By Charles Lefebvre

Solar thermal plant will not operate this year

May 13, 2019 | 12:34 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The City of Medicine Hat is working to determine the next step for the Solar Thermal Plant, after announcing it will not be operating this year.

The plant, located near the Gas City Campground, opened in 2014 as a pilot project to examine the feasibility of concentrated solar thermal energy in Canada at 50 degrees north latitude.

The solar panels would heat fluid in a pipe that was connected to the main power plant, and turn it into steam, being used to generate electricity.

However, Brian Strandlund, general manager of electric generation with the city, says the facility ran into problems during the winter months.

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“Due to the sun’s angle, we don’t have the same intensity during the winter, and we couldn’t produce steam with the available sun,” he said.

As a result, the facility would primarily operate from May to October.

“During that time, we’re at risk to all kinds of wind events and also rain and clouds coming over that would stop the steam from being produced,” sad Strandlund. “During that time, we were off and on, and some years were better than others.”

Strandlund says the project was meant primarily as a way to test new technology, and not be a revenue generator for the city. He notes the project did give them an idea of what needs to be done to create a solar thermal project in the future that could potentially be more successful.

“At this latitude, we couldn’t get the steam that we wanted out of this unit to produce,” he said. “The cost, because of that here, should be two or three times lower to make it viable, and the size of the unit has to be a lot larger than it was.”

Strandlund adds any future innovation projects in Medicine Hat will have to be done on its own merits and be economically viable before it goes any further.

The project cost $9 million./p>

Discussions are underway about the future of the site, and Strandland says one possibility is turning the site into an “innovation park” for renewable energy. He says they expect a decision within six months.