Solar project a threat to pronghorn migration: Alberta wildlife group

The Alberta Wilderness Association is calling on the Alberta government to put a stop to a large solar project to be  built in the Medicine Hat area.

The Aira Solar Project, being built by Calgary-based Horizon New Energy, is located about 35 km southwest of the Alberta city.

It was given approval by the Alberta Utilities Commission on March 21st, with a number of conditions.

The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) said the area is also an important international migratory corridor for pronghorn antelope, the world’s second fastest land mammal and an iconic species of Alberta’s grasslands.

The AWA said many populations of pronghorn rely on migration to survive, avoiding the heavy snows and harsh winters by moving south, and returning north to graze in the spring.

Reacting to the project’s approval, the AWA said while it supports renewable energy development, the 1,800 hectare project which includes over a million solar panels is just one of many being built on Alberta’s grasslands.

The AWA is calling on the Alberta government to pause the development until a study of the cumulative impacts of all the solar and wind developments in the area can be completed.

“I think this represents a systemic failure of Alberta Environment and Protected Areas to protect pronghorn migratory habitat,” said AWA director Cliff Wallis. “Pronghorn are suffering already because of roads and fencing, and other things that prevent them from easily moving through the landscape. Now we have 42 km of six-foot-high chain link fence with barbed wire on top that’s going to be erected right in the middle of a known pronghorn migration route.”

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“It’s a very constrained environment for them out there and where this solar project is planned to go is right at the edge of one of the largest blocks of native grassland left on the northern great plains,” he said.

“It’s great habitat for pronghorn. They move through this area and all around that site we’ve got solar farms and wind farms that are being planned or already built or have already been approved.”

Global News reached out to Horizon New Energy for a statement.

“The projects in Horizon New Energy’s portfolio will deliver clean energy to thousands of Alberta homes, create local jobs and tax revenue for local municipalities,” Shannon Wever, the managing director of Horizon New Energy, wrote in an email on Tuesday. “The Aira Solar Project was sited and has been designed to minimize environmental impacts. We diligently assess the potential environmental impacts of a project and develop environmental plans to minimize short- and long-term impacts.

“The Fish and Wildlife branch of the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Utilities Commission determined that the Aira Solar Project poses an overall low risk to wildlife and wildlife habitat. Both agencies noted that the project is sited to avoid all required wildlife setbacks and is located on lower value (Class 4, 5 and 6) cultivated lands which aligns with the Ministry of Environment and Protected Area’s Wildlife Directive for solar projects. All environmental surveys required and recommended under the Wildlife Directive were completed for the project.”

The conditions attached to the project’s approval include camera monitoring of pronghorn behaviour in the area, investigation of unfenced corridors surrounding the project and revegetation of the area following construction.

However, the AWA claims the mitigation measures are not enough to protect the international migration corridor and there are no remedies attached to the approval if pronghorn are found to be affected by the project.

“If the pronghorn aren’t even going to come near the project because they avoid it, what are the cameras going to show?” Wallis said.  “So we’re not even going to learn that much out of what they’ve proposed for mitigation, and what happens even if they find that there is some sort of blockage here? What would you do with the project then, once it’s built?”

When asked by Global News about the AWA’s demands, the office of the Minister of Affordability and Utilities, Nathan Neudorf, responded by saying the Alberta Utilities Commission is an independent agency that is responsible for the approval of Alberta’s electricity generation projects, and Alberta’s government is not able to weigh in on specific projects undergoing the AUC process.

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