Micro solar farms aim to repurpose Alberta's oil and gas well sites
Keith Hirsche has a bold idea he hopes could help plot Alberta’s energy future.
Just outside of Taber, Alta., Hirsche’s RenuWell Project is piloting repurposing retired oil and gas well sites into small solar farms.
“This is an important potential part of the solution for decarbonizing the grid and also addressing this legacy problem of inactive and abandoned oil infrastructure,” Hirsche, founder of RenuWell Energy Solutions, told CBC News.
Among the tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta, Hirsche said that about 17,000 would be ideal for RenuWell’s micro solar grids.
And, if all of the sites were utilized, he said the power generated would equal 90-100 per cent of household consumption in Alberta.
The project, scaled up provincewide, would also create 77,500 direct construction jobs and 1,860 permanent positions in renewable energy, according to RenuWell figures.
Keith Hirsche says the two micro solar farm pilot projects prove that it would be viable for the broader electrical grid. (Submitted by Keith Hirsche)
Currently, there are nearly 250,000 old wells and other infrastructure that are inactive or marginally producing any oil or gas in Alberta. The abandoned well count recorded by the Orphan Well Association has increased to the point where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is considering requiring reclamation deposits.
But Hirsche’s concept goes beyond land reclamation.
RenuWell’s project pitches locally-generated solar as a way to avoid costly upgrades to rural electricity grids and to tackle peak demand.
“It’s almost like a shock absorber in the system in a way, because the whole electricity system is very rigid,” Hirsche said.
“It basically needs to have the power — that maximum power — there when you need it.”
‘Not very intrusive’
On a brisk December afternoon, Daryl Bennett of the Action Surface Rights group drove up to a field about five minutes off Highway 3, near Taber.
There, an orphan well left tar-soaked soil that prevented a farmer from growing food crops, according to safety regulations. It was effectively unusable land.
But over the last several years, the plot has been repurposed for solar power as one of RenuWell’s two pilot projects, producing up to one megawatt of electricity in ideal conditions.
Daryl Bennett of Action Surface Rights, an organization of landowners that help other landowners navigate how to deal with the energy sector in Alberta. (Eli Ridder/CBC)
It’s tucked into what’s called a dry pivot corner, where the circular motions of the irrigation machine can’t reach. It’s a clear example, says Bennett, of how the micro solar grid initiative can work.
“They’re only three or four, maybe five acres. They’re not very intrusive,” he said, gesturing to the panels.
“They can be located in many different places, and they can stabilize the grid so we don’t have as many brownouts.”
The efficiency of solar power is dependent on the time of day and the weather conditions.
Wes Paterson, a consultant with the project based in Medicine Hat, Alta., said small solar arrays across rural Alberta could be paired with advanced battery storage.
“We could start to create virtual power plants in remote areas,” he said.
That, Paterson said, could reduce reliance on long transmission lines that can fail due to storms, and provide independent energy supply for First Nations.
Landowner raises questions
Dwight Popowich, an Alberta landowner with an orphan well on his property, questioned the viability of the micro solar farm concept. He’s also the chairman of the Polluter Pay Federation, which advocates to protect landowners from covering the costs of oil and gas liability.
“They’re nowhere near the grid, so if you’re going to put solar on there and then try to feed the grid, you got to hook up that grid somehow,” Popowich said.
Hirsche acknowledged the funding model for the projects still requires tweaking, including revenue split for landowners, operators and how liabilities will be handled.
The local irrigation district, interested in finding out if local solar power could lower system costs, funded half the cost of the two pilot sites, said Hirsche.
The other 50 per cent was covered by the Alberta government through its Municipal Climate Change Action Centre.
Inactive wells that are not properly plugged and cleaned up could leak contaminants into the soil and air. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
Popowich also said he is concerned initiatives like RenuWell provide a cop out for the legal obligation to clean up wells, potentially leaving landowners in a lurch.
But, he added, it is important for Alberta to diversify its energy sources.
“We understand that natural gas and oil is not going away tomorrow,” said Popowich.
“But we also know that it is not a renewable resource. That’s the problem, and they need to start taking steps to start dealing with that.”
What comes next?
The Alberta government nominated the RenuWell initiative for federal funding through Natural Resources Canada’s Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program.
The Barnwell micro solar grid sits in the corner of a field, out of the way of the irrigation pivot. It’s one example, RenuWell officials say, of how these projects can utilize land that wouldn’t otherwise be used for crops. (RenuWell)
Hirsche said the next step is to trial a one-megawatt solar farm on an abandoned well site where grid support is required. Meanwhile, Fortis and the University of Alberta would work on modelling the project.
If proven successful, the initiative could be rolled out across the province.
“The most important thing we can do to really bring Alberta into a more sustainable and a long-term future is to take the talent that we have across the energy sector, and instead of having these dividing lines and these artificial barriers between renewables and oil and gas,” Hirsche said, “if we can actually combine the different energy systems together.”