Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), the world’s largest renewable energy-focused infrastructure fund, announced it will make its first Canadian investment in Alberta-based Greengate Power’s Travers Solar project. (CBC)

Talking point: Alberta’s solar industry has become a hotbed of investment as expectations for oil and gas dwindle. The investment in Travers Solar alone is expected to provide substantial economic and environmental benefits to the province; Dan Balaban, Greengate president and CEO, said he anticipates that over 500 full-time jobs will be created during construction and, once built, the project will be able to power over 100,000 homes using 1.5 million solar panels. Balaban said the developer would sell power from the plant “on a merchant basis” into Alberta’s deregulated market, the only one of its kind in Canada. When completed, the project will be four times the size of the country’s two current largest solar projects, both of which are in Ontario. In a press release, CIP senior partner Christian Skakkebæk called Alberta “an attractive market for investment.”