Greek company Mytilineos SA is spearheading a $1.7-billion project to build five solar energy projects in Alberta, which will generate enough power for 200,000 homes by the time all of them are anticipated to be fully operational at the end of 2026.anatoliy_gleb/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
One of Greece’s top industrial and power companies is launching a $1.7-billion solar-energy project in Alberta that it says will be the largest of its kind in Canada.
Mytilineos SA says the investment actually consists of five projects, two of which are nearing the “ready to build” stage and should receive regulatory approvals shortly, allowing construction to begin by the end of this year.
All five projects should be fully operational by 2026 or 2027. The five sites are being bought from Westbridge Renewable Energy Corp. of Calgary., whose shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange. The company develops greenfield renewable energy projects, taking them through the permitting and licensing phases before selling them to strategic buyers, who build and operate the projects.
In a press release, Westbridge said that Mytilineos will pay between $217-million and $346-million for the five projects, with the final price dependant on factors such as actual installed solar capacity, the number, if any, of battery storage units placed on the sites, and the value of the tax credits.
Once finished, the entire project will have 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, enough to power 200,000 homes.
“This is our first investment in Canada,” Evangelos Mytilineos, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview in Athens. “Business conditions in Canada in general are good, and we feel more comfortable there than in the United States. Canada feels more like Europe to us.”
The project will be built on separate plots in Southern Alberta, one of the sunniest areas in Canada and home to many of the country’s biggest solar farms, including Greengate Power’s enormous Travers Solar Project, whose commercial operations began last November.
Mytilineos was established in 1990 and evolved from a family-owned metallurgy business that opened in 1908. The company is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange and operates in two main businesses – metallurgy and power generation. It has about 5,500 employees.
It owns one of Europe’s biggest aluminum refineries, which it purchased from Canada’s Alcan (now Rio Tinto Alcan) in 2004. On the energy side, it operates natural gas-powered plants in Greece, trades gas and constructs renewable energy projects, with operations in more than 30 countries.
Mytilineos is backed by Toronto’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., led by Prem Watsa, which first bought into the Greek company in 2012 and has since increased its ownership to 4.7 per cent, making it the second-biggest shareholder, after Mr. Mytilineos, who owns 27 per cent. Fairfax has an option to take its ownership to 6.4 per cent.
Mytilineos has a market value of €4.2-billion after a one-year price rise of almost 75 per cent. In the first quarter, the company reported that net profit had doubled to €143-million on sales of almost €1.4-billion.
Mr. Mytilineos, 69, said North America is attracting global energy investments because the United States and Canada have made the green transition a priority. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law last year by President Joe Biden, will make hundreds of billions of dollars available for energy security and to address climate change.
Canada has responded with measures to expedite the transition to net-zero emissions. Last fall, the federal government announced the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit. Alberta has passed its own incentives, such as the Renewable Electricity Program, which offers long-term government contracts to renewable energy generators.
In Alberta, fossil fuels account for almost 90 per cent of power generation, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. The province is under pressure to bring that share down as Ottawa strives to meet the net-zero emissions goal it passed into law by 2050.
Mr. Mytilineos said the Alberta solar project can choose between five years of deferred taxes or a subsidy that will cover 30 per cent of capital expenditures.
The company’s Alberta solar farms -- known as Georgetown, Sunnynook, Dolcy, Eastervale and Red Willow -- will be located in various counties and municipal districts in southern Alberta. The Sunnynook farm, with a capacity of 332 megawatts, will be the largest; the others will have capacities ranging from 246 to 280 megawatts.
Mytilineos solar-energy projects
Edmonton
Size of project
in megawatts
Dolcy
246
280
Red Willow
Eastervale
274
Saskatoon
Sunnynook
332
Calgary
278
SASKATCHEWAN
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
Georgetown
ALBERTA
DETAIL
100 km
UNITED STATES
JOHN SOPINSKI/the globe and mail,
source: Mytilineos s.a.; openstreetmap
Mytilineos solar-energy projects
Edmonton
Size of project
in megawatts
Dolcy
246
280
Red Willow
Eastervale
274
Saskatoon
Sunnynook
332
Calgary
278
SASKATCHEWAN
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
Georgetown
ALBERTA
DETAIL
100 km
UNITED STATES
JOHN SOPINSKI/the globe and mail,
source: Mytilineos s.a.; openstreetmap
Mytilineos solar-energy projects
Edmonton
Size of project
in megawatts
Dolcy
246
280
Red Willow
Eastervale
274
Saskatoon
332
Sunnynook
Calgary
278
SASKATCHEWAN
Georgetown
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
ALBERTA
DETAIL
100 km
UNITED STATES
JOHN SOPINSKI/the globe and mail, source: Mytilineos s.a.; openstreetmap
The company may add battery storage to the projects at some point, though Mr. Mytilineos said the technology is not advanced enough yet to make a commitment to the idea (one of its projects, in Britain, features battery storage technology).
He also said the company is considering building an aluminum plant somewhere in Canada or the U.S., where industrial energy is far cheaper than in Europe. Aluminum smelters use enormous amounts of energy and can become uneconomic when power prices surge, as they have in Europe since the war in Ukraine started 15 months ago.
The investment by Mytilineos represents a new phase in Greek industry. A decade ago, the country was effectively bankrupt and on the verge of leaving the euro zone. The austerity programs demanded in exchange for bailouts overseen by the Troika – the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund – plunged Greece into economic depression, crippling many employers and killing their investment plans.
Today, Greece is one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union, and some Greek companies are expanding abroad. Mr. Mytilineos said he is “proud” to be making a substantial Greek investment in Canada.