Alberta’s utilities regulator has released a report saying the province’s booming solar and wind industry poses little threat to its agriculture or the environment, after independent observers warned the Danielle Smith government’s latest restrictions could cost it 42 new projects totalling C$11 billion in investment and 6.3 gigawatts of new generating capacity.
“Assuming all renewable development locates on (some of Alberta’s best) land, the percentage of (such) agricultural land loss is estimated to be less than 1% by 2041,” says the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) report, released Wednesday.
The commission takes a similar view of concerns that solar and wind facilities could leave landowners and the public with big bills for reclamation at the end of their lives, The Canadian Press reports.
“Compared to some other forms of industrial development, renewable power plant projects have well-understood and relatively contained reclamation risks,” it says. “The risks associated with groundwater and offsite contamination are generally low.”
$11 Billion, 42 Projects at Risk
Two days before the AUC report, the Calgary-based Pembina Institute warned the new restrictions Alberta introduced in late February—and the remaining, deep confusion around those regulations—could drive away $11 billion in investment that would have supported 42 solar and wind projects, representing 6.3 GW of new capacity and thousands of jobs. “Out of 111 solar and 34 wind projects proposed in Alberta, 36 solar projects and six wind projects, which are either proposed or awaiting approval, could be affected,” Reuters writes, citing the Pembina analysis. “These projects can potentially double Alberta’s current renewable capacity.”
This is the same province whose need for new generation came into alarmingly sharp focus in January, when a combination of an unexpected cold snap and two gas plants going offline triggered a brief but serious grid emergency.
CP says this week’s AUC report is the first of two the United Conservative government asked the commission to produce as part of its inquiry into the industry. The release of the report comes shortly after the government removed its seven-month moratorium on approvals for new renewables generation, while leaving major questions and uncertainties about the road ahead.
The current report deals with agricultural and environmental impacts, as well as funding for reclamation and effects on what the government has called “pristine viewscapes”—all issues that the industry maintains were resolved or under discussion when the province imposed the surprise moratorium in early August, 2023.
Not Much of a Threat
The AUC found that renewable power is much less of a threat to the province’s farmland than other forms of energy development and urban spread. Yet Pembina’s analysis shows Alberta’s latest regulations putting far heavier restrictions on renewable energy development than on fossil fuels: it is renewable but not non-renewable energy developers that must receive landowner permission for a project (a provision the Canadian Renewable Energy Association says it enthusiastically accepts); put down mandatory sureties against future land reclamation costs; steer clear of some agricultural lands; respect restrictions on “pristine viewscapes”; and exclude threatened species habitats.
[Just guessing here, but wouldn’t you expect most Albertans to support most or all of those restrictions on both forms of energy development, but particularly the more damaging one?—Ed.]
And yet, “from 2019 to 2021, the largest driver of agricultural land loss was expansion of pipelines and industrial sites,” the AUC report says. “Other key drivers… include urban residential development, mines and wells, and roads.”
The report says the proliferation of wind and solar projects will likely be more concentrated in some parts of the province than others.
It notes that the vast majority of wind and solar sites are located on poorer land. It also points out that wind farms use about 5% of their lease area, leaving the rest available for grazing or suitable crops.
And it calls for more research on combining agriculture and renewable energy.
The commission concludes that current rules are adequate to ensure reclamation, although there could be more clarity around the point at which developers need to pony up reclamation surety.
“Existing power plant reclamation requirements are sufficiently defined to ensure effective reclamation, but no timing trigger exists to initiate reclamation,” it says.
It notes wide disagreement about when that financial backstop should be required, in what form it should be provided, and who should hold it.
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