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Today, @SPhillipsAB announced that Alberta has created the conditions for 4.8 cent-per-kilowatt-hour solar energy. This news cements solar energy's place in any future scenario of affordable electricity in Alberta. #ableg #abpoli
Really, the only way that solar gets shut out going forward would be a government in denial about solar's part in our lowest-cost mix of electricity, whose members harbour irrational animus against solar or renewables.
Unfortunately, that is on offer in 2019. A few examples as evidence.
May 31, 2018, UCP MLA Aheer: “Did you know that zero power is produced at the solar place in Brooks. Zero power is produced 64 per cent of the time. Zero power is produced 64 per cent of the time. I don’t know. I would call that unstable.”
This is a complete and total red herring. The amount of generation from solar facilities factors into the price outcome. Moreover, far higher solar penetration is completely compatible with a stable, affordable, reliable, and indeed more price-resilient power grid.
May 30, 2018, UCP MLA Loewen: "We hear about solar farms that take up a quarter section to three sections that are only 4 per cent efficient. We look at the AESO reports that said many, many times that wind or solar is providing zero or 3 per cent of our electricity needs."
This is entirely fabricated. Only irrational disdain for the industry and its technology could cause myth perpetration on this scale.
May 28, 2018, UCP MLA Barnes: “I hear daily about a big solar plant that’s taking up, I think, maybe a quarter section of land and is only 4 per cent efficient. … I don’t know that it’s a hundred per cent accurate.” Ditto.
June 4, 2018, UCP MLA Aheer: “The government of Alberta is planning to... procure over half of its energy from solar power electricity. So, Madam Chair, do we know what the costs to taxpayers are?”
Yes: $3.9 million in savings per year.
June 4, 2018, UCP MLA Anderson: "this government's ideological plane and a shift from a reliable market such as coal to other forms of electricity. They wanted to take that away and move it towards what we think is an unreliable market such as wind and solar."
???
Nov 26, 2018, UCP MLA Smith: "the fact that we have renewables and solar and wind provides some real problems for the province of Alberta".
And to take the cake: Nov 9, 2016, UCP MLA Aheer: "that means more energy is used to make the [solar] panels than will ever be recovered from them during their 25 year lifetime… A PV panel will produce more CO2 than if coal were simply used directly to make electricity.”
This is a baseless conspiracy that has been debunked repeatedly for years. But wait for it... she went on: "solar PV is not an energy source but is an
energy sink... That is for Switzerland and Germany… it would actually be considerably worse in northern jurisdictions.”
energy sink... That is for Switzerland and Germany… it would actually be considerably worse in northern jurisdictions.”
So. Much. Wrong. As I said, this has been resoundingly debunked, even for Switzerland and Germany. Also, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are south of 3/4 of Germany. And our solar resource is WAY WAY better. 
And last June, Kenney and Aheer both mocked this very solar procurement that was announced today. They said that at 6 cents (reminder: we landed 4.8 cents, in the end), this would come at too high a cost for Albertans.
Never mind that the average wholesale power price in the last 10 years of conservative rule in Alberta was 6.8 cents. Never mind that the average price has been higher than 4.8 cents every year except 2009 (when it was 4.8 cents), 2015, 2016 and 2017.
And never mind that solar energy produces power during higher-cost hours of the year, mitigating many price spikes and reducing prices for consumers.
If you accept the facts in front of you, the role for solar in energy production, diversification and sustainability in Alberta is clear. If you enter the conversation primed to despise renewables, you come up with the comments above.
Fortunately, 2019 also offers a choice for those who are interested in developing energy responsibly, instead of slandering particular energy types irrationally. The @albertaNDP have a record on offer. Since April 2015, solar generation in Alberta has grown from 6 MW to 55 MW.
Most of this (40 MW) is micro-generation: people, businesses, institutions and communities producing power for themselves. This is thanks in large measure to carbon-levy-funded supports that help consumers to save energy and generate revenue for their clean power.
With today's announcement, Alberta will take this 9-fold increase and re-double it, adding another 56 MW. And because these 3 projects are bi-facial and tracking, the solar energy production will more than double -- much more.
This sets the industry on a course to grow, accelerate investment and create jobs in Alberta. It sets Albertans on a course to save money. And it sets the world on a course to take note of Alberta as a leading opportunity for clean energy investment.
