78 | PEG SUMMER 2014

FEATURE

Sol ProviderBY CORINNE LUTTERMember & Internal Communications Coordinator

How often do you get to blaze a new trail in Alberta’s energy

industry? That’s a question Ian Rogers has pondered lately as his

company charges forward with the development of Alberta’s first

utility-scale solar farm. His conclusion: not very often. But that’s not

going to keep Calgary-based GTE Solar from breaking new ground

in unchartered territory.

“We want to be that trailblazer,” says Mr. Rogers, GTE’s presi-

dent and CEO. “The Alberta grid can probably handle upwards of

about 600 megawatts from solar power. There’s market potential,

and we want to participate in as much of that as possible.”

Construction will begin this summer on the company’s Brooks

Solar Power Plant, a 15-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) facility located

in the province’s southeast — a region better known for its thriving

oil and gas industry than its solar energy potential. The development

will be built on about 65 acres on a site immediately northeast of

the Trans-Canada Highway and Township Road 190. Each of the

project’s 57,600 solar modules is one metre wide, two metres long

and 0.04 of a metre thick, and will produce 310 watts of electricity.

With the incredible growth of the solar PV industry in recent

years, it was only a matter of time before utility-scale, solar PV

arrived in Alberta. Even without government incentives to help pay

for its $30-million project, GTE Solar believes the development is

economically viable. So do the investors who have come on board.

“When you’re the first, that means it’s riskier from a financial

perspective,” notes Mr. Rogers. “It’s not going to get you a huge

return. But it’s going to get you a satisfactory economic return today,

and in the future it could be substantial. As we start building more,

we could have that cost structure distributed over more megawatts,

and that will provide a better return on investment.”

Alberta, it should be noted, wasn’t GTE Solar’s first choice for

a solar PV development. That was actually Ontario, where provincial

government incentives have spurred development on some of the

world’s largest solar PV projects, including the 100-MW Grand

Renewable Solar Project now under construction on the north shores

of Lake Erie. Since 2009, when that province’s Green Energy and

Green Economy Act and its feed-in tariff program were introduced,

1,019 MW of commercial solar PV projects have come online, with

another 1,120 MW under development.

The feed-in tariff program offers renewable energy producers

stable prices under long-term contracts. Alberta, on the other hand,

has a deregulated power system, where the merchant market deter-

mines electricity prices.

“In Ontario, there is less risk and there is substantially more

economic value. For example, our average solar price might be

around 10 cents a kilowatt hour in Alberta. In Ontario, the last

contracted price for large-scale was 33 cents,” explains Mr. Rogers,

describing Ontario’s renewable incentives as a “golden carrot.”

AN ALBERTA SOLAR FARMER

GTE Solar President and CEO Ian Rogers is a trailblazer in solar energy devel-

opment in Alberta.

©permission/Brooks & County Chronicle — Hugo Brees

But when the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) stopped contract-

ing large-scale solar in 2011, that made development in Alberta much

more attractive.

“You can’t build in Ontario until you get a contract with the

Ontario Power Authority,” he says. “It’s a waiting game out there and

we can’t wait. We have to build something.”

Alberta is the market they’re attacking now.

“We can create our own destiny by moving forward in Alberta,

because it’s a little more developer friendly. It’s still a good return,

and it can be done,” says Mr. Rogers. “I love the free market. It’s

going to pay off in the end.”

FROM GAS TO ELECTRICITY — TO SOLAR

Mr. Rogers grew up in Swift Current and attended the University of

Saskatchewan. He played for the Huskies football club while earning

a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1987. He went on to get his MBA

from the European University in Brussels in 1989, and completed

his master project manager certificate from the Stanford University

School of Engineering.

He arrived in Calgary in 1996 and has been involved in the

energy industry for over 22 years, holding executive positions in

trading, project management and supply chain for companies like

ConocoPhillips, Burlington Resources and TransAlta Power.

In 2010 he founded GTE Power, a company whose executive

numbers two — him plus fellow Calgarian Roger Zimmerman, P.Eng.,

an electrical engineer with more than 25 years of experience in

project management and research. The company’s first foray into

power generation was exploiting stranded natural gas in Alberta and

using it to produce electricity. Hence, the company’s name: GTE, for

gas to electricity.

