Catching sun Southern Alberta home to Canada’s largest solar facility

Catching sun

Southern Alberta home to Canada’s largest solar facility

The largest solar facility in Canada has achieved commercial operations as of April 2021 and is now producing clean, renewable power for the province of Alberta.

The Claresholm Solar Project is a 132MW solar farm located on 1,280 acres of agricultural land in the Municipal District of Willow Creek. It is comprised of approximately 477,198 photovoltaic solar panels, mounted on fixed-tilt racking with a total capacity of 132MW.

The project is a joint venture between Capstone Infrastructure Corporation, a renewable energy investment company based in Canada, and Obton A/S, a Danish investment company involved in the development of solar and wind power projects.

During construction, the project created 350 full-time jobs with peak site personnel reaching over 650 skilled workers. Over the course of the project’s operations, Claresholm is expected to provide on-going employment along with significant and stable long-term property tax revenue to the local economy.

“I’m tremendously proud of our team for safely and successfully completing the Claresholm Solar Project, now Canada’s largest operating solar farm,” says David Eva, CEO of Capstone. “This was an ambitious project with tight timelines, and Capstone and all our suppliers had the added burden of overcoming the numerous challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which they passed with flying colours.”

The majority of the Claresholm Solar Project’s power and associated emission offsets will be sold to TC Energy under the terms of a power purchase agreement (“PPA”), and the remaining power sold into Alberta’s wholesale power pool. “Working creatively and with unmatched dedication is integral to Capstone’s business philosophy,” says Eva. “We are extremely pleased to support TC Energy and the critical role that such corporate PPAs play in accelerating the transition to clean energy across North America.”

The terms of the PPA represent a supply of 74.25MW of electricity generated from the solar farm over an eight-year period to TC Energy.

“Capstone has shown incredible dedication to bringing this asset into service. Through collaborative partnerships like this one, we are bringing clean energy to the Alberta market,” says Corey Hessen, senior vice president and president of power, storage and commercial marketing at TC Energy. “This PPA represents another step toward reducing our emissions and growing our power business across North America.”