GrainsWest Spring 2021

Spring 2021 Grains West 38 wo acres of James Molnar’s 800- acre family farm near Barnwell cause him continuous headaches. Just a short distance from his house, these troublesome acres contain an old oil well site. Its lingering traces of asphalt and oil prevent Molnar from planting the lot with high-value Taber corn or the tomatoes, pumpkins and other market vegetables he farms. Doing so would violate the exacting standards of the grocery stores he supplies. T Pilot project taps Alberta’s deep well of solar power potential BY CULLEN BIRD Photo:Shutterstock FEATURE Though the site has been put through a remediation process by the Orphan Well Association, which capped the well and cleaned the soil, Molnar can’t sign off on the reclamation certificate until absolutely no trace of contamination remains. And trying to resolve this with the province and various relevant organizations over the years has been draining. “They all say that they’re trying their best, but sometimes one thing gets passed on to the next guy. You get kind of tired of it all,” said Molnar. When the RenuWell Project contacted him with a plan to turn the site into a solar farm, it struck him as a winning solution to this lingering problem. Molnar’s farmmay potentially become one of two sites selected for the RenuWell Project. This pilot project seeks to prove the economic case for the installation of solar farms on remediated oil and gas well sites, using existing maintenance roads and power lines to save costs. The project is led by Keith Hirsche, president of RenuWell Energy Solutions. It was Hirsche who approached the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) five years ago with the idea for this project. While the preparation has been long, actual construction on the sites will be speedy. “It will only take a couple weeks per site to build,” said Hirsche. If all goes well, both site installations should be finished by the end of the summer, he added.