Northern Bruce Peninsula is going to look at working with a renewable energy company on a proposed solar energy storage facility.
Council heard from Shift Solar’s Bogdan Dinu and Grant Johns on the plans for a proposed 96 acre 20 megawatt solar and storage system in Pike Bay during a meeting on June 26.
“The project is close to a growing population and provides power locally and is placed on cleared land in order to mitigate and minimize any additional environmental disruptions,” says Dinu. “Not only does this project provide much needed energy capacity, but it also offers additional community benefits through grid modernization and greater power reliability, emission reduction, short and long-term economic stimulus to the community.”
He adds there is also community growth support in the forms of community host agreements.
Dinu says in response to the province being on the brink of an energy crisis, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has announced a large procurement to fill the need for capacity and growing demand.
“The IESO has released a competitive procurement called the LT1-RFP, with the goal of securing year-round capacity for new build resources,” says Dinu.
While the timeline is still in the works, Dinu says it is expected the projects will be submitted for contract this coming November, with the awards for work going out in the first and second quarter of 2024. The commercial projects approved would be set up by 2027.
Over the next while, Shift will be engaging with residents, Indigenous communities, stakeholders and others, as well as conducting a number of studies.
While council did not approve the project, Shift requested Northern Bruce Peninsula provide its support towards it.
Shift recently presented a similar project in West Grey.
When asked if there were any other sties being considered, Dinu says the address in Pike Bay on farm land was the only one.
CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West says they will bring back a report with a potential resolution and will be working with Shift.
