Bluearth gains approval for sixth solar power facility in SE Alberta

By COLLIN GALLANT on July 23, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Bluearth Renewables has gained approval to build its sixth and largest solar power facility in Southeast Alberta.

Wheatcrest Solar would produce 60 megawatts of power in peak conditions when the planned 130,000-panel array is installed on a half-section of privately-owned land north Enchant in the M.D. of Taber.

On Wednesday, the Alberta Utilities Commission approved the company’s application to construct and operate the facility by March 21, 2023, pending finalized technical drawings and standard reporting conditions.

It will become the sixth facility owned in the region by the Canadian firm that was founded by the Ontario Teachers pension plan and sold to Dutch infrastructure fund DIF Infrastructure in 2019.

The company is in final phases of constructing the Yellow Lake and Burdett solar fields in the County of 40 Mile. It purchased Suffield Solar from developer Canadian Solar in late 2020, just as that facility came online, and in early 2021 also acquired Canadian Solar’s Jenner and Hays projects. The later two are partly owned by the Conklin Metis Local 193 and are attached to Government of Alberta renewable power purchasing agreements.

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