Greengate Power Corporation has received approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission to construct and operate its Travers Solar Project.
Dan Balaban, Greengate's president and CEO, says it’s a big day for everyone at the company who has worked so hard on the project.
"I think it’s a really good validation of all the work that we’ve been doing, it’s a great morale boost for the team because it’s a lot of effort to get to this point," said Balaban. "And I think it’s really put the wind in our sails as we’re in the final stages of finalizing this project."
The project will see up to 2.5 million solar panels installed on 1,900 hectares of land near the Village of Lomond in Vulcan County.
Now that the project has been approved, Greengate is working to secure financing.
"It’s about a half a billion dollar project, pretty substantial investment," said Balaban. "If things go according to our plan, and we are successful with our fundraising efforts we expect to be under construction early next year."
Travers Solar is expected to be Canada’s largest operating solar energy project and one of the largest in the world with a total generating capacity of 400 megawatts, a clean source of energy for more than 100,000 homes.
The company already has an operational wind farm in Vulcan County.
"We developed the largest wind farm in the country in that county, and now we’re following that up with the largest solar energy project, one of the largest in the world in that county,” said Balaban. “So Vulcan county is quietly becoming a renewable energy super power”.
Greengate hopes to start construction in the first half of 2020 and it is expected to take between 18 and 24 months to complete. It’s anticipated to operate for more than 35 years.
For additional information on the Travers Solar Project visit Greengate Power.
