A serious photo voltaic challenge proposed to be constructed on a plot of land south of Calgary close to a lake listed as certainly one of Canada’s most necessary areas for birds has been rejected by the Alberta Utilities Fee (AUC).
Frank Lake is a wetland necessary to lots of of species of birds, starting from geese to trumpeter swans and peregrine falcons. The wetland east of Excessive River is listed as certainly one of Canada’s Essential Chicken Areas.
In keeping with the AUC resolution launched Thursday, the fee is just not satisfied that the general advantages of the challenge outweigh its destructive impacts.
“Foothills Photo voltaic argued that the challenge could be within the public curiosity for a number of causes, together with decreased greenhouse gasoline emissions and different native financial advantages…Nevertheless, the potential for the challenge to end in excessive chicken mortality, and the influence of the challenge on the Frank Lake IBA and the social and environmental values it represents are unacceptable,” the AUC report stated.
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The Alberta Wilderness Affiliation stated there should be photo voltaic growth for Alberta to strategy net-zero carbon targets, however growth should not come on the expense of weak species and habitats.
“Frank Lake is internationally acknowledged for its significance to nesting and migratory birds,” stated Ruiping Luo, AWA conservation specialist.
Luo stated AWA helps the siting of renewable power tasks on brownfields or in industrial websites.
“There are a lot of areas which have already been disturbed. There’s plenty of footprint from roads and oil and gasoline and from previous growth that may be reused for issues like this. From our perspective, a lot of the native habitat has already been misplaced – these ought to be the goal areas for any new developments,” stated Luo.
“There are plenty of wind tasks and plenty of photo voltaic tasks which were proposed and it is fairly a loopy time. It is the wild west,” stated Cliff Wallis, president of Cottonwood Consultants. He was an skilled witness on the hearings representing the native landowner group.
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Wallis stated whereas tasks like this are on non-public land, they contain public sources like wildlife.
“The birds that use the areas and the progeny that migrate by these areas, the farmland points – these are all issues of public curiosity that should be mentioned,” he stated.
He advocates for a complete coverage in Alberta to cope with the increase in photo voltaic and wind tasks.
“We have to have that dialog. Do we would like a threshold for sure courses of farmland to be protected towards these items? Do we would like migration routes for pronghorn to be revered? Ought to the tasks be nearer to the place the facility is used? Proper now it is, ‘let’s develop as many of those as shortly as we will.’ That is the coverage,” Wallis stated.
“There’s an unimaginable number of birds that nest within the Frank Lake space. It is a cacophony of sound in spring.”
Livingstone-Macleod NDP candidate Kevin Van Tighem helps the choice. The retired superintendent of Banff Nationwide Park stated, “fairly a number of individuals” within the space — each concerned in agriculture and people involved about wildlife — have issues in regards to the challenge.
“We positively have to proceed to increase our range of power sources on this province and there are good methods to do this, however we do not have to compromise values which might be necessary to us. We will have each if we plan properly and if we’ve good regulatory our bodies that take the principle selections,” stated Van Tighem.
The 150-megawatt Foothills photo voltaic challenge was proposed by Elemental Vitality Renewables Inc.
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