RenuWell – Solar breathes new life into abandoned oil wells

Replacing lost oil lease revenue with solar revenue

Keith Hirsche is the founder and president of RenuWell Energy Solutions, and he has a really big idea to take abandoned Alberta oil wells and turn them into solar farms.

The idea is pretty simple. Oil companies could save on some reclamation costs of sites by retaining some of the basic infrastructure after some initial cleanup. Co-operatives or companies can then enter into new leases with the landowner and reuse this infrastructure to build solar projects on the same site.

RenuWell – the idea is to breathe new life into Alberta's thousands of abandoned oil wells by reusing well pads and roads and building 750-kilowatt solar farms. It's a win-win for landowners, municipalities and energy transition.

Alberta has 170,000 inactive and abandoned oil wells and 3,321 orphan wells that have been abandoned by failed companies. It all adds up to a liability of $30.1 billion against a total security held of $227 million.

There is also a growing tax liability. In a survey to its members, the Rural Municipalities Association of Alberta (RMA) found $245 million in unpaid property taxes owed by oil and gas companies by February 2021. That’s a 42 per cent increase from 2020 and a 203 per cent increase from 2019.

The solar projects could also help ease this problem: they would pay taxes to municipalities that have been losing tax revenues as oil companies abandon sites or simply stop paying their taxes due to financial pressures.