’s largest oil company and one of the world’s richest men to build windfarms in southeast Alberta are still under development, even as the incoming government signals it plans to rewrite or cancel support for green energy projects. On Thursday, Alberta utility regulators gave final approval for Suncor’s Forty Mile Wind Project, a 400-megawatt wind farm that would sit in a potential cluster of turbine facilities southeast of Bow Island. That project, first proposed in 2017, would sit near the Capital Power Whitla Windfarm that is now under construction, and another turbine facility proposal that is backed by Berkshire Hathaway Energy Canada (BHEC). Such approvals are typically submitted and secured long before companies actually proceed with construction, but officials with the energy giant say they are pleased with progress. “The project is subject to a final investment decision later this year by the company,” a statement from the company to the News read on Friday. “Suncor will continue to inform landowners and community members as the project progresses.” A separate but similarly named ‘Forty Mile Wind” project in the area is proposed by the firm Renewable Energy Services on behalf of BHEC, the Canadian wing of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. That company, along with Alberta transmission company AltaLink, is part of the investment firm controlled by U.S. business magnate Warren Buffett. During the recent Alberta election, the platform of the United Conservative Party stated as the governing party it would retain long-term power contracts for wind energy signed in 2016 and 2018 during the term of the New Democrats. Going forward, however, it would only support “subsidy-free” green power generation. This week’s approvals, made by the independent Alberta Utility Commission, involve Suncor’s overall plan to erect 115 turbines on land comprising five townships in the County of Forty Mile, as well as two related substations. The BHEC project would be sited on 40,000 acres of land nearby, and along with the Whitla Wind farm, the three projects form a triangle on a huge swath of land east of Yellow Lake and the Forty Mile Reservoir, south of Bow Island. The BHEC project was bid into the last year’s Renewable Energy Program auction held by the provincial system operator. It didn’t win a supply contract that industry observers say is critical for finalizing business case for huge investments in the utility-scale green energy facilities. After the auction though, project managers released a statement that “many new opportunities still remain.” “With never-seen-before prices around 3.5-to-4 cents per kWh, wind is clearly the most affordable source of power today, in addition to being a solution to the greatest environmental challenge of our time: climate change,” it read. “Alberta is nowhere close to completing its decarbonization of its electricity sector.” Capital Power’s $323-million project is planned to be in production in the fall of 2019 after it won a long-term contract in an initial auction round. Rounds 2 and 3, held in 2018, awarded contracts to France-based EDF Renewables, which plans to build a southeast of Dunmore by 2020, as well as two projects near Jenner. Other windfarms winning supply deals were located in Stirling and Pincher Creek. Those five projects would cost an estimated $1.2 billion to construct. Suncor currently operates four wind power generating facilities, including 20-turbine farms near Taber and Magrath in southern Alberta, and the 17-turbine SunBridge facility near Gull Lake, Sask. 19-18
