Sprawling photo voltaic farms have raised considerations that renewable vitality will hurt meals manufacturing in Canada — together with in Alberta, the place the province has paused approval of any giant wind or photo voltaic initiatives.
In August, the Authorities of Alberta introduced the moratorium would final till Feb. 29, 2024. On the time, it cited considerations about land use and reclamation, particularly the affect on agricultural, leisure and Crown land.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith informed CBC’s What on Earth in an interview in September: “We can’t be placing huge quantities of photo voltaic panels on prime agriculture land. That’s one of many issues that we’ve heard loud and clear.”
She added, “These are taking on acres and acres and acres of prime farmland in some circumstances. And so we need to be sure that they’re on marginal lands.”
However how a lot “prime farmland” would these initiatives take? Right here’s a more in-depth look.
What On Earth15:38Danielle Smith on Ottawa, oil and gasoline emissions, and why Alberta needs to be ‘the final barrel out there’
Featured VideoAlberta’s premier is an enormous booster of the province’s oil and gasoline business, and a harsh critic of Ottawa’s local weather insurance policies. So after Steven Guilbeault referred to as her out on What on Earth final week, she provided to return on the present to have her say. In a characteristic interview, Laura Lynch asks Premier Smith about pushing again on federal emissions targets, placing a moratorium on new renewables, and why she champions fossil gas manufacturing after a summer time of local weather reckoning.
Widespread considerations
In Alberta, comparable worries had beforehand been expressed by rural municipal politicians in Alberta and the federal Conservative Occasion’s agriculture critic, John Barlow, MP for the southern Alberta using of Foothills.
Elsewhere, Jessica Nixon, director of financial improvement for the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, who can also be a cattle and grain farmer, wrote in an opinion piece on the Clean50 web site in March that not sufficient consideration is given to the agricultural worth of land getting used for photo voltaic, and that poses a menace to farmland.
Such considerations aren’t distinctive to Canada, says Sara Hastings-Simon, an affiliate professor on the College of Calgary who research vitality transition and public coverage. “You’ve actually heard it mentioned in different nations.”
And she will be able to perceive why.
“It’s placing, proper? While you’re standing in entrance of considered one of these photo voltaic farms. They’re giant on a human scale.”
Featured VideoThe Alberta authorities is pausing the approval of recent giant renewable vitality initiatives for almost seven months in response to considerations about growing wind and photo voltaic initiatives on agricultural land.
The place Alberta’s photo voltaic is now
Is photo voltaic actually taking on plenty of prime farmland in Alberta? Ian Urquhart, professor emeritus of political science on the College of Alberta, regarded into the query in The Tyee final month.
He discovered most photo voltaic initiatives permitted in Alberta between 2019 and 2023 are on farmland rated as “extreme or worse” for crop manufacturing. (Farmland is rated primarily based on limitations reminiscent of low fertility, rockiness or steep slopes.)
One venture permitted this previous July, Creekside Photo voltaic Mission in Leduc, is anticipated to occupy 127 acres of high-value “Class 2” agricultural land. Nevertheless, Urquhart stated that’s simply “0.03 per cent of the perfect agricultural land within the nation,” based on the developer, and sheep farmers and crop producers are focused on farming between the photo voltaic panels, an idea referred to as agrivoltaics.
Alberta’s future photo voltaic wants
With renewable vitality rising, nevertheless, extra land could be wanted. That’s one thing Hastings-Simon has regarded into, particularly for Alberta.
The Alberta Electrical System Operator initiatives that Alberta would want to extend its photo voltaic technology capability from the present 1.3 GW to five.2 GW via 2041 so as to make the provincial grid net-zero emissions by 2035, as required by the federal authorities.
In a coverage temporary printed final month, Hastings-Simon calculated that new technology would require 38,000 acres (154 sq. kilometres). Whereas that seems like lots, it’s simply 0.08 per cent of agricultural land within the province — “lower than a tenth of 1 per cent,” Hastings-Simon stated.
Her response when she noticed that was “undoubtedly shock,” she stated.
