Alberta's environment minister gave a huge boost to the Canadian renewables market on Thursday, confirming the province will today introduce legislation backing its 30% renewable power target for 2030, and kick things off with a 400MW large-scale renewables tender in 2017 likely to be dominated by wind.

The first tender round will be based entirely on cost, with wind, solar and other renewables competing directly against each other in a bidding process overseen by the province's grid operator, Shannon Phillips, Alberta's minister for environment and parks, announced Thursday at the Canadian Wind Energy Association's (CanWEA) annual conference.