So how did an oil and gas start-up get involved in solar energy?

Simply put, it was economics.

“What we saw was a true opportunity to move forward on solar.

Ontario power projects were just getting started and the promise

from the OPA was that they could get their contracts done in six

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FEATURE

weeks. There was real value in jumping very hard and fast into the

Ontario market,” notes Mr. Rogers.

An offshoot, GTE Solar, was formed. When the Ontario con-

tracts were delayed, the company switched gears and put its focus

on the Alberta market.

“It’s become our lead project, basically because you can get

the development aspects of the project completed quicker than

you can in Ontario. Alberta is a better environment for contracting

energy,” he says. “They’re quite different markets and they take

different ways of developing the project to get to the ultimate goal

of commissioning the project.”

Still, it hasn’t been easy, especially being the first company to

tackle a solar PV project of this size in Alberta. “If it wasn’t challeng-

ing, everybody would be doing it,” notes Mr. Rogers.

There have been delays — the project was originally expected to

come online in 2012 — but the company now has financing in place,

a development permit in hand, and plans to begin work this summer.

Construction is expected to take about four months, but it could take

six months to a year to get tied into the grid.

OUR PLACE IN THE SUN

Alberta’s solar resource is as good as any. CanSIA, the Canadian

Solar Industries Association, reports that Alberta and Saskatchewan

have the best solar resource in the country — 15 per cent better

than Ontario and 30 per cent better than Germany. In Germany, solar

PV made up almost 20 per cent of the country’s renewable energy

supply in 2013, and there have been peak times when more than 50

per cent of electricity demand has been met by solar PV.

In Alberta’s sunny southeast, solar radiation in and around com-

munities like Brooks and Medicine Hat is exceptional. But even north

of Edmonton, the solar energy potential is huge, says Mr. Rogers.

“Bottom line — Alberta’s solar radiation is the best in all of

Canada. So it makes sense that if you’re going to do solar that the

best place to do it would be in Alberta,” says Mr. Rogers. “We have

as good irradiation, or better, than San Francisco or even Miami, or

a lot of places that you think of that are super-sunny and warm.”

That’s because it’s not the heat from the sun that produces

energy — it’s the irradiation. “And that has a lot to do with the

cleanliness of the atmosphere and the amount of cloud coverage.

Alberta has less pollution, fewer clouds, more sunny days, more

direct sunlight through the atmosphere.”

There are other reasons to invest in solar, he adds. For one,

solar energy is a free and inexhaustible fuel supply. Operating and

maintenance costs on solar systems are low when compared to

other renewable energy sources like wind turbines. Solar energy

is also distributed during the day, when the sun shines and energy

demand peaks. Plus, the technology is socially accepted and its

environmental impact is low.

“The technology works. There are vast solar cities in United

Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, California, Ontario and Germany,”

says Mr. Rogers. “It’s gotten so much better. It’s not unlike your big

screen TV. What was the cost of a big screen TV five to 10 years ago,

compared to what you get now for the price and the size? Today, the

quality of the solar technology is substantially better and the price is

substantially better as well.”

So why, then, haven’t companies been champing at the bit to

develop large-scale solar in Alberta? Until recently, it just hasn’t

been economical — grid parity was out of reach. That’s the point

where the cost of solar energy is the same as power available on the

province’s electrical grid.

But for a small company like GTE Solar, grid parity is now a

reality. “The larger utility companies wouldn’t be able to do it. They’re

not there yet, because their overhead and capital costs would be

more than ours, for different reasons. They can’t put together a

project yet that would have grid parity in Alberta,” says Mr. Rogers.

That won’t last forever, though. As solar technologies become

even cheaper and conventional energy prices rise, it will be an

increasingly economical choice, he says. “At some point, just like

with wind, the economics will make sense and you know that the

bigger players will start showing up and playing in it,” he says.

