Investment Impact of Alberta’s Renewable Energy Moratorium Factsheet Background

In fact, three-quarters of renewable energy projects built in Canada last year were in Alberta.1 At a time when the investments are trending towards renewable energy growth globally,2 accelerating the buildout of renewables in the province is a no-regrets economy-building decision. [...] We reviewed the Alberta Electric System Operator’s (AESO) list of electricity generation projects in development in relation to their approval status from the Alberta Utility Commission (AUC) to determine how many projects are impacted by Alberta’s renewable energy development moratorium and what this means for investments, revenues, and jobs in the province. [...] The projects are comprised of 12.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar, 5.3 GW of wind, and 1.5 GW of battery energy storage (as part of solar projects) and have been proposed by 64 different development companies or partnerships. [...] As such, we consider all projects up to and including stage 4 to be “in development” and impacted by the moratorium with the understanding that the projects that are in the later stages are the most at risk. [...] The factors used to estimate the impact of the moratorium are summarized in Table 2.