AltaGas Income Trust has acquired four run-of-river hydro projects ranging from 6.5MW to 24MW for C$4.5 million. The projects provide AltaGas with the potential to develop approximately 50MW of hydroelectric generation in British Columbia, Canada.
The transaction involves the purchase of all hydrological and environmental data and engineering and permitting work completed over the last four years, as well as water use applications and land-use permits.
The four new projects are at various stages of development, with the 14MW Rainy River project located near Gibson, British Columbia, in the advanced development stage. Rainy River is expected to be operational as early as 2010. All of the development projects are subject to various regulatory and environmental approvals.
David Cornhill, chairman and CEO of AltaGas said: Run-of-river is one of the cleanest and most environment-friendly sources of electricity. These hydro development opportunities represent another step forward in building our renewable energy strategy. Should all our current development projects proceed, approximately one-third of our power generation capability would be from renewable sources.