ON A ROLL

In addition to the Brooks project, GTE Solar has several other solar

PV projects on the go, including 60 MW in southern Alberta in

development and another 120 MW “just turning the first pages,” says

Mr. Rogers. The company hasn’t given up on Ontario, either, and is

working on a 90-MW project there.

“We’re very good at being able to develop at a reasonably low

cost and we do that by finding the right places to provide distributed

power, where we can get on the line for a reasonable price,” he

says. “We target areas to develop where there is capacity on the

grid, which is very important to the AESO. Our success is going

to be related to how we work with the AESO, and that we don’t try

to jam too much solar into any one particular area.” (The Alberta

Electric System Operator, or AESO, is responsible for the planning

and operations of the province’s interconnected electric system.)

Long-term, GTE Solar hopes to have a portfolio of 75 MW in

Alberta by the end of 2016, and approximately 225 MW in Alberta

and Ontario by 2017. “As we start development in Alberta and we

start getting our projects rolling, I’d like to think that we could build

up 100 MW a year, until we fill up to 300 or 600 MW, which would

be ideal for Alberta,” says Mr. Rogers.

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

There’s no doubt GTE Solar and its investors are looking for a good

return on their investment. The ability to generate clean energy

is also a strong motivator for the company, whose goal is to build

towards a sustainable future through each project it undertakes.

Mr. Rogers believes Alberta could be, and should be, a leader in

renewable energy development.

“We’re not competing against the oil and gas industry. We

can help them. Alberta needs to show world class leadership

and stewardship supporting a sustainable and environmentally

responsible future — if we are going to play on the world stage

we need to be world class,” he says. “If Alberta had a better

environmental story, I think we’d have a lot more influence to get

some of those other major projects [such as pipelines] out there

completed. It would help give Alberta a social licence to operate for

projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline.”

80 | PEG SUMMER 2014

FEATURE

Medicine Hat is Home

To a Canadian First

In Solar Thermal EnergyBY CORINNE LUTTERMember & Internal Communications Coordinator

You might think that a community dubbed

the Gas City might be content to sit back

and reap the benefits of having major

natural gas fields underfoot. Not so for

Medicine Hat.

While the city has run its own gas and

electric utilities since the early 1900s — and

enjoyed some of the lowest energy prices

in the country — it recognized some time

ago that its natural gas riches are a finite

resource. What Kipling called “all hell for a

basement” won’t be there forever.

Around 2005, the city started looking

for ways to reduce its dependence on fossil

fuels. In 2008 it came up with an ambitious

plan, the Community Environmental Road-

map, which sets goals for everything from

energy and water conservation to air qual-

ity and recycling. The city’s current target

is to produce six per cent of its residential

energy from renewables, matching its

population growth.

As the sunniest city in Canada, it’s no

surprise that solar energy is a big part of

the city’s strategy to diversify its energy

portfolio. Rebates and incentives, through

the city’s HAT Smart program, have helped

spur residents and businesses to invest

in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Over

the past seven years, 65 homeowners

have installed solar PV systems with a

total capacity of 110 kilowatts, while 14

businesses are now producing 122 kilowatts

of electricity with their solar PV systems.

The city has led by example and

installed a one-kilowatt solar electric

system on the roof of its library and a

5.4-kW solar electric system on its Family

Leisure Centre, which generates enough

electricity to power the indoor wave pool.

And this summer, the pièce de

résistance of its solar energy portfolio

will be unveiled. The $9-million Medicine

Hat Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy

Demonstration Project will be the first

in Canada, and one of only a few in the

world, to tie solar thermal steam generation

into an existing natural gas-fired power

plant. With a one-megawatt equivalency

output, it will produce enough electricity

for 200 homes and reduce the plant’s CO2

emissions by 600 tonnes annually.

“Because of the solar conditions that

we have here, it makes it very attractive for

us to pursue this,” says Kendall Woodacre,

P.Eng., General Manager of the city’s electric

utility. “We want to prove — and our partners

want to prove — this type of technology, in

these conditions, in this climate.”

The city, the Government of Alberta

and the Climate Change and Emissions

Management Corporation contributed $3

million each towards the project. There are

a couple of things they hope to learn.

“Can this technology be applicable in

our climate, in Alberta or across Canada?

