An Indigenous joint venture is just weeks away from cutting the ribbon on a C$52-million, 23.6-megawatt solar farm in southeastern Alberta that will generate enough electricity to power 20,000 average homes per year.
The Tilley Solar project is a combined effort of the Alexander Business Centre, based in Morinville north of Edmonton, and British Columbia-based First Nation Power Development, which connects Indigenous communities with renewable energy projects. “Developed in collaboration with renewable power developer Concord Green Energy and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), the project is intended to serve as a model for other Indigenous-owned clean energy projects,” the Globe and Mail reports.
“Having a sustainable, consistent revenue stream from a project like this is important for us, just as it’s important for other First Nations,” said Alexander Business Centre CEO Ian Arcand.
When funding was announced in April 2024, the CIB said the project would consist of 69,450 fixed-tilt photovoltaic panels, create up to 150 full-time jobs during construction, and reduce climate pollution by 14,200 tonnes per year once it goes into operation this spring.
The Globe notes that Tilley Solar was approved before the Alberta government slapped a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy development in August 2023, costing the province 53 cancelled projects and $91 million per year in local tax revenue. Subsequent restrictions were expected to close off 40% of the province from renewables development, triggering a period of policy uncertainty that led power purchase agreements across the province to stall out.
Before the provincial moratorium and subsequent interventions, Alberta accounted for about 92% of the growth in Canadian renewable energy markets, the Globe writes.
“Alberta needs to proceed with caution: it is counterproductive to jeopardize existing wind and solar projects,” Canadian Renewable Energy Association President and CEO Vittoria Bellissimo said in December, after Alberta introduced new electricity market rules that undercut the financial viability of renewable energy development.
“These projects were built in good faith but could fail if they cannot repay their debt, causing credit downgrades across the sector,” Bellissimo added. “This will raise borrowing costs for companies and ultimately increase the cost of electricity for customers.”
