This Alberta solar field is now producing eggs (and honey, too)

Kyle Bakx · CBC News

· Posted: May 30, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

This summer, a star tract successful Alberta volition not lone beryllium generating astir 40 megawatts of energy each sunny day but besides producing eggs, honey, nutrient and wool.

There are 110,000 star panels connected the 130 hectares of land, successful summation to astir 400 sheep, 40 pigs and 100 chickens. The bees are arriving soon.

The star project, which is owned by Edmonton-based Capital Power and located adjacent the municipality of Strathmore, is opening to lucifer a hobby farm. But for those involved, it's an important accidental to trial caller exertion and farming techniques.

As request for energy grows each year, this tract provides a glimpse into the aboriginal of the star manufacture successful Canada.

The chickens arrived this week and began laying eggs wrong their caller home, a mobile coop that dilatory moves betwixt the agelong rows of panels.

The operation is simply a self-propelled pasture barn designed by UKKÖ Robotics, a Manitoba-based startup. The conception is to location animals successful a building, portion providing caller writer to graze and spreading the manure evenly connected the land. Multiple times a day, the coop dilatory moves a tiny distance, usually fractional a metre astatine a time.

The institution has installed 50 of the roaming structures astir the world, but this is the archetypal clip it volition run connected a star site.

"If it does work, I deliberation there's immoderate large applications passim North America due to the fact that this is underutilized cultivation land," said Daniel Badiou, co-founder and CEO of UKKÖ Robotics.

Solar manufacture vs. farming

As the star manufacture has expanded, particularly successful Alberta, agrarian landowners person raised concerns astir the impact on farmland.

Those critiques are successful portion wherefore the Alberta and Ontario governments person introduced caller rules that restrict star sheet improvement connected premier cultivation onshore and necessitate star operators to see immoderate benignant of agriculture, depending connected the prime of the land.

But sheep husbandman Janna Grier said she thinks star farming and regular farming tin really spell manus successful hand. She's the co-founder of Solar Sheep, and this is the 4th summertime that she'll negociate the vegetation astatine this star field.

"Our imaginativeness is fundamentally farming nether each panel," said Grier, who began by utilizing sheep and has expanded to trial retired connected different animals.

"We privation to benignant of beryllium the conception that we tin rise much macromolecule and much section nutrient per acre," she said.

"There's a ton of star improvement going connected passim the province, and truthful we're conscionable trying to support that onshore successful agriculture. But we're besides trying to support it and permission it successful a amended spot than erstwhile we started."

'Rethinking however beekeeping is done'

The bees volition besides beryllium portion of investigating caller technology, arsenic they volition beryllium housed successful a predator-proof, climate-controlled gathering that's akin successful size to a plot shed. The mobile indoor apiary is designed and built by Bee Cube, a Calgary startup.

Instead of lodging 1 hive successful a box, the Bee Cube gathering tin location up to 20 hives. So far, 7 of the structures person been built, including the 1 astatine the star field.

Each gathering has sensors to show temperature, humidity, weight and the dependable of the bees.

"All that information goes to a database truthful that beekeepers volition cognize what's going connected wrong their hives astatine immoderate fixed time," said Herman Van Reekum, laminitis and CEO of Bee Cube.

The adjacent measurement volition beryllium integrating artificial quality to supply aboriginal warnings and absorption tips. The exertion is aimed astatine improving bee health, portion besides redeeming clip for beekeepers.

At the star field, the bees volition not lone nutrient honey; they'll assistance pollinate the assorted types of flowering plants.

"It's going to beryllium a large learning experience," Van Reekum said. "Bees are dying astatine unbelievable rates, and truthful we're trying to bash thing astir that done this benignant of rethinking however beekeeping is done."

The main nonsubjective of the Strathmore star field, located astir 40 kilometres eastbound of Calgary, is to make electricity, but the cultivation activities are nevertheless important, said Wade Heuscher, star manager for Capital Power, the powerfulness generator that owns the project.

The institution is opening a 10-year soil-testing programme to amended recognize however the livestock, rotational grazing and vegetation absorption are impacting the ungraded conditions.

"One of the communal issues is that we've taken this onshore and we've made it into a star farm, and it's present not usable for thing else. We're showing that there's a quality here," Heuscher said.

"This is the mode of the future. I deliberation this is simply a concern that each star providers should beryllium looking astatine doing."

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