The Saamis Solar Project, if the City of Medicine Hat's purchase is approved, will help offset carbon levies. Stangot/Dreamstime.com

By Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat seeks approval to buy major solar park project planned for city’s north end

Aug 27, 2024 | 5:27 PM

The City of Medicine Hat revealed on Tuesday its intent to purchase a large solar park project that, if successful, will mark a major step by the municipality to diversify its taxpayer-owned electricity generation business and prepare for a future of increased fossil fuel levies.

Rochelle Pancoast, the city’s managing director of energy, land and environment, said the purchase will allow the city to scale up the project gradually in a way where it can meet the needs of Medicine Hat and green energy requests from commercial customers.

The investment will diversify Medicine Hat’s largely thermal and natural gas-fueled energy portfolio that will allow the city to offset increasing carbon levy costs and prepare for a coming energy transition to cleaner sources, Pancoast explained.

“Plus, regardless of decarbonization targets, we expect that this project, if we do move forward and build, will contribute to our bottom line in a positive way,” she told CHAT News from city hall on Tuesday.

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Managing director Rochelle Pancoast says the solar project will contribute to the city’s bottom line. Bob Schnieder/CHAT News

The solar power plant and accompanying substation were approved, with conditions, by the Alberta Utilities Commission on July 18, under the ownership of Saamis Solar Park Ltd, part of the Irish-headquartered DP Energy Group.

The current AUC approval enables construction to begin in 2025 and to be in service by 2027. By purchasing the project, the city would follow the same timeline but would break up construction into multiple stages, building up over time.

One of the key purchase conditions is the city’s application to the utilities commission on Tuesday to acquire regulatory approval and to get permission to build a project of this size within the provincial utilities exemption granted to Medicine Hat.

“We also still will need to negotiate our lease agreement with the landowner of the property, and before any build, we will need to have council approval as well as additional regulatory approvals.” Pancoast said.

Cash for the initial purchase from DP Energy Group has already been approved by council through its business development initiatives funding.

Pancoast said the city expects to hear back on if it can buy the project by the end of 2024.

The proposed Saamis Solar Park lies on 1,600 acres in the city’s north end.

The Alberta Utilities Commission approved the Saamis Solar Project in July. File/AUC

Officials said said the solar project is considered a productive use of vacant contaminated lands from the former Westco Fertilizer plant as it’s property not yet ready for longer term residential development.

Medicine Hat in 2019 pulled the plug on a $13-million concentrated solar power facility after operating it for about five years, a test to determine if the technology was a feasible way to use the sun’s heat to replace energy created by the natural gas plants.

That failed experiment is not related to the Saamis initiative, Pancoast explained.

“That’s an entirely different technology,” she said, adding it was found not viable in Medicine Hat’s colder climate.

“However, the technology we’re looking at now is very mainstream and commercially viable and that’s why our forecast today suggests that it does add profitably to our bottom line.”