The Cowessess First Nation’s Awasis Solar Facility, which is located close to Regina, is now online and is providing up to 10 megawatts of energy to the provincial grid.
The facility can power up to 2,500 homes on average.
Cowessess and Elemental Energy built and manage the facility, with the power being sold to SaskPower as part of a 20-year purchase agreement.
The agreement will be worth up to an estimated $40 million over the next 20 years.
Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said they are building their renewable portfolio and the project has provided many lessons learned for the future.
“SaskPower is well on track to reduce its emissions to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and adding non-emitting sources like wind and solar is an important part of our plans,” said Rupen Pandya of SaskPower in a media release. “We look forward to continued collaboration with First Nations and industry as we work to achieve our targets.”
Coswessess said in a media release that the Awasis Solar Project will reduce GHG emissions by approximately 14,000 tonnes of CO2e in the first year of operations, and by approximately 350,000 tonnes of CO2e over the 35-year expected life of the project – in total, equivalent to the emissions of over 70,000 gas-powered cars driven for one year.
