Calgary-based TransAlta says it will shelve the proposed Riplinger wind farm project. (Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press)
“As we take stock of the government of Alberta’s regulatory announcements, we reassessed our own growth plans in the province,” Kousinioris said.
“These projects all have varying degrees of merchant market exposure and have been put on hold until we receive sufficient clarity regarding the future market structure and the impact of changing frameworks on resulting market prices.”
The no-go zone rule followed a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy approvals after the government decided the industry was growing too quickly, threatening agriculture and marring Alberta’s landscape.
A map released in March shows that the buffer zone includes the entire length of the Rocky Mountains, stretching as far east as Calgary and south to the U.S. border. Kousinioris said the Riplinger project would have been on the edge of an exclusion zone.
Three projects held
According to Kousinioris, two of the developments put on hold were quite novel projects.
WaterCharger, the largest of the halted projects, is a 180-megawatt battery storage project that would sit on roughly nine acres of land 18 kilometres west of Cochrane. It was expected to be completed this year.
The facility, according to TransAlta, is designed to be charged by electricity produced by the existing Ghost hydroelectric plant when demand is lower.
During times of higher demand, power from the new facility would be discharged to support the electric grid.
Pinnacle, a 44-megawatt thermal project in Parkland County, Alta., was expected to generate around 60,000 megawatt-hours of electricity by 2025 — its expected first year of operation before being placed on hold.
“We’re very careful with our shareholders’ money, and we’re not going to invest in these kinds of projects unless we have a good level of comfort that our return expectations are going to be met,” Kousinioris said.
Tempest is another wind farm that TransAlta started developing in 2006. It’s a 99-megawatt project located approximately 15 kilometres east of Stirling, Alta., in Warner County.
“The other projects are on hold, they’re not cancelled,” Kousinioris said, adding that his team is working to preserve them and will move them forward once they get the clarity they need.
“There are things that that could be resurrected and investments that could be made there.”
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