Berkshire Hathaway Firm Plans $200 Million Alberta Wind Farm

(Photo: A double circuit for the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada. Credit: Tonyglen14, Flickr Creative Commons)

by | Oct 17, 2019

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Berkshire Hathaway Firm Plans $200 Million Alberta Wind Farm

(Photo: A double circuit for the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada. Credit: Tonyglen14, Flickr Creative Commons)

Alberta-based Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary BHE Canada plans to construct a $200 million wind farm next year in the province. The firm says that a large Canadian corporate partner has already signed an agreement to purchase most of the 117.6-megawatt project’s output.

The Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project will be located in Alberta southwest of the city of Medicine Hat, according to BHE Canada. Renewable energy company RES is developing the wind farm as well as providing construction and asset management services.

Construction is expected to take approximately 18 months and start generating energy for the Alberta grid in December 2021, BHE Canada says. When it’s operational, the Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project should provide around 475 GWh annually from as many as 28 wind turbines.

“The structure of the markets here in Alberta make it so that we can invest, and do it at a profit that works for us, and at a price that works for the off-taker,” William Christensen, vice president of corporate development for BHE Canada, said in a CBC interview this week.

“If you look at just the raw power price that power is going for in Alberta right now, it’s averaged around $55 a megawatt hour, or 5.5 cents a kilowatt hour,” he told the outlet, referencing Canadian dollars. “And we’re selling the wind power to this customer at substantially less than that, and there’s been no subsidies.”

Besides the Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project, BHE Canada and RES say they have permitted a 398.5-MW project called the Forty Mile Wind Farm on around 40,000 acres of privately-owned land in southeastern Alberta. The companies say they are currently looking for long-term power purchase agreement partners for that farm.

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