Just outside Penticton, a proposal is taking shape for what may become the largest solar facility the province has seen.
The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen’s board of directors is being asked for their support for Alberta-based Ascetes Power’s Investigative Use Licence to develop a 1,374-hectare solar power array in the mountains northeast of Okanagan Falls and directly east of Penticton.
The scale of the proposal dwarfs the solar generation in the province to date. The SunMine, by SkyFireEnergy, when completed, generated about half the province’s solar grid capacity at 1.05 MWatts.
Solar North, at Haida Gwaii, is an Indigenous-owned project that was completed in December of 2025, serving a 2MW microgrid.
The BC Hydro press release said that 2MW would displace the use of about 350,000 litres of diesel annually.
Ascetes plans to submit a bid to BC Hydro, and the project outside Penticton would provide up to 380 MW to the BC Hydro grid. A small modular reactor, using nuclear fission, can provide up to 300MW.
The Highland Solar Project, which has not yet moved into construction, located about 15 km southeast of Ashcroft, would provide up to 150MW in an area of about 395 hecatres, according to the 2023 initial project description.
The detailed project description is still pending.
The IUL that Ascetes is seeking would allow for the environmental field surveys, preliminary engineering and preliminary geotechnical investigations of the site.
According to the RDOS staff report on the proposal, Ascetes indicated that the design and permitting for the project would take place over the next three years, with construction potentially starting in 2030.