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Benjamin Thibault, executive director of Solar Alberta, said it was disappointing to see AESO’s revised renewables projection. However, he said he believes there is still plenty of opportunity to hit the 30 per cent target, even without the renewable electricity program. In the last two months, for example, two major utility-scale solar projects have been announced for Alberta — a $500-million solar farm in Vulcan County and a $200-million project near Claresholm that will be built by a Danish-Canadian company and from which TC Energy Corp. has agreed to purchase electricity from.

Neither project was a beneficiary of the renewable electricity program and both are being built on an unsubsidized, market basis.

“Even if the REP program is not going forward with more rounds, the rounds that we did see proved that solar and wind are coming in at such incredibly low cost that they will be competitive options going forward,” Thibault said.

He added there are other ways government could help to grow the renewables sector that wouldn’t involve any type of public subsidy. Many jurisdictions have what is called a renewable portfolio standard, through which major electricity purchasers are required by law to source a certain percentage of their requirements from renewable sources — but how they choose to get there is up to them and the market.

Thibault said in addition, a growing number of private companies are interested in sourcing some of their electricity needs from renewables, either because they have their own emissions reduction targets they have to meet or because they want to hedge against future electricity prices. He said the government could help to foster connections between these companies (whether they are industrial emitters from within the province or international companies like Ikea or Amazon) and Alberta’s renewables sector.