By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on July 23, 2022.
https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews Saskatchewan’s highway department is nearing the completion of a $120-million, eight-year plan to improve Highway 7 between Saskatoon and Oyen, the government said Friday. This summer the department will spend $18 million to add six passing lanes to the highway between Kindersley and the Alberta boundary, where it becomes Alberta Provincial Highway No. 9. Intersection improvements are also planned at Alsask. Forty Mile solar Suncor Energy has received permission to build a planned solar energy project in southeast Alberta that it says is up for sale. The Forty Mile Solar Project would see panels placed on nearly 1,600 acres of land in conjunction with a previously approved wind farm of the same name located southeast of Bow Island. This winter, the energy giant announced it would market the proposals for potential sale as it would concentrate on lowering carbon dioxide emissions at its main petroleum production business. On Thursday, the Alberta Utilities Commission approved the application and set conditions to build the solar project, sized to produce 220 megawatts of electricity in peak conditions, and connect it to the Alberta grid. The permit states construction could begin in March 2023, with a tentative completion date later in that fall. Record rain in Brooks Monday’s storm in southeast Alberta brought record rain of 57.5 millimetres (2.3 inches) to Brooks, according to media there and Environment Canada’s online records that only date back to 1989. Rain arrived throughout the day in the city, according to Environment Canada, which stated Medicine Hat’s rainfall on July 18 at less than one-half inch, but mostly over the course of an hour near 2 p.m. 13