Utilities commission greenlights 42,000-panel solar farm near Killam, Alta.

February 26, 2025 Canuck

A new 42,000-panel solar farm in central Alberta is going ahead after approval by the Alberta Utilities Commission.

The farm is set to be built by PACE Canada Development LP just north of Killam, Alta., about 170 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

It’s an example of how the solar industry in the province continues to grow, even after a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy projects was announced by the provincial government in August 2023.

Known as the Generation Approvals Pause Regulation, the moratorium delayed the in-service dates of 42 projects by an average of 15 months, according to the clean energy think-tank Pembina Institute.

Dealing with the changing regulations and the changing minds of the government hasn’t made this an easy path, says Claude Mindorff, director of strategy for PACE.

“It’s been a struggle, you know, with the government of Alberta’s hiatus on renewable development,” he said.

“But truth be told with our developments, all of the things that the AUC was asking for in recent changes have been things that we are already doing. We already were practitioners of agrivoltaics. We already had a reclamation clause in our lease. We already consulted with the municipality.”

Agrivoltaics is a field that aims to combine solar energy production with agricultural activities, and an area the provincial government has focused on.

The province recently announced new rules for wind and solar energy projects, which stem from Premier Danielle Smith’s announcement around a year ago that Alberta would take an “agriculture first” approach toward renewable energy development, following the moratorium from 2023.

The rules prevent installations from being built on prime agricultural land unless developers can prove the project can co-exist with livestock and crops.

Mindorff said building solar farms outside or further away from urban areas is a rather Canadian approach to building solar farms. Building near cities and towns is something you see more of in Europe or the United States, Mindorff said.

“With the pushback on the use of agricultural lands, our strategy has been a good one,” he said.

“Because this is one of the things that the [ministry of] environment and protected areas is looking to see already disturbed lands or lands that are destined for more intensive development used for solar rather than solely putting them on farmland.”

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Only part of the solar project will be located on agricultural land — used for both annual crops and grazing cattle. There are also several water bodies on the land, something that Mindorff said PACE wants to leave untouched.

The AUC decision report states that PACE showed that the project can co-exist well with the agricultural use of the land. PACE has committed to a rotational grazing system plus space for annual crops.

Because of the project’s presence on designated agricultural land, the AUC could have decided to impose reporting conditions on the project, but it decided against it, “primarily because the project will be sited on land that was previously earmarked for non-agricultural uses.”

For Killam’s mayor, the 42,000-panel project is a big change for a relatively small place. Rick Krys has lived in the area for nearly 40 years, has been on council for half that time, and has been the mayor for about a year.

“Do I think it’s a bad thing? No. Do I think it’s a great thing? No,” Krys said in an interview.

“I mean, in all honesty, it’s kind of the way our world is going.”

Krys said his biggest concern is how the project will look.

“It’s not in the town but it’s across the town and you do see it every time you drive in,” he said.

One of the requests made by the town to the company is that the site be kept clean, weed-free and deals with dust.

Krys said the consultation process with PACE went well. The company held three meetings in the town, where residents had the chance to voice any concerns they had.

Once the AUC approves a project, the town is compelled to make it happen. Krys said he thinks residents might start to have more questions once the panels start coming in.

“You’re’ definitely going to have people that probably didn’t voice their opinion [before],” he said.

“But really honestly, I think we’ve done our due diligence and we’ve done what we can as far as the Town of Killam goes to make sure that we’re taking care of our residents.”

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