The company behind a proposed Caroline solar energy project is defending its plans.
PACE Bang Energy LP was given conditional approval last month by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) to go ahead with its 15-megavolt solar energy project on about 60 acres along the northern edge of the Hamlet of Caroline.
However, Caroline Concerned Citizens Group, which was formed by residents alarmed at the prospect of a solar facility at the edge of town, remains opposed. A spinoff group, Rural Alberta Concerned Communities Group, has already applied for a review of the AUC decision.
Clearwater County council, whose members have heard from residents unhappy with the decision, has asked administration to see if there are grounds to seek a formal review. The county contends that since almost the entire application and decision-making process happened when Caroline was a village, prior to becoming a hamlet in the county as of Jan. 1, enough circumstances have changed to warrant another look at the project.
Coun. Debbie Mehlhaff said the county was not the development authority – as it is now following amalgamation – throughout the AUC process.
More than 100 residents filled a Caroline community hall on Tuesday, and the solar project was a hot topic.
Concerns have been raised that prime agricultural land is being taken out of production, the solar facility is too close to homes and could impede future growth and reclamation plans are inadequate.
Rhonda Barron, who handles stakeholder engagement for PACE, said all of those concerns were raised in submissions and at a public hearing last November, and were addressed to the AUC's satisfaction.
"The project has been permitted by the AUC. The only recourse they really have is to demonstrate that the AUC, the regulatory body, is faulty in its decision-making. I don't know if they have any evidence to support that.
"We've certainly done our due diligence. Then we went through an extensive virtual oral hearing where evidence was brought forward by experts from both sides," said Barron.
"The AUC took that evidence into consideration and made the decision that the project was in the best interests of the public."
Barron said both the then-Village of Caroline and Clearwater County councils previously provided letters of support for the project.
PACE offered a lengthy list of commitments to address concerns and they will be honoured, she said.
Commitments address specific issues, such as the loss of farmland. PACE intends to use agrivoltaics, which allows the land under the solar panel arrays to continue to be used for agriculture, either through grazing or other uses. That also includes continual monitoring for pests, weeds or plant diseases such as clubroot.
To address visual concerns, an "eco-buffer" is planned featuring a double row of trees and shrubs to screen the solar facility from nearby homes and 27.5-metre setbacks will be in place around most of the wetlands present.
The AUC looked closely at the company's plans to reclaim the land after the project reaches the end of its life in 25 to 30 years.
Alberta's poor performance in oil and gas reclamation, with tens, if not hundreds of billions of cleanup liability still on the books, has many fearing a repeat on the renewable energy front.
Consultants hired by PACE estimated reclamation will cost around $1.6 million and the AUC approval requires the company to have the money secured and that decommissioning costs are re-evaluated every five years.
The government is still working on the details of its reclamation requirements. In the meantime, AUC has dictated that no more than half of reclamation costs can be covered by projected salvage costs for the solar panels and other equipment, which contain valuable metals.
About 90 per cent of solar energy materials are salvageable and the rest recyclable, said Barron.
She said the company is "very confident" in its reclamation plan, which includes a letter of credit from a top-tier financial institution to show the funding is there. Should PACE go out of business, the funds are transferred to the landowner.
While solar energy clearly has its critics in rural Alberta, Barron said PACE's investment will benefit the province and region.
"We believe we're trying to build a sustainable future because solar energy is the cleanest, most affordable energy that we have available to us today."
