Region’s largest proposed solar play gets approval from AUC

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on November 22, 2022.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

The largest solar power field ever proposed in southeast Alberta, and related largest battery storage facility, has received a green light from regulators, and two more mega-projects from the same developer are in the queue.

Greengate Power’s Jurassic Solar + Battery, located southwest of Jenner, was approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission on Nov. 16.

The facility, comprising arrays with 440,000 bi-facial solar panels, would be able to produce 220 megawatts of power in peak condition, but be accompanied with 80-megawatt battery capacity, bringing its maximum flow onto the Alberta grid to 300 megawatts. The initial construction estimate is $500 million

The 1,170-acre project would sit mainly in Special Areas No. 2, near Iddesleigh, with one quarter-section in Cypress County. A new substation on the site would regulate power.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2023 and is required to be complete by the end of 2025.

Greengate also held public consultation meetings last week in Brooks regarding its two-phase “Luna” project, planned to be built west of that city.

A third project, known at “Midnight Solar,” would sit 10 kilometres north of Medicine Hat on private land and have a total production plus battery capacity of 465 megawatts.

Company officials have told the News they would like to see the initial phase of the Luna (465 megawatts, plus 80 MW storage) go before the AUC this year. That same scope is planned for both the second “Luna” phase and Midnight project, with a target application date in early 2023. Luna 1 and Midnight are each budgeted to cost about $700 million.

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