MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - AltaLink officials have updated council on a proposed transmission line project involving land in Mountain View and Kneehill counties.
The update came from a delegation at the recent, regularly-scheduled council meeting.
AltaLink is Alberta’s largest electricity transmission provider, serving about 85 per of Alberta with 13,000 kilometres of transmission lines.
Colin Harvey, municipal and community relations manager with AltaLink, and Stephanie Mitchell, right-of-way planner with AltaLink, outlined the proposed Lone Butte Solar Connection project to connect the proposed Acciona Energy Canada Global Inc.’s solar facility, located in Kneehill County, to the electrical grid.
To achieve the connection, AltaLink is proposing to construct up to 17 kilometres of new 240 kilovolt transmission line.
The new transmission line will run between Acciona’s proposed Lone Butte Substation solar facility, located in Kneehill County, and AltaLink’s existing 929L transmission line, located in Mountain View County, he said.
The 450 megawatts AC (MWac)/ 585 megawatts DC (MWdc) capacity solar farm is to be located seven kilometres southwest of Torrington on approximately 2,000 acres of privately-owned and cultivated land.
The company has identified three proposed routes for the transmission line.
The north option would be see H-frame structures made of steel or wood, standing between 18 and 26 metres tall, with a right-of-way of approximately 35 metres required, with 17.5 per metres on either side of the quarter line.
The south and centre routes would be primarily located within the road allowance, with proposed structures on the route being monopole structures made of steel or wood, standing between 30 and 40 metres tall, and with a right-of-way approximately 15 metres on property as required.
Now that the routes are proposed, the company will be consulting with affected landowners, First Nations, industry stakeholders, environmental organizations, and local and provincial governments, he said.
“We do look at the agriculture impacts of the project,” said Harvey. “If we are in a mid-field position how can we try and minimize those impacts? How many residents are close to the proposed routes? The environmental impacts, so water bodies, species at risk, all those kinds of surveys are also done.
“And then any existing infrastructure, so we take into consideration oil and gas, irrigation, anything else that might be out there. Gravel pits would also be in there.”
Airports and shelterbelts will also be taken into consideration, he said.
The project’s proposed timeline would see stakeholder consultations up to November, the facility application with the Alberta Utilities Commission in November, construction starting in January 2027 and construction completed by July 2027, he said.
Division 3 Coun. Alan Miller said he has been contacted by landowners wondering about who to contact regarding the project.
Landowners around the project should be receiving project information packages, including contact info, in the coming weeks, Harvey said.
Harvey’s contact email is [email protected].
Division 7 Coun. Jennifer Lutz called on the company to hold an open house regarding the project.
“There’s some value when people can hear other people’s questions and get a little bit more fully engaged,” Lutz said.
Harvey replied, “That’s something I can take back to our consultation group and see what we can do to arrange something in the next little while.”
Council accepted the delegation appearance as information with no further action to be taken.
