Epcor pitches solar farm near Cameron Heights

40% of energy produced would run water treatment centre, company says

Edmonton could see its first solar-energy farm in the city with a 12-megawatt generation facility planned near the neighbourhood of Cameron Heights.

Epcor unveiled the plan at council’s utility committee meeting Friday, saying the farm would cover 60 hectares of land it owns just south of the E.L. Smith Water Treatment plant in the river valley.

The project still needs an environmental assessment, rezoning approval from city council and provincial approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission. But Epcor plans to start public consultation with a mail-out this month.

“It’s more than a concept — it’s in preliminary design,” said Epcor’s Darrell Manning, adding they hope to file an application to the provincial regulator this year. Forty per cent of the energy produced by the solar farm would be used to run the water treatment centre; the rest would go into greening the electricity grid. Epcor would fund the plan partly through a $1.9-million annual contribution from Edmonton utility ratepayers. That’s part of the approved 2017-21 agreement which includes a 10- to 15-cent-per-month levy on each customer to pay for environmental initiatives like this and an enhanced river monitoring program.

Hassan Al-Barqawi, a senior project manager with Epcor, said the plan is to install the solar panels at a 33-degree angle. Epcor worked with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology to examine the feasibility and expects to only lose five per cent efficiency during the winter from snow cover.