Utilities commission greenlights 42,000-panel solar farm near Killam, Alta.

A new 42,000-panel solar farm in central Alberta is going ahead after approval by the Alberta Utilities Commission. 

The farm is set to be built by PACE Canada Development LP just north of Killam, Alta., about 170 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

It's an example of how the solar industry in the province continues to grow, even after a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy projects was announced by the provincial government in August 2023.

Known as the Generation Approvals Pause Regulation, the moratorium delayed the in-service dates of 42 projects by an average of 15 months, according to the clean energy think-tank Pembina Institute.

Dealing with the changing regulations and the changing minds of the government hasn't made this an easy path, says Claude Mindorff, director of strategy for PACE.

"It's been a struggle, you know, with the government of Alberta's hiatus on renewable development," he said.

"But truth be told with our developments, all of the things that the AUC was asking for in recent changes have been things that we are already doing. We already were practitioners of agrivoltaics. We already had a reclamation clause in our lease. We already consulted with the municipality."

Agrivoltaics is a field that aims to combine solar energy production with agricultural activities, and an area the provincial government has focused on.

The province recently announced new rules for wind and solar energy projects, which stem from Premier Danielle Smith's announcement around a year ago that Alberta would take an "agriculture first" approach toward renewable energy development, following the moratorium from 2023.

The rules prevent installations from being built on prime agricultural land unless developers can prove the project can co-exist with livestock and crops.

Mindorff said building solar farms outside or further away from urban areas is a rather Canadian approach to building solar farms. Building near cities and towns is something you see more of in Europe or the United States, Mindorff said.

"With the pushback on the use of agricultural lands, our strategy has been a good one," he said.

"Because this is one of the things that the [ministry of] environment and protected areas is looking to see already disturbed lands or lands that are destined for more intensive development used for solar rather than solely putting them on farmland."

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