TransAlta scraps wind farm project as energy market changes loom for Alberta

TransAlta, one of Alberta's largest power generators, has cancelled a proposed wind farm development and is putting a hold on three other power projects, citing provincial rule changes and a lack of certainty in the market.

In February, Alberta's government announced new rules on the development of renewable power in the province. They imposed a new 35-kilometre buffer zone around areas deemed "pristine viewscapes."

Calgary-based TransAlta said those rules, coupled with a lack of clarity around the future of renewable energy in Alberta, led to the decision to permanently scrap the Riplinger wind project, near Cardston, Alta.

The company began looking into the 300-megawatt wind farm in 2020, and has done studies to assess its environmental impact. It was expected to come online in 2027.

The 180-megawatt WaterCharger battery storage facility near Cochrane, the 100-megawatt Tempest wind project south of Lethbridge and the 44-megawatt Pinnacle generator west of Edmonton have been put on hold.

During a first-quarter results call on Friday, TransAlta CEO John Kousinioris said the province's looming market redesign has forced the company to reconsider its growth plans.

Calgary-based TransAlta says it will shelve the proposed Riplinger wind farm project. (Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press)

"As we take stock of the government of Alberta's regulatory announcements, we reassessed our own growth plans in the province," Kousinioris said.

"These projects all have varying degrees of merchant market exposure and have been put on hold until we receive sufficient clarity regarding the future market structure and the impact of changing frameworks on resulting market prices."

The no-go zone rule followed a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy approvals after the government decided the industry was growing too quickly, threatening agriculture and marring Alberta's landscape.

A map released in March shows that the buffer zone includes the entire length of the Rocky Mountains, stretching as far east as Calgary and south to the U.S. border. Kousinioris said the Riplinger project would have been on the edge of an exclusion zone.

Three projects held

According to Kousinioris, two of the developments put on hold were quite novel projects.

WaterCharger, the largest of the halted projects, is a 180-megawatt battery storage project that would sit on roughly nine acres of land 18 kilometres west of Cochrane. It was expected to be completed this year.

The facility, according to TransAlta, is designed to be charged by electricity produced by the existing Ghost hydroelectric plant when demand is lower.

During times of higher demand, power from the new facility would be discharged to support the electric grid.

Pinnacle, a 44-megawatt thermal project in Parkland County, Alta., was expected to generate around 60,000 megawatt-hours of electricity by 2025 — its expected first year of operation before being placed on hold.

"We're very careful with our shareholders' money, and we're not going to invest in these kinds of projects unless we have a good level of comfort that our return expectations are going to be met," Kousinioris said.

Tempest is another wind farm that TransAlta started developing in 2006. It's a 99-megawatt project located approximately 15 kilometres east of Stirling, Alta., in Warner County.

"The other projects are on hold, they're not cancelled," Kousinioris said, adding that his team is working to preserve them and will move them forward once they get the clarity they need.

"There are things that that could be resurrected and investments that could be made there."