Public feedback process underway for Aira Solar play

By Medicine Hat News on December 28, 2022.

A public feedback process on a massive solar project south of Seven Persons has begun.

The Aira Solar project would see a 450-megawatt solar panel array and new substation placed on 4,500 acres of private, cultivated land located about 33 kilometres southwest of Medicine Hat.

It would be located west of Highway 887, near a bend at Range Road 84, about 35 kilometres southeast of Bow Island.

Written submissions for proceeding No. 27482 are due by the Alberta Utilities Commission by Jan. 15. Depending on feedback, the project could be approved early in the new year, or move to a more formal public hearing process.

The applicant, Aira Wind Power Inc., stated in application filed with the AUC early this month, that if approved, work could begin in 2023 and the facility completed in 2025.

Line approved

Enerfin Wind Corporation will be allowed to build a power line on a revised route to connect its wind power plant after landowners objected to an original proposal.

The AUC approved on Nov. 23 the plan to build a 138-kilovolt line mainly along Township Road 120 from Range Road 83 eastward to Highway 3.

The line, designated as 498L, would connect the planned Winnifred Wind Project, located mainly in the County of Forty Mile, to the AltaLink Bullshead substation near Medicine Hat.

Construction is required to be completed in early 2024.

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