Hope builds for alternative energy projects - Medicine Hat News

By Alex Mccuaig on May 12, 2015.

amccuaig@medicinehatnews.com

The winds of change which blew through the province last week and swept the NDP into power may also fill the sails of stalled alternative energy projects in southeast Alberta.

The NaturEner Wild Rose 1 and 2 has received Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) approval for its 400 MW wind farm near the Cypress Hills. The GTE 13 MW photovoltaic solar farm outside of Brooks has also been approved by AUC.

But both projects have been stalled by the lack of financing and the current fiscal realities being faced by the renewable industry.

“The projects as they stand â€" the financials are positive, they are right on the very edge,” said Greg Copeland, vice-president of NaturEner, regarding the Wild Rose projects.

“Anything the NDP might do that would tip it would obviously invite a lot more capital … If that would occur, then you may see a resurrection of several â€" if not many â€" of the projects that are on a slow boil, including the Wild Rose project.”

One of the biggest impacts of forward looking projections in electricity pricing will be how the phase-out of coal-burning power plants will occur and what steps the province takes in pricing carbon emissions, said Copeland.

The current Specified Gas Emitters Regulation places a cost on producers who generate more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually in Alberta.

“That legislation is up in June,” said Copeland, “and everybody has been trying to ferret out what the PCs were going to do with that â€" that was being kept very quiet.”

Whether the NDP extends the current program or looks at more aggressive action, “we’re holding our breath,” said Copeland.

“We have put everything in place for those projects to explosively get them out of the ground.”

Renewable energy think-tank Pembina Institute is also expressing cautious optimism that an NDP government will lead to more emphasis on alternative energy in Alberta.

The group’s electricity program director Ben Thibault said the future of wind energy will come down to finding ways of shifting the price dynamic for alternative energy production.

“There is a lot of uncertainty around what kind of pricing wind will get from the market. Part of that reason is the volatility in the electricity market,” said Thibault.

“Even if a wind project is competitive against other forms of generation today, the problem is that all of wind’s cost is capital costs that need to be financed up front. As opposed to natural gas where a large proportion of costs are fuel costs. And if fuel costs go up, the electricity cost goes up.”

A way to offset that dynamic would be to encourage guaranteed power purchase agreements, said Thibault, such as the one the city of Medicine Hat has in place with the Box Springs Wind Farm.

“At its centre, that is a policy issue,” said Thibault of power purchase agreements.

“The barriers to wind are not technical issues anymore, they are not really economic issues anymore … They are policy and political issues now.”

City energy committee chair Bill Cocks said he doesn’t see the phase out of coal-fired power plants having a huge impact on Medicine Hat which has received AUC approval for a new 43 MW gas-fired generator near the Medicine Hat Speedway.

“There is a lot of good things that should come from that,” said Cocks of the new city power plant.

“I think we are in a good position to serve our own market and hopefully take what opportunities that are available beyond our borders.”

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