Grainswest - Tech 2022

Tech 2022 Grains West 34 lights, produce shadow flicker and face complaints of “visual pollution.” Opponents argue renewable energy isn’t necessarily environmentally positive. Rotors are a risk to bats and birds, and the required infrastructure may take more power to build than it can produce in its usable lifetime. Increasingly, some question the long-term cost of using farmland for renewable energy production. Landowners who host the projects carry the greatest risk. Some contracts are established without a clear end date, which means a landowner who no longer wants the project on their property may have no legal right to affect its removal. Potentially worse, landowners may find themselves saddled with defunct solar or wind energy infrastructure and on the hook for reclamation. There are no legislated reclamation rules to protect the landowner if a renewable energy company walks away from a project. There is also no third-party support for the landowner if one of these companies goes belly up. “So, if you’re signing a land lease, you better understand what it is that company is responsible for, and what you are responsible for. Those are the kinds of things you need to get expert help on,” said Lewington. Many argue the provincial government needs to force companies to complete remediation plans as good or better than what is in place for oil and gas. “Comments have been made that the reason [government] won’t put these kinds of projects onto public lands is because they’re worried about the cleanup, but they’re happy to let it happen on private land,” said Schneider. “I hope it’s something that gets a little more focused [consideration] at the provincial level because it’s not something the Province has been too interested in getting involved with.” The Buffalo Plains project is Vulcan County’s third green energy project. Spread across 7,100 hectares (17,500 acres), the wind farm should produce 500 megawatts of energy per day, enough to supply more than 100,000 homes with clean energy. ABOWind Canada is just one of many companies drawn by southern Alberta’s wide open landscape, consistent sunlight, wind and competitive electricity market. Renewable energy projects now provide 2,269 megawatts of energy from wind and 892 megawatts from solar. This is just the start, said Leif Sollid, Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) communications manager. “Projects under construction coming online in the next year or so include 1,530 megawatts of wind and 822 megawatts of solar—a very significant increase in renewable power generation in Alberta.” In fact, there is so much investment interest, the potential for Alberta’s electricity sector to reach net-zero emissions through renewable power generation isn’t far-fetched. Alberta’s entire power grid produces 16,000 megawatts of energy per day. If all the 138 renewable energy projects in the queue were approved, their combined output would equal this number. These projects represent about $20 billion worth of investment, said Lewington. To be clear, only about one in 10 projects typically passes the regulatory approval process. “Not all of those projects are going to happen right now,” added Lewington. “They might not necessarily be viable today, but in another five or 10 years as markets shift, some of those might come back on the books.” AESO is drafting a report that will outline how the province’s electricity production sector can achieve a net-zero target by 2035, said Sollid. He added that one key step to net-zero will be the creation of utility-scale battery farms to better manage the intermittency inherent in wind and solar energy production. Could a renewable energy project be a good fit for your farm or community? “Farmers and ranchers are intelligent businesspeople,” said Lewington. “Many have very large, complex operations; they manage an awful lot of variables and a complex regulatory environment every single day. For the right people in the right circumstance, with due diligence, the right tools, the right experts and advisors, it can be very beneficial. “The energy transition is not going away,” he added. “So, the question then becomes: How is Alberta going to play in that market and stay competitive globally? FEATURE “I’d say having a single turbine generally pays about the same as having about five oil wells [on your land], so it’s substantial.” —Jason Schneider