Company with local plans seeks build extension for solar play in Calgary

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 5, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The company proposing to build a massive solar power array in Medicine Hat has asked regulators to extend a construction timeline on an initial project in Calgary.

DP energy plans to build the Barlow Solar Park on the former tailings pond of a fertilizer plant in the Calgary, and this week applied to have that facility’s in-service date changed from January 2022 to the end of that year.

Officials with the Irish firm have previously told the News that once that 27-megawatt project and another in Calgary are underway they would proceed with the 300-megawatt Saamis Solar Field in northwest Medicine Hat on the former spill pond of the Westco Fertilizer facility.

Cypress Wind

A major wind farm in Cypress County has received local planning approval ahead of construction slated for this summer and could expand its production capacity, according to new filings with regulators.

Cypress Wind, proposed by French-based multi-national power developer EDF, was one of a half-dozen projects that won a green-energy supply auction in 2019 to supply 200-megawatts of wind power on to the provincial grid at a set price for 20 years.

Originally planned as a 48-turbine array on land near the intersection of Highway 41 and Secondary Highway 515, southeast of Dunmore, the project would now move ahead with higher capacity turbines, raising the output to about 250 megawatts in peak conditions with the same number of tower location.

The project is now considered as two phases, with 40 turbines now comprising the 200-megawatts under contract and the remainder in a second phase.

Last month, Cypress County planning commission approved permits for 48 turbine locations and the related substation that would join the Altalink distribution system.

The Alberta Utilities Commission is now accepting public feedback on new facets of the plan, and will accept written submissions on proceeding No. 26489 until June 28.

More solar

Bluearth Renewables has applied to build the Wheatcrest Solar plant in the M.D. of Taber, a 60 megawatt plant that would be situated on a half-section of land between Scandia and Lomond. Public submissions on the proposal are due on June 11.

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