Westbridge Renewable Energy announced the receipt of power plant and battery energy storage system (BESS) approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission for construction of the Georgetown Solar and Energy Storage Project in Vulcan County, Alberta. The facility consists of a 278 MW utility-scale solar generation and 100 MW (200 MWh) energy storage project.
The AUC meanwhile granted the company a substation permit and license to operate the 1015S substation interconnected to the Georgetown facility near Mossleigh, Alberta.
Currently Westbridge manages a development portfolio of five utility solar projects and four energy storage projects in North America and one energy storage in the UK totaling 1.29 GW of solar and 500 MW of energy storage projects. The company plans to commission its first project in early 2023 with a target of growing to 2 GW of assets under management.
Westbridge’s lone U.S. solar asset is the 221 MW Accalia Point Solar project, which the company acquired from Aelius Solar in October 2021. The project is located in Texas, near South Padre Island and the U.S. – Mexico border. Westbridge anticipates completion of the project and interconnection agreement to take place in Q1 2023.
To date Westbridge has partnered with Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Shanghai Electric, CPPIB and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for project co-development opportunities. North American project offtake purchasers of the company’s projects include Amazon, Meta, Tesla and TransAlta. In the UK, other large strategic investors to enter the market include Shell, RWE and Foresight Energy.
On September 30, Westbridge officially rebranded from Westbridge Energy Corporation to Westbridge Renewable Energy in order to better align its strategy with the energy transition. The company trades for a $28 million market capitalization.
According to Green Alberta Energy, 10,404 solar projects have been installed to date in the province with an aggregate generation capacity of 1.08 gigawatts.
