A hearing with the Alberta Utilities Commission over the construction of Saamis Solar Park - outlined in this map just north of Medicine Hat - has been set for early April.--SUPPLIED IMAGE
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A hearing to consider the construction of a 1,500-acre solar power array in north Medicine Hat has been scheduled for April.
The Saamis Solar Park would be built by Irish renewable developer DP Energy on vacant land north of Crescent Heights, partially over a contaminated industrial site and around several oil wells.
DP first discussed the idea in 2016 to land owner Viterra, as well as economic development officials at the City fo Medicine Hat. The plan became public in 2019 after DP applied for two similar projects inside Calgary city limits.
What was initially proposed as a 200-megawatt station placed atop the former tailings pond of the Westco Fertilizer plant, grew however, to a 325-megawatt proposal that would include grass and grazing land to the east, nearer homes and oilfield facilities.
The Alberta Utilities Commission announced Tuesday that a panel will hear from DP Energy and intervenors opposing over four days beginning April 9. Afterwards, parties will submit final written arguments. There is no specified date for a decision.
Last fall, law firms for the company and three opposing groups argued about the worth of continuing the regulatory process considering the provincial government’s “pause” on new green energy approvals and the potential for new requirements for developers related to site selection.
The AUC eventually developed guidelines to see some work advanced during the moratorium to avoid a backlog of decisions coming due once the pause ends Feb. 29.
The Saamis application has seen intervenors exchange information requests and evidence in preliminary work ahead of the hearing.
Premier Danielle Smith, who instituted the halt and represents Brooks-Medicine Hat, has said she doesn’t expect a continuation of the moratorium and new rules and site criteria would be developed soon.
In Medicine Hat, DP has argued that Saamis would make use of a brownfield industrial site (the tailings ponds) where permanent development is currently barred. Power would be put onto the Alberta grid through the north of the city via a planned substation built by DP.
Two adjacent landowners have argued the expansion of the site eastward, past the continuation of Division Avenue N. would detract from parcels they hope to develop as residential subdivisions.
Journey Energy, which operates wells on the site after purchasing them and mineral rights to the area from Enerplus two years ago, has also registered as an intervenor. It argues that physical construction on the land would impede its ability to develop new wells and respond to potential emergencies at its sites.
Another group, “Medicine Hat Concerned Citizens,” has requested information about species at risk and the vegetation on site.
It response, DP has argued local zoning allows renewable energy development on the site, and potential housing development could be decades away when it has a near-term use for the land that it argues has been cultivated and sprayed repeatedly with herbicide.
Oil pockets or injection wells, it says is a recent submission, could be completed with horizontal drilling techniques.
The matter was set to proceed to hearing last July, but the company postponed the dates as it redrew the layout of panels to accommodate the discovery of a raptor nesting site.
Before new dates could be set however, the provincial government announced the renewals pause on Aug. 3.
The Deerfoot and Barlow solar projects, on Viterra-owned former fertilizer plant sites in Calgary, were developed by DP Energy and sold to Atco with First Nations involved in the ownership agreement. Both went into operation last year with a combined capacity of 67 megawatts over 150 acres.
