TransAlta going greener as it maps out $3.5B in spending, mainly on renewables

One of Alberta's largest power generators says more than two-thirds of its profits will come from renewable electricity production by 2028.

One of Alberta’s largest power generators says more than two-thirds of its profits will come from renewable electricity production by 2028 — a major transformation for a company that once was one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the country.

TransAlta Corp. announced an updated capital growth plan at its investor day on Tuesday which will see the company invest $3.5 billion, focused mainly on clean electricity generating and storage capacity by the end of 2028.

The Calgary-based company, which has brought online more than 800 megawatts of wind and solar power since 2021 alone, said it will add an additional 1,750 MW of clean power within the next five years.

Most of that new generation will be organic growth — developing wind and solar projects from scratch — though the company is also open to growth through mergers and acquisitions if the right opportunity comes along, said TransAlta CEO John Kousinioris in an interview.

“What’s interesting about it is just the impact it will have on our company,” Kousinioris said of the new growth projections.

“It will end up pushing us pretty firmly into a more contracted and greener generation company. By 2028 and frankly, even earlier, somewhere in the range of 70 per cent of our EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) will come from renewables.”

Currently, approximately 40 per cent of TransAlta’s EBITDA is attributable to renewable energy. The company is one of the largest producers of wind power in Canada, having grown its total renewable energy capacity from approximately 900 MW in 2000 to more than 2,900 MW in 2022.

But just a decade ago, the company’s bread-and-butter was its large fleet of coal-fired power plants. TransAlta’s move to convert those coal-fired plants to natural gas, at a cost of close to $300 million, was completed in late 2021 and has been widely hailed as a significant environmental accomplishment.