SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
Pace Canada presented an online virtual update to the Bassano Solar Project last week to a handful of people.
The plan is to construct the 15 megawatt farm on 115 acres of land with 33,672 bi-facial single axis tracker panels, inverters and batteries.
The property will include agrivoltaics, which is farming around and under the panels giving them the opportunity to grow something on the land with planned irrigation.
One person asked if the company would consider building on 60 acres but it was explained that the project was increased to achieve agrivoltaics.
“You have a lower solar megawatt per acre in order to achieve an improved agrivoltaics plan,” said Jon Poulin, director of development and engineering at Pace.
While a meeting in the spring saw 34 attendees, last week there were just five.
Rhonda Barron, communications director with Pace, said two stakeholders remain concerned about the view from their properties.
“They are accustomed to looking out on an agricultural field and you know they’re upset that they’ll have to be looking at a solar farm,” she said.
To mitigate the view Barron said the company is committed to bioscreening or landscaping in the northeast corner of the project. They are also in the early days of opening a conversation with the Eastern Irrigation District to potentially extend the waterline to maintain the bioscreen and potentially share water with nearby acreages.
“This is very much just an idea. We’ve reached out to set up a meeting,” Barron stressed.
“Currently, what’s available is not adequate based what we’re seeing, so that’s why we’re working with MPE Engineering to actually look at a feasible solution to ensure that the bioscreen remains in place over the long term,” said Poulin.
Barron said the company is also open to planting trees on the landowner’s property, however, irrigation is a challenge.
“I know one of the landowners that’s across the street from the property has had challenges keeping his own trees alive. Just in terms of the aridity of the area. So that is obviously an issue.”
Barron was asked why panels are not placed on rooftops or in parking lots.
“That’s not our business model,” she responded.
A change that was made from earlier meetings has resulted in moving the battery from the north end of town to the east which will ensure the company meets the noise regulation while bringing them closer to the interconnection point.
Noise and glare impacts which are mandatory reports as part of the AUC process are being completed by a third party and will be available when they are finished, however, some early information includes that there are 48 wildlife species on the land and while there were no active bird nests they did see nests and recorded that there are temporary water bodies.
Alberta Environment has noted in Pace’s Brooks project because the farm is located within an urban area the siting of the development limits impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat.
“It’s much better from an environmental perspective to site the solar farm in an urban location because it does minimize impact to wildlife and wildlife habitat,” Barron said quoting Alberta Environment and Protection.
Other concerns that were expressed include depreciation or devaluation of property, noise from the battery and the transformers, solar glare, loss of agricultural land and gopher management.
“Those are the main concerns that we’ve heard.”
