Saturn Power building 10 megawatt solar power project in Southwest

The RM of Coulee will be the home for a 10 megawatt utility-scale solar power project to be built by Saturn Power.

In a press announcement on Tuesday, Saturn Power announced they have signed a 20 year power purchase agreement with Saskpower for power production from what will be known as the Highfield Solar Project. Electricity from the site is anticipated to be on line as early as the end of 2019.

“We look forward to helping Saskatchewan meet its carbon emission targets, in order to progress the use of clean energy and, most importantly, build a sustainable environment for future generations,” stated Ray Roth, co-founder and COO of Saturn Power Inc.

Saturn Power is a renewable energy company, headquartered in Baden, Ontario. It has over 100 MWS of solar, wind, and energy storage projects in operation and construction worldwide. The company prides itself on its mission in striving for a sustainable world, through both environmental stewardship and community collaboration.

“This is an important project for Saskpower and the people of this province and I’d like to congratulate everyone at Saturn Power on their successful proposal,” said Mike Marsh, President and CEO of Saskpower. “Saskpower has set a goal of greatly increasing our renewable generation capacity by 2030. Saskatchewan people can expect to see more announcements like this in the years to come as we work towards that commitment.”

The competitive process for this project got underway in 2016. During the request for proposals process, Saskpower evaluated 16 proposals from 12 of the 34 pre-qualified proponents. All proposals were evaluated equally through an open and transparent process. Saskpower will now start preparing for the next competitive process for an additional 10 MW project, which we hope to launch in early 2019.

In 2015, Saskpower announced it would reduce emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, which will involve increasing the percentage of renewable electricity from 25 per cent of overall capacity to as much as 50 per cent. Saskpower plans to have 60 MW of solar generation by 2021.