Canada: Soventix to develop up to 140 MW across six sites

The province of Alberta, in Canada's west, is emerging as be fertile territory for solar developers. The home of the country's polluting oil sands industry, the province is switching to renewables under the provincial government's new clean energy targets.

Alberta's first government to be led by the New Democratic Party (NDP) has set a renewable target of 30% to be achieved by 2030. As a part of this process it is rolling out a competitive procurement process known as the Renewable Electricity Program (REP).

The first round will see 400 MW of large scale renewables added to Alberta's grids.

Soventix is looking to transfer its experience in developing projects in Ontario to Alberta and says that has been expanding its operations in the province. Soventix says that it has been screening potential sites.

By the time the REP was announced, in November 2016, Soventix reports that it had secured land at the six sites in preparation for the REP bidding process.

“We are excited about the projects we are developing in Alberta and look forward to bringing these projects into operation under Alberta’s new initiative to incentivize the procurement of new renewable energy generation”, says Michael Kendon, Managing Director, Soventix Canada, in a statement.

In 2016, Soventix delivered 11 projects under Ontario's feed-in tariff program, in partnership with SolarShare, a renewables co-operative investment fund.

In December, developer EDF EN Canada received approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission to build a 77.5 MW plant in Alberta – which would be the province's first utility scale solar array.

The Albertan government is also looking to procure 50% of its electricity needs from solar.

“The Canadian market has potential and the necessary foundations for appropriate participation in growth have been laid,” said Soventix Managing Director Claas Fierlings. “We are planning to expand our activities to enable our investors to participate in the attractive prospects of the Canadian solar market.”