Red Deer County Mayor Jim Wood pressed Premier Danielle Smith on Wednesday on what the government was doing to ensure solar power companies cleaned up after themselves when project lifespans ended.
“The concern is this: Some of these solar may be only viable due to carbon-credit grants and so forth that may not be here forever,” Wood was quoted in media reports of the Rural Municipalities Association conference where Wood posed his question after the premier’s speech.
“The companies may not have enough finances to in fact do the cleanup,” Wood said.
“And if they’re not viable enough to put a bond up to cover their cleanup, then they’re not viable. And I think it needs to be addressed at the start or we’re going to have the same problem as the orphan wells. And why would we want to bring that to the province of Alberta?”
Smith said that legislation requiring bonds was an “open question” and she would be consulting rural leaders in the future.
Wood confirmed said in an interview Thursday that he asked his questions to highlight the necessity of ensuring there is cleanup cash in place before the solar industry takes off and there are many projects in rural Alberta.
“We’re seeing some of the best farmland in Alberta utilized for this,” he said. “The issue is it’s important that one day that farmland not be left a wreck.”
Ensuring there is reclamation money up front, as is required for gravel pit operations, will ensure lessons from the oilpatch are not reported. In too many cases, companies would offload money-losing assets to other companies that did not have enough money when it was time to clean up.
If that happens in the solar industry, “who are they going to look at for the cleanup. Is it municipalities? Is it the province?
“Basically, we’re trying to learn from what we saw in the past.”
Wood said the county is not against solar projects. They provide jobs, wealth and tax dollars.
But there are a lot of questions about the viability of all of the companies starting to come forward and also about what the lifespan of solar projects will be.
Wood said solar questions were brought up at the conference by others as well and he believes the premier and her ministers got the message “loud and clear.
“We’ll continue to follow up with the Government of Alberta. Hopefully, they do the right thing.”