INNISFAIL – The Town of Innisfail's once-heralded $4 million municipal solar farm project has finally received approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC).
But due to unfavourable market pool prices, the town's council had already decided earlier this year to put a pause on the project, which originally was slated for construction this year.
The project delay is a big disappointment for the town as the municipal solar farm, earmarked for a seven-acre space at the new Southwest Industrial Park, was projected to generate up to 2 MW of power with annual revenues of up to $700,000.
On May 5 at Innisfail town council’s Agenda & Priorities Meeting, Seven Kennedy, the town’s director of operations, said the town finally received AUC approval on April 28 to move ahead with project construction, and to operate a solar power plant and connect it to the FortisAlberta distribution system.
The project’s approval arrived after numerous bureaucratic delays, including a seven-month provincial moratorium on approvals for renewable energy projects that began in August of 2023, and followed by a lengthy AUC approval process.
Council was told the final approval came with a five-year time frame to construct the solar farm, and if that did not happen by 2030 the town would have to either apply for an extension or have the approval expire.
Council approved Kennedy’s report as information.
“What we would be getting for the power, the rate of return isn’t significant enough to pay for the project over an extended period,” Kennedy told the Albertan following the council meeting. “We’d be in that 18 to 20-year range to get payback, where originally, we were hoping to get in that six to 10-year range.
“Unless the market prices changes, we’ve elected to just hold it but we have the approval,” he added. “We'll continue to track the market and see what happens.”
Kennedy told council on May 5 that if the project moves forward, administration will bring back an updated cost estimate and business case for council review.
