Re­ne­wa­bles go from boom to bust in the wind ca­pi­tal of Ca­na­da

Pin­cher Creek, Al­ber­ta, mo­ving away from 'love af­fair' with wind tur­bi­nes



Mat­thew Scace · The Ca­na­di­an Press · Pos­ted: Sep 28, 2025



In Pin­cher Creek, Al­ber­ta, wind is king, de­li­ver­ing power for ge­ne­ra­ti­ons, so much so the city made a wind­mill part of its cor­po­ra­te logo.

Not an­y­mo­re. District Reeve Rick Lemi­re said the wind­mill image, which sits alongs­i­de other Al­ber­ta icons on the logo will soon be re­mo­ved. It's not us an­y­mo­re, Lemi­re said in an in­ter­view.

There are few places where the wind blows as hard and as often as it does in Pin­cher Creek, where clus­ters of wind­mills tower over farm­land, with moun­tains in the di­s­tance.

But in a few short years, new rules and chan­ging at­ti­tu­des have de­li­ver­ed a sud­den turn away from wind pro­jects. […] Re­gu­la­ti­ons for­bid re­ne­wa­ble en­er­gy de­ve­lo­p­ments within a 35-​kilometre buf­fer zone from the Rocky Moun­tains, which ap­plies to Pin­cher Creek in order to pre­ser­ve jaw-​dropping Prai­rie view­s­capes. […] The district has more than 255 tur­bi­nes pro­du­cing ne­ar­ly 511 me­ga­watts of en­er­gy, says a third-​party re­port com­mis­si­o­ned last year by the town and district.

The issue is also about money. Lemi­re said stop­ping re­ne­wa­ble de­ve­lo­p­ment means lo­sing re­ve­nue if com­pa­nies can't re­pow­er their wind farms once exis­ting ones reach the end of their life.

About 30% of the district's bud­get re­li­es on re­ve­nu­es from re­ne­wa­ble elec­tri­ci­ty ge­ne­ra­ti­on, says ana­ly­sis by the Pem­bi­na In­sti­tu­te, and lan­dow­ners also collect a per­cen­ta­ge of re­ve­nue ge­ne­ra­ted by each tur­bi­ne. […]

But it is said if the aging tur­bi­nes are al­lo­wed to be re­placed by fewer yet more ef­fi­ci­ent mo­dels, ever­y­o­ne wins. […] While re­si­dents aren't keen on new tur­bi­nes, they're on board with an im­pro­ved sta­tus quo. The people that live around that Cas­t­le River wind farm with 60 tur­bi­nes, when they hear that six or seven tur­bi­nes can re­place that, they get ex­ci­ted, he said.



Re­gu­la­ti­ons 'pop­ped a bub­ble'



Oli­ver, a re­si­dent of Pin­cher Creek for over 30 years, said he finds it re­mar­kab­le how quick­ly times have chan­ged in a few years. It just shows you the power of go­vern­ment po­li­cy to chan­ge the di­rec­tion of so­cie­ty.

Will Noel, a se­ni­or ana­lyst at the Pem­bi­na In­sti­tu­te, said what the in­dus­try needs is cer­tain­ty. […] He said mo­der­niza­ti­on and con­so­li­da­ti­on can work. This is a great midd­le ground, Noel said. We'll get rid of 40 tur­bi­nes and put up 10 new ones — that's a quar­ter of the tur­bi­nes you have to look at, and you're get­ting the same kind of power. […]