A C$1.7-billion, 1.4-gigawatt solar farm is expected to be Canada’s largest once it’s fully online in 2026 or 2027, after Greek industrial and power giant Mytilineos SA decided it was “more comfortable” building in Canada than in the United States.
The development consists of five separate projects in southern Alberta that Mytilineos will buy from Calgary-based Westridge Renewable Energy Corp. for between $217 and $346 million, the Globe and Mail reports.
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“This is our first investment in Canada,” company CEO Evangelos Mytilineos, told the Globe. “Business conditions in Canada in general are good, and we feel more comfortable there than in the United States. Canada feels more like Europe to us.”
He added that global energy investors are looking at North America because the U.S. and Canada have both made the green transition a priority.
The new solar farm “will be built on separate plots in southern Alberta, one of the sunniest areas in Canada and home to many of the country’s biggest solar farms, including Greengate Power’s enormous Travers Solar Project, whose commercial operations began last November,” the Globe writes. The company’s Georgetown, Sunnynook, Dolcy, Eastervale and Red Willow solar farms “will be located in various counties and municipal districts” across the region.
The final price of the deal with Westridge will depend on the final capacity of the project, the need for battery storage, and the value of any applicable tax credits. A 1.4-GW project would be enough to power 200,000 average Alberta homes.
Mytilineos is an enterprise valued at €4.2-billion that traces its history to a family business launched in 1908. It operates gas plants in Greece, builds renewable energy projects, and operates one of Europe’s biggest aluminum refineries after buying it from Montreal-based Alcan in 2004.
