{"id":549194,"date":"2026-01-28T12:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549194\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:51:15","slug":"renewable-energy-deals-dry-up-in-alberta-as-nova-scotia-takes-the-lead-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549194\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewable energy deals dry up in Alberta as Nova Scotia takes the lead, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renewable energy<\/a> deals in Alberta<\/a> have almost completely collapsed since the province overhauled rules that govern the sector, plummeting 99 per cent from 2023 to 2025. <\/p>\n

While renewables activity in Alberta virtually disappeared in 2025, Nova Scotia<\/a> emerged as Canada\u2019s most active market for corporate clean energy deals, according to a new report from Business Renewables Centre-Canada. It\u2019s the first time a province outside Alberta has led in corporate energy deals.<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia Power launched its Green Choice Program two years ago. It allows large-scale electricity customers to access renewable power from local developments. In January, 2025, the utility announced it had procured 262 megawatts of new wind capacity from projects under the program, all of which are co-owned by Mi\u2019kmaw communities in the province, the report said. <\/p>\n

It added that Nova Scotia \u201cis a model for other corporate renewable energy procurement program development in provinces across Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n

Report finds Alberta\u2019s restrictive renewables policies dampened investment<\/a><\/p>\n

Jorden Dye, the director of BRC-Canada, said he wasn\u2019t surprised about <\/b>the dearth of activity in Alberta given the government\u2019s various policy decisions. <\/p>\n

Those include a seven-month moratorium on renewable project approvals<\/a>, banning projects from certain classes of agricultural lands and within 35 kilometres of protected areas such as provincial parks, a new upfront recycling fee for wind and solar equipment, and new reclamation security requirements for developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went from an average of about 1,000 megawatts of deals per year down to only five megawatts last year. That\u2019s hundreds of millions of dollars every year and thousands of construction jobs,\u201d Mr. Dye said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Corporate backing for renewables has dried up as a result of policy changes, Mr. Dye said, which has also hurt <\/b>the pipeline for future projects.<\/p>\n

The office of Alberta\u2019s Utilities Minister said in a statement that the BRC-Canada report is a \u201cmisleading characterization\u201d of Alberta\u2019s renewables sector. Alberta has led Canada in new renewable energy development over the past few years, the statement said, adding that the province\u2019s utilities commission approved 16 renewable projects in 2025. <\/p>\n

Editorial: Free the market for renewable energy in Alberta<\/a><\/p>\n

Solar and wind projects in the province generated roughly $70.6-million in municipal tax revenues in 2025, according to the report. But those \u201cbenefits are being overshadowed and even put at risk by new policies that continue to weigh on Alberta\u2019s renewable energy market,\u201d it <\/b>said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere remains substantial evidence that private-sector buyers want more low-cost, non-emitting energy, and the fundamentals of Alberta\u2019s market-based electricity system continue to make it an appealing host jurisdiction. However, Alberta\u2019s continued policy uncertainty has all but halted new commercial transactions.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two other areas of policy are still being overhauled \u2013 around the province\u2019s new restructured energy market (REM) and transmission rules \u2013 and the report warned that even clarity around where they are headed might prove insufficient to restore investment and commercial confidence in Alberta\u2019s renewable electricity market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe precedent will have been set: if the Alberta government disregards the investment expectations it fostered with prior policy and market constructs, it could do so again with the new REM and transmission policy framework.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renewable energy deals in Alberta have almost completely collapsed since the province overhauled rules that govern the sector,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":549195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,159,1458,158,1164,2141,67,132,68,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-549194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-science","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-united-states","54":"tag-unitedstates","55":"tag-us","56":"tag-us-news","57":"tag-world-news","58":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}