Edmonton buying renewable energy from south

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 24, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The City of Edmonton will contract renewable power from a wind farm planned to be built near Seven Persons and a solar field near Taber starting next year.

Capstone Infrastructure acquired the 15-year-old proposal to build the Wild Rose II wind farm southwest of Medicine Hat last fall and announced this spring it planned to proceed to construction in late 2023.

Wednesday’s announcement states the City of Edmonton has contracted 7 megawatts of the facility’s planned 192-megawatt capacity, as well as 50 megawatts of the Wheatcrest Solar field which BluEarth Renewables will build in the Municipal District of Taber.

Power produced at those sites will flow onto the Alberta grid. While Edmonton city facilities and bus fleet will use power produced closer to the Alberta capital city – the net effect is considered an offset about the size of one-third of Edmonton’s carbon footprint.

“We are taking significant action to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by investing in renewable energy sources at scale,” said Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi in a company release. “Our agreements are a big step towards our goal of decarbonizing municipal operations.”

Sohi told reporters in Edmonton the city-owned power distribution company Epcor was not involved.

“In an overall climate change strategy, Epcor is absolutely a significant partner and their polices are aligned with city policies,” said Sohi, of the goal to become carbon neutral by 2040. “This was a competitive bid process.”

Both contracts are for a 20-year term, though other financial details were not released.

“BluEarth was pleased to be involved in the well-run, rigorous tender process and we look forward to working with the City of Edmonton as they lead the way in climate change mitigation efforts,” said Grant Arnold, president and CEO of BluEarth Renewables, which has operations in the southeast and a maintenance base in Redcliff.

“As an Alberta-based company, we are proud to once again demonstrate how renewables can take a larger role in the energy mix.”

David Eva, CEO of Capstone, stated the “partnership demonstrates how the renewable energy sector and municipalities can work together to drive the energy transition forward and help build a low-carbon future for Canada.”

Power purchase agreements are a popular route for companies looking to reduce carbon emissions. Amazon, Labatt’s, Royal Bank of Canada and TC Energy have all bought portions of green energy production at southern Alberta facilities in deals announced in the past two years.

This spring, Pembina Pipelines signed a 15-year contract for 105 megawatts of Wild Rose II’s total production capacity.

This week’s announcement is the largest PPA with a public body or government announced in Alberta energy market.

In 2019, the Government of Alberta signed PPAs after an open low-rate bidding process with three solar farms planned to be built in Jenner, Tilley and Hays, which were later acquired by BluEarth.

The contract rate secured by the province at that time was 4.8-cents per kilowatt hour. The average grid price to date this year has been 10.4-cents.