The calculations confirmed that even when all new photo voltaic farms have been constructed solely on the perfect, irrigated farmland, they might nonetheless solely use three per cent of that type of farmland.
Featured VideoThis week’s federal finances revealed the Liberal Occasion’s plans to supply clear vitality from coast to coast. However making {that a} actuality can be a large enterprise, logistically and politically.
What a photo voltaic future would imply Canada-wide
As for the remainder of the nation, one other group of Canadian researchers printed their calculations concerning the land wanted for renewable vitality simply this month, within the peer-reviewed journal Renewable Vitality.
The analysis group included Keena Trowell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at McMaster College in Hamilton, Ont., who puzzled how a lot land could be wanted to transition all vitality — together with electrical technology, transportation, heating and manufacturing — to renewables.
They determined to have a look at the “worst-case situation,” land-wise, the place all new renewable vitality could be photo voltaic.
That may takes up plenty of land in comparison with, say, wind generators and wouldn’t generate a lot energy within the winter, when plenty of vitality is required for heating. That may require longer-term vitality storage and a few vitality — as much as 1 / 4 — could be misplaced within the course of.
On this situation, the researchers estimated we would want a minimal of almost 5 instances {the electrical} technology we’ve got now, and about 36,100 sq. kilometres of land would must be lined in photo voltaic panels. Whereas that seems like lots, the researchers discovered it’s solely 5.6 per cent of the land utilized in Canada for agriculture.
The place photo voltaic panels might go
The researchers word that placing renewable vitality on brownfield industrial websites has already been inspired by Authorities of Alberta coverage, and there’s plenty of land that has been developed for oil and gasoline extraction “that’s sitting there and may’t actually be used for the rest,” Trowell stated.
“Effectively, what if we simply slapped a bunch of photo voltaic panels there?”
Her research discovered that there’s greater than sufficient of one of these land appropriate for photo voltaic initiatives to decarbonize all of Canada’s vitality wants with photo voltaic mixed with storage in carbon-neutral fuels. You wouldn’t have to dig into agricultural land in any respect.
The research additionally urged built-up land, reminiscent of rooftops, as an choice. Decarbonizing simply the electrical energy grid (as an alternative of all vitality) would cowl solely 16 per cent of this built-up land.
Hastings-Smith stated landfills are one other nice choice, as they’re additionally near the place electrical energy is getting used.
Featured VideoThe Leduc Recreation Centre is now lined with 3,622 photo voltaic panels, making it the most important rooftop photo voltaic set up within the province.
Nonetheless, farmland may be simpler
In her article, Saskatchewan farmer Jessica Nixon famous that three photo voltaic initiatives developed in Saskatchewan in 2021 and 2022 have been developed on 360 acres of beforehand cultivated land. That’s as a result of they have been flat, near a grid interconnection level, and the landowners have been prepared to lease the land.
Nixon argued that farming is excessive threat, and a few farmers could make twice as a lot cash whereas shouldering a a lot decrease threat by leasing their land out for photo voltaic farms.
Hasting-Simon thinks it’s unlikely that house owners of the highest-value agricultural land would put photo voltaic there, however notes that even when they did, there could be plenty of that land left.
She added that plenty of agricultural land is already getting used to supply vitality, not meals, rising corn and wheat to supply ethanol as gas for automobiles.
“If the priority is a land use perspective, then we needs to be occupied with how one can speed up electrification of transportation and convert land that’s getting used to develop gas … into photo voltaic PV as an alternative,” stated Hastings-Simon, as that’s way more environment friendly.
“We must be involved about native land use and siting and environmental impacts,” Hastings-Simon stated. “However in the case of the query of do we’ve got sufficient agricultural land within the province to construct out photo voltaic, I believe there’s a really clear reply which is sure.”
Trowell stated the outcomes of her research are excellent news.
“Canada has sufficient renewable potential and land that may’t be used for the rest to begin to transfer this transition,” she stated. “It’s going to take a large funding, however we’ve got to consider it as an funding as a result of it can pay dividends down the road.”