Oil, gas and renewables can work together to set Alberta’s economy back on track, say speakers at a free talk this Thursday.
Up to 500 people will gather online at noon this Feb. 4 for a free talk on how solar power and the oil and gas sector can work together to meet Canada’s growing demands for electricity and action on climate warming.
The talk is the first of Solar Alberta’s 2021 speakers series on renewable energy, said Heather MacKenzie, executive director of Solar Alberta. Due to the pandemic, this year’s series will for the first time be completely online.
“With the decline in the oil and gas sector, it’s imperative for oil and gas workers to contemplate retraining in the renewable sector,” MacKenzie said, as many have already done.
It’s not an either-or situation either, she continued, as the goals of the renewable and oil and gas sectors often align.
The Alberta oilpatch was actually Canada’s biggest user of solar panels in the early 2000s prior to the current green energy boom, as the panels were the cheapest way to power remote well sites, said Dave Kelly, CEO of SkyFire Energy and a speaker at Thursday’s talk. Now, solar has become so cheap that it is often cheaper to put up solar panels than it is to buy power from the grid.
"Oil and solar don’t compete in the same market right now,” Kelly said, but they can help each other out.
SkyFire is now working with the RenuWell Project, for example, which seeks to use abandoned oil wells for solar, wind and geothermal development. Doing so saves well owners the cost of removing roads and power lines and solar builders the cost of installing them. Kelly said oil companies are also investing heavily into solar, with Enbridge building a 10.5 MW array to help power its operations. Solar might displace a little domestic natural gas use, but also freed up more gas for export.
Thursday’s talk will also feature remarks from Keith Hirshe of RenuWell and land professional Alyssa Bruce.
MacKenzie said some 200 slots were still open for the talk as of Jan. 27. Visit solaralberta.ca for details.
