Alberta is at risk of losing its standing as Canada’s go-to destination for renewable energy investment, as continuing uncertainty after its seven-month project moratorium collides with other provinces’ growing embrace of technologies like solar, wind, and battery storage.
Before the provincial government sprung a sudden moratorium last August on renewable energy projects over a megawatt in size, Alberta accounted for 92% of Canada’s new solar and wind capacity. By the time the seven-month pause ended with a provincial announcement Wednesday, multiple investors had shifted their gaze to jurisdictions with more predictable rules and regulations, with at least one developer writing the province off as a “banana republic”.
With this week’s news, one analyst said Alberta has become “one of the only jurisdictions in the world trying to frustrate the deployment of cheap, clean, renewable electricity.”
“What the announcement brought was the awareness that it’s probably time and money that can be better spent elsewhere, so that we can do something that’s competitive,” said Grant Arnold, CEO of Calgary-based BluEarth Renewables, a company that has invested more than C$600 million to develop 333 megawatts of wind and solar in Alberta over the last three years.
“While the pause has lifted, there remains significant uncertainty and risk for investors wishing to participate in Canada’s hottest market for renewables,” Vittoria Bellissimo, president and CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA), said in a release. “It is critical to get these policy changes right, and to do so quickly.”
Keep up with this important breaking story.