Irish-based renewables business DP Energy is building one of Canada’s biggest solar farms in a €400 million-plus development.
Based in Buttevant, Co Cork, DP Energy designs and builds wind- and solar-powered electricity plants in Ireland, Britain, Australia and Canada.
Adam Cronin, chief operating officer, confirmed on Thursday that it has won approval for its proposed Saamis Solar farm in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada that will generate enough electricity to supply 250,000 homes.
At 325 mega watts (MW), with 600,000 solar panels, it will be the second largest in Canada and, according to Mr Cronin, the biggest such power plant in any urban area in the country.
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The company has not said how much the development will cost, but Alberta’s state government values the investment at $600 million Canadian dollars (€420 million).
“We should start construction in the first quarter of next year,” Mr Cronin predicted.
DP Energy is seeking a potential buyer to operate the solar plant once it is finished.
Mr Cronin said the Irish company operates by identifying suitable sites for projects, working on design, planning approval and construction, often with partners in the case of bigger developments. It sells the projects, or its interest in them, generally once they are complete, or at key points during their development, such as when they have received planning approvals and licences.
Alongside considerations such as electricity grid access and energy policy, the company seeks areas where developments have minimal environmental impact when it is choosing sites.
Mr Cronin noted that Saamis is on an industrial landfill site that “cannot be used for anything else”.
Founded 30 years ago by mother and son Maureen and Simon De Pietro, who own the company, DP was among the first businesses to build wind farms in Ireland and Britain.
Early in the 2000s it sold some assets to State company ESB, using the cash raised to fund expansion into other countries. It employs fewer than 50 full-time staff, Mr Cronin said, but he added that it regularly hires contractors and consultants to work with it.
About five employees work in Canada, focused on identifying suitable development sites.
It is still active in the Republic, where it has agreed a partnership with Spanish-based energy giant Iberdrola, to work on offshore wind projects.
It is also joining forces with ESB and French utility ÉDF, to bid for capacity in Celtic Round 5, in which the British government will allocate space off the Welsh coast for offshore developments.
Mr Cronin warned that the Irish Government was missing an opportunity to exploit the State’s potentially lucrative offshore energy resources.
He noted that the Government originally intended that up to 2030, developers would choose offshore sites and build wind farms. “But then they did a U-turn,” he added, saying that it opted instead for a “plan-led” approach for the next phase of development in an area earmarked by Government off the southeast coast.
This approach means that Government chooses where developers will build. So far, the State has identified one site with a capacity to produce about 900MW, which Mr Cronin argued was not enough to lure international capital.
“The Government is still struggling with it, they are not moving fast enough,” he said, adding that the relevant departments did not have the resources they need to do the work at the required pace.
Elsewhere in Canada, DP is working on a 200MW wind farm in Saskatchewan in partnership with the Piapot First Nation, and planning a 400MW floating wind plant with SBM Offshore near Nova Scotia.
Overall, it has projects with a total capacity of 9,700MW under development across Ireland, Britain, Australia and Canada.
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