Cory Morgan: Environmentalists Should Be Lauding Alberta’s Temporary Pause on Renewable Projects

Wind turbines are seen at a wind farm near Pincher Creek, Alta., in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

Commentary

Alberta’s six-month pause on approvals for large renewable energy projects appeared to come out of left field. Alberta has been considered Canada’s leader in wind and solar projects as developments spring up around the province. Billions of dollars are being invested, thousands of jobs created, and emissions ostensibly are being reduced.

Why on earth would the government suddenly tap the brakes on such a lucrative field?

Not all is necessarily rosy when it comes to renewable energy projects. They can have a serious impact on rural areas environmentally and aesthetically. Rural municipalities have been raising concerns about the speed and scope of new energy projects being built, though it appears to have been underreported.

While environmental activists and green energy advocates are apoplectic with the pause on renewable energy project approvals, they also have been harshly critical of the government for not regulating oil and gas developments enough. They want stringent controls on conventional energy development but want the government to fast-track approvals for renewable projects.

There are several issues the government should be considering when approving new projects and pausing to have a closer look at the impact of these developments is warranted.

The renewable energy boom has been explosive in Alberta. According to the Alberta government website, over 50 large-scale renewable energy projects are either proposed or under construction right now. The estimated cost of those projects is over $12 billion and it is expected that much more investment is on the way. That all sounds great to an urban-dwelling Albertan, but what does it mean to rural citizens living near these mega-projects?

The loss of viable farmland must be taken into consideration. In Southern Alberta, the Travers Solar Project just reached completion at a cost of $700 million. It’s one of the largest projects of its kind in North America, and took 3,200 acres of farmland and pasture out of service. Local wildlife has been impacted as mile after mile of what used to be open land is now covered in tightly spaced solar panels.

The Travers project is adding an impressive 360 megawatts of power to the Alberta power grid and is emission-free. The Calgary Energy Centre is a natural gas-fired energy plant generating 320 megawatts of power. It creates emissions but takes up fewer than 10 acres of land.

The environmental impact of the gas wells and pipelines needs to be taken into consideration with gas generation. With renewable projects, the heavy metals mined and transported for solar panels and wind turbines need to be considered along with the energy expended in fabrication.

Reliability is a big factor when it comes to wind and solar-generated electricity.

When the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, the province still needs a form of power. Becoming overly dependent upon renewables could lead to blackouts and brownouts if there isn’t enough conventional generating capacity to fill the void when the weather doesn’t cooperate with solar and wind projects. Storing power generated through renewable sources is difficult and could require massive battery farms using toxic heavy metals. Wind and solar projects have proven themselves to be great supplemental forms of energy but aren’t good standalone sources.

Land reclamation for these projects is another big issue.

The Alberta government hasn’t traditionally done a good job in ensuring oil and gas wells and projects are reclaimed by companies. The province is littered with orphaned and abandoned wells that need expensive remediation. Oil and gas companies drilled the wells, produced the product, and often fled the scene without cleaning up fully after themselves in decades gone by. Many of the energy companies no longer exist and the reclamation has been landing on taxpayers in many cases.

Landowners have also found themselves on the hook as they can’t use parts of their property due to abandoned oil and gas wells and many are no longer being paid the fees they were initially promised when the wells and infrastructure were developed. They are rightly concerned when large wind and solar projects are springing up next to them.

Solar panels are difficult to recycle, as are worn-out wind turbine blades. Who will be on the hook when these projects have reached the end of their production cycle?

The Alberta government hasn’t said they will not allow the future development of renewable energy projects. It’s just pausing to ensure it’s getting things right.

In the words of Affordability and Utilities Minister Nate Neudorf, “We want to see more construction going ahead. We do want to provide clear guardrails for how and where that happens.”

Environmentalists should be applauding the Alberta government’s caution in approving projects until it can ensure environmental impacts are assessed and remediation will be done. Unfortunately, they are letting ideology get in the way as they fervently support renewable energy projects without looking at the potential adverse impacts.

The Alberta government wants to get this boom right.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.