Montem Resources has ‘evolved’ its business

Montem Resources has changed their name to Evolve Power Limited as they move forward with the Tent Mountain Renewable Energy Complex. Peter Doyle, CEO and MD of Evolve Power Limited, was present at the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass council meeting on September 12 to explain the change.

“Montem no longer exists, we’ve now changed our name to evolve power,” said Doyle in his opening remarks to the members of council.

“We spoke last year about what our plans were... and the plans at that stage were to progress the company as a power company, to leave coal behind us. That’s really what we’ve done,” said Doyle. “It’s sad for me, I’ve spent nearly 30 years being a coal miner.”

In April 2023, Evolve Power Limited (formerly Montem Resources Limited) sold 50 per cent of the facility at Tent Mountain to TransAlta Corporation. Evolve Power and TransAlta have formed a partnership called the Tent Mountain Pumped Hydro Limited Partnership. Both companies will jointly manage the project, with TransAlta acting as the project developer.

“What we’re trying to do with it is be considered a junior partner of TransAlta’s. We now we own 50 per cent of it, but they’re running the brain,” said Doyle.

According to Doyle, he meets with the CEO of TransAlta “reasonably regularly” and vouched for their commitment to the project. 

“It’s a billion-dollar investment ultimately. It will take the next two years to get to that final investment decision. It will be around the end of 2025 that it is reached and at that point, we hope that we’ve worked out where the housing’s going to be and what any environmental impacts are going to be,” said Doyle.

The biggest impact of the project will be visual as it requires a new set of power lines. At the moment they are working with the Alberta Electricity System Operator on where they will connect.

“I expect that next year onwards, you’ll see a more formal process of engagement with the community,” said Doyle.

They are currently setting up at the community markets each Thursday afternoon.

“We have had an open house, and we will have more open houses but the formal process of engaging with the community won’t really start until the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) actually tells us when to go and engage fully with community and business groups,” said Doyle.

The project will have a peak workforce of 200 people. After the project is built, there will be 30 full-time jobs created. Construction is expected to take two or three seasons to complete.

“It’s 30 jobs for 80 years. There will be grandfathers, hopefully patting their grandchildren on the back saying ‘I used to have that job’,” said Doyle.

Evolve claims they will be able to power one quarter to a third of Alberta’s homes with the Tent Mountain project, about 400,000 houses. TransAlta and Evolve have agreed to invite the Blackfoot Confederacy to own 10 per cent of the project. 

“We haven’t formalized that yet, but each chief of council’s been presented and each of them are quite interested in it. We think it’s a really important thing for the indigenous nations that are represented heavily here be our partners and they’ll be allowed to come in at cost,” said Doyle, “What that actually means money-wise is once we’ve spent a billion dollars and the projects going, they can buy 10 per cent for $100,000.”

Councillor Dean Ward asked if the company would have any responsibility to reclaim the old coal mine that was previously at the location.

“Technically, no, we don’t have any... The entire site was signed off as reclaimed in the mid 1980s. We bought it on the basis of that and we’re talking with the government about the idea of eco-tourism interpretive centre to have greenhouses that have indigenous people manage a reclamation system that we pay for,” said Doyle.

More information about Evolve Power Limited (formerly Montem Resources Limited) is available on montem-resources.com.