That’s number one. We’re also trying to

understand the technology and its deficien-

cies,” Mr. Woodacre.

Researchers would also like to learn if

the technology could be used by industry.

Could a smaller version, for example, be

used in industrial or agricultural settings,

perhaps to preheat cooking oils in a potato

chip plant or water used in manufacturing?

Once the development is up and running,

scientists and technicians will try to answer

those questions. They will monitor how

the technology performs over the first 18

months and whether anticipated greenhouse

gas reductions are being met.

While solar thermal technology is

slowly popping up in places like Arizona,

California, Colorado and Florida, it’s never

A CANADIAN FIRST

Medicine Hat’s solar thermal pilot project includes eight rows of parabolic solar collectors tied into the

city’s existing power plant. Kendall Woodacre, P.Eng., General Manager of the city’s electric utility, at left,

and Ken MacKenzie, P.Eng., Manager of Engineering Services, will be keeping a close eye on the system’s

performance. The technology has never been tested at such a northerly latitude.

-photo courtesy City of Medicine Hat

SUMMER 2014 PEG | 81

FEATURE

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been tested at such a northerly latitude. But

with Medicine Hat experiencing an average

of 2,512 hours of sun annually — earning it

the sunniest city title — a lack of sunshine

shouldn’t be an issue.

One big challenge, however, is the cost.

Utility-scale solar thermal, at about $9 per

watt to build, is not yet cost effective when

compared to solar PV farms, which can

currently be built for about $2 a watt. Still,

as the technology evolves it may become

more feasible. Mr. Woodacre points out that

15 years ago, solar thermal technology at

this scale didn’t even exist.

“As countries across the world explore

this type of renewable technology, I think

we’re going to see pricing go down,”

says Mr. Woodacre. “I think we’re going

to see parity pricing with other forms of

technology. As more and more of these

units become available, whether it’s PV or

solar thermal like this, I think you’ll see that

the product pricing will be comparable to

what wind and other forms of generating

electricity are.”

SOAKING UP THE SUN

As part of Medicine Hat’s solar thermal

project, eight rows of parabolic solar

collectors were installed last fall in a field

400 metres south of the power plant.

A new solar steam generator was also

added to the plant. The city anticipates the

system will be operating by this summer,

once the work is certified by the Alberta

Boiler Safety Association.

Six-metre tall sky troughs — glass free

and covered in a reflective film — track the

sun throughout the day, absorbing radiant

energy and heating tubes filled with a special

heat transfer fluid. The fluid, which reaches

temperatures of up to 350 C, is piped

through a large heat exchanger where it

generates high-pressure steam. This steam

is introduced into an existing boiler at the

power plant to run its turbines and generate

electricity. “Because we have a steam gen-

erated power plant, we’re able to provide an

interface with the heat and the steam from

the solar thermal,” explains Mr. Woodacre.

The demonstration project will include

a public viewing area to give the public a

chance to view the technology up close. “It’s

going to be an educational opportunity for

school kids, especially, to understand how

we use it and how it works,” he says.

EXPLORING DIFFERENT OPTIONS

Besides its solar energy projects, Medicine

Hat is exploring other renewable energy

options, including development of its six-

megawatt Box Springs Wind Farm, which

will produce enough electricity to power

1,800 homes. It also considered thermal

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

The project, shown here during construction last

September, consists of curved sky troughs that track

the sun throughout the day.

-photo courtesy City of Medicine Hat

energy storage using a local aquifer to heat

and cool a 100-unit condo complex — but so

far hasn’t been able to attract a developer.

Once the wind farm and solar ther-

mal project come online, an estimated 3.3

per cent of the city’s residential electric

consumption will come from renewable

resources. When the Community Envi-

ronmental Roadmap was first introduced,

the number was zero. While there are still

curves to navigate, the city remains com-

mitted to reaching its targets.

“We’re constantly exploring renew-

able energy initiatives,” says Mr. Woodacre.

“Our citizens have indicated they want us

to look to renewables to reduce our gas and

oil consumption. We want to plan ahead for

the future, be forward-thinking and look for

cleaner options.”