Earlier this month, the Métis Nation of Alberta announced they’re ready to start building their Métis Crossing Solar Project, a 4.86 megawatt solar farm located in Smoky Lake County.
ATCO will be constructing the project, which itself is a collaboration between the Métis Nation of Alberta, the Town of Smoky Lake, and Smoky Lake County. The construction phase will employ Métis workers.
Once operational next spring, the facility could reduce greenhouse emissions by 4,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent—the same as if we had taken 10,000 gas-powered vehicles off the road—during its first year of operations and produce enough electricity to power over 1,200 homes. The electricity generated by the project will power all buildings of the Métis Nation of Alberta.
The federal government is providing over $13 million to the project. Most of that funding will come from an investment of nearly $9 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways program, with the rest coming from Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Municipal Community Generation Challenge Fund and Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Fund.
A portion of any profits generated by the project will support a community development fund to encourage sustainable development in the local community.
The project, once operational, will be entirely Métis-owned.
