Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Across Alberta, there are currently 170,000 inactive oil well sites, which is close to 340,000 acres of unusable land, most of which is agricultural land. Reclaiming these sites can take years and is often never the same.In addition to losing the full potential of the land, landowners lose the rental income that came with those well sites.
With a background in Oil & Gas, Keith Hirsche had the idea to use these lands that had already been damaged and use them for renewable energy production, reducing the need to develop undisturbed land. This idea eventually evolved into RenuWell Energy Solutions, an organization dedicated to accelerating the closure of oil & gas lease areas and making them available for the agile and scalable deployment of small-scale solar facilities.
In 2020, RenuWell began the development of two pilot projects in Southern Alberta, which were some of the first small-scale solar generation projects in the province! The power generated from these sites goes straight into the grid and helps provide power to the area’s crop irrigation systems, which is one of the largest users of power in the area.
Across Alberta, there are currently 170,000 inactive oil well sites, which is close to 340,000 acres of unusable land, most of which is agricultural land. Reclaiming these sites can take years and is often never the same.In addition to losing the full potential of the land, landowners lose the rental income that came with those well sites.
With a background in Oil & Gas, Keith Hirsche had the idea to use these lands that had already been damaged and use them for renewable energy production, reducing the need to develop undisturbed land. This idea eventually evolved into RenuWell Energy Solutions, an organization dedicated to accelerating the closure of oil & gas lease areas and making them available for the agile and scalable deployment of small-scale solar facilities.
In 2020, RenuWell began the development of two pilot projects in Southern Alberta, which were some of the first small-scale solar generation projects in the province! The power generated from these sites goes straight into the grid and helps provide power to the area’s crop irrigation systems, which is one of the largest users of power in the area.
