Alberta wind farm scrapped as ‘pristine viewscape’ rule change bites

TransAlta has cancelled the proposed 300MW Riplinger wind project, which was expected to come online in 2027. 

The utility – one of the province’s largest power generators – has also shelved the 100MW Tempest wind project, as well as a gas project and a battery storage project. 

It scrapped plans for the Riplinger project due to new rules and a lack of clarity on renewables development in Alberta, it explained. 

In February, the government of Alberta announced it would ban wind or solar projects in certain agricultural areas and impose a 35km buffer in areas with “pristine viewscapes”.

“As we take stock of the government of Alberta’s regulatory announcements, we reassessed our own growth plans in the province,” TransAlta CEO John Kousinioris said during a recent earnings call.

“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, and it’s a little opaque right now.”

Conservative Alberta has been the centre of renewable energy development in Canada, and it is also home to much of the country’s oil and gas development. 

Clean energy think tank the Pembina Institute has suggested that the new rules could affect six wind farms out of those proposed in the province. 

Jason Wang, a senior analyst for electricity at Pembina, noted the sea change in Alberta. In 2023, 90% of renewables projects developed in Canada were in Alberta, he said. 

The new rules have created uncertainty in the renewables investment market, he noted. Even provincial regulators have said that concerns could have been addressed within existing processes, Wang added. 

Many projects may now be paused, or delayed, with – in some cases – developers looking at other Canadian provinces or the US instead, said Wang. “The developers and financers do not want to let their capital sit around,” he said. 

“We would expect others to be cancelled,” he added. “They may be cancelled quietly.” He noted that TransAlta is a public company. 

According to the Alberta Electric System Operator, there are 34 wind projects with 7.1GW of capacity publicly proposed or in development, of which three are wind-storage hybrids.