Report shows Alberta tax revenue from renewables up 92 per cent

EDMONTON – Wind and solar projects will generate $54 million in tax revenue for Alberta municipalities this year, up 92 per cent from 2023, according to the Business Renewables Centre-Canada (BRC-Canada). Although several major projects came online this year, BRC-Canada reports there was a five-fold increase in the rate of project cancellations following the province's renewable energy pause, and uncertainty about forthcoming regulations is still having a chilling effect on investment.

“What we saw this year was a switch to solar being the driver of the new tax revenue,” said Jorden Dye, director of BRC-Canada.

“Wind projects still remain the largest in number of projects in the province, but the increase we saw this year was primarily driven by a lot of large solar projects that became operational last year and started producing tax revenue this year.”

Dye said a total of 18 new projects were added to the grid in the past year, and five additional Alberta municipalities have started generating revenue from renewables since the last report from BRC-Canada.

Dye noted all the new projects added were already under construction before Alberta’s seven-month moratorium on wind and solar projects. The impacts of the pause are still being felt throughout the province, he said.

Since the renewables pause began, data from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) shows that 53 projects were cancelled. While many projects never make it past the planning and proposal phase, Dye said there was a five-fold increase in the rate of cancellations compared to the three-month period before the moratorium.

“I know sometimes people get stuck on the specific projects, and I think that is less alarming than what we are seeing in the rate. And it's really driven by the uncertainty in the market on how regulations for renewables will be handled going forward,” he said.

The UCP government announced several major regulatory changes for wind and solar projects, including an agricultural land ban, no-go wind zones for pristine viewscapes, and rules for agrivoltaics and reclamation securities. Details of these regulations have not yet been released.

Alberta’s government intends to advance these policy, legislative and regulatory changes before the end of 2024, said Affordability and Utilities press secretary Ashley Stevenson.

Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf said in a statement he thinks the BRC-Canada report is based on “flawed and inaccurate assumptions.”

“They intentionally misconstrue facts to benefit their corporate donors. They make unfounded claims about cancellations to inflate their numbers and push a false narrative. Even if BRC-Canada’s imagined potential tax revenues were accurate, those dollars would be negated by the fact that ratepayers would pay 10 times that amount in added transmission costs. The cost of additional transmission infrastructure to connect 8,000MW to the grid, paid by ratepayers, grossly outweighs any additional tax revenue,” Neudorf said.

Neudorf did not respond to questions about the estimated additional infrastructure prices or how the costs to taxpayers was calculated.

“The government suggested we made unfounded claims. However, all of our facts are based on government data. The government data clearly shows the number of projects being cancelled every quarter rose substantially after the moratorium announcement,” Dye said.

There would be costs associated with upgrading Alberta’s power grid, but without looking at each cancelled project, “the government can’t say how much transmission would cost,” he said.

Aside from potential municipal tax revenues, Dye said there are other benefits that would have come with the cancelled wind and solar projects.

“The 7,717 MW associated with those cancelled projects would have been enough energy to power 3,159,881 homes. The projects would have brought in capital investment of $12 billion while creating thousands of jobs during construction and operation.”  

Brett McKay is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Great West Media. Top image: A row of wind turbines in a field of bright yellow canola in southern Alberta (iStock).