Alberta's Move to Green Energy Seen Swelling Power Company Debt

摘要

Canada's dirtiest province is cleaning up its act, and that's expected to result in C$7 billion ($5.2 billion) in new debt from power companies such as TransAlta Corp. to fund green energy projects in the coming years. Alberta, the nation's largest provincial carbon polluter, will need to replace about 6,000 megawatts of coal generation capacity with cleaner fuel sources such as wind and natural gas to meet the government's deadline for 30 percent renewable energy and to rid the province of coal by 2030. Half of that new power is expected to be financed by debt, Stephen Goltz, a Toronto-based credit analyst at Standard & Poor's, said.