Two new solar projects held by Capstone Infrastructure are underway in the area.
On Tuesday, October 18, Starland County Reeve Steven Wannstrom and council members Mark Landry and Jackie Watt, joined Capstone CEO Dave Eva, vice president of Capital Project Execution for Capstone Mat Hanna, vice president of Borea Construction Marc Richard, and Jamie Urquhart vice president of Keyera Corp., to mark the commencement of the Michichi Solar and Kneehill Solar projects.
The Michichi Solar Project, located north of Drumheller and the Kneehill Solar Project, located north of the Town of Three Hills have a combined construction capital cost of about $130 million. When completed, it will produce 25 MWac of electricity each, enough to power 12,000 homes every year.
On Tuesday, they installed the first panel. It is slated to be fully operational in the spring.
Eva said when the Michchi project goes online it will be their second solar project in the province. He says they worked closely with the landowners and the county to make the project a reality.
“Every project we do we are only as good as the relationships we can sustain with our host communities. Every time we look at a new asset and a new project site, the first question is what are your relationships like with your neighbours? What are your relationships like with your landowners? What are your relationships like with the local government? And I think you will find Capstone will do whatever we can to make sure this is a beneficial relationship. We plan to be here for decades,” Eva said.
Work has already commenced, and the bulk of the racks have been installed.
This will create more than 100 jobs on-site during peak construction.
It will also provide property tax revenue of $8 million to both Starland and Kneehill County over the operational life of the projects.
Saw Ridge First Nation is an equity partner in the two projects.
Power generated from Michichi will be sold under a power purchase agreement to Keyera Corp., helping the Calgary-based company achieve its decarbonization goals, showcasing how the renewable energy and oil and gas sectors are working together to reduce emissions. “We have, as an organization, commitments with respect to how we are going to reduce our carbon footprint with our assets, and this is part of that,” said Jamie Urquhart, vice president of Keyera Corp. “We are very proud of our track record over the last 25 years in being a good environmental steward for the planet…this is an exciting day for us.”
Each project will offset approximately 30,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.