A growing number of renewable energy projects in its clients' portfolios has led Calgary-based software company Peloton to expand its land management offering from oil and gas into clean energy and carbon capture projects.

Peloton was founded in 1991 to support operations, planning and production in the upstream oil and gas sector. The move will affect its LandView software-as-a-service that collects data and organizes land management matters such as contracts and payments.

“We knew we wanted to ensure that if we had the opportunity to present LandView to them, that we’d be able to handle all of their land needs, not just their traditional oil and gas needs,” James Hatcher, the company’s product manager for land data management, told Sustainable Biz Canada.

While the Alberta government’s restrictions on renewable energy projects has complicated the potential for local use, Hatcher said Peloton is finding business elsewhere.

The importance of land management in renewables

Just like an oil well, a wind or solar farm can occupy a large tract of land. From development to operations, the knotty issues and contracts relating to that land are critical to resolve.

"Nothing can happen without those agreements in place," Hatcher said. 

Operating rights, ensuring agreements do not expire, and lease arrangements with land owners for equipment and assets are some of the topics that concern the sector, Hatcher said. Even the air rights leased from a land owner are an issue the groups behind a wind farm need to iron out.

LandView can assist in land management as a tool for data reporting, give reminders for upcoming royalties payments, update ownership information, and grant awareness of restrictions or clauses for a given time period.

As visualizing data is one of the key philosophies of Peloton, its Title Chain Visualizer will track changes in the ownership agreements such as renamed companies. Peloton Map, another software product, will show the land an agreement represents, and is flexible enough to use GIS (geographic information system) data from third parties or the in-house mapping team.

Though very similar in many ways, Hatcher identified critical differences between fossil fuel and renewable projects in data and land management. Peloton had to adjust LandView for renewables because the way royalty and production payments to partners and land owners is handled is “significantly different” from oil and gas.

LandView has been or will be used for renewable and alternative energy projects in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Examples include a wind farm in the U.S. and a U.K.-based company developing wind and solar farms around the world.

Alberta’s regulations impede local adoption

Despite being an Alberta-based company, the provincial regulations that bar renewable energy development from a buffer zone around the Rocky Mountains, certain agricultural land and obstructing landscape views has shaken up Peloton's opportunities closer to home, Hatcher said.

The limitations were preceded by a seven-month moratorium on renewable energy development that ended Feb. 29, 2024. The Pembina Institute said applications for 53 renewable energy projects were withdrawn since Alberta imposed a moratorium on development, highlighting the impact of the pause.

Renewables in Alberta have "taken a bit of a backseat with the moratorium,” Hatcher said. “There is some more activity out in the eastern part of Canada, and so we’re flipping stones and seeing who we can get to work with and do demos for, and show the value of the product up there.”

Though renewable energy development has taken a sharp downturn in Alberta, Peloton is finding users elsewhere across its 15 offices worldwide, the product manager said.

Alberta's regulations do not necessarily represent a dead end in the province; more red tape around land use tends to require better data management, which is Peloton's specialty, Hatcher said.

But if local use of LandView for renewable energy projects is to jump start, “really it’s about making sure those projects get back on the books and kicked off,” he said.