By Dian Cohen
Local Journalism Initiative
The gentle souls who so astutely peruse this august publication excluded, we are an unenlightened lot that, when it comes to electricity, exhibit a stunning amount of internal conflict.
Electricity is so everywhere all the time that we think about it only when it’s not. And when it’s not, life is really tough. If the power goes out in summer, we can’t have air-conditioning. If it goes out in winter, we can’t have heat. Not to mention light. Or in the country, water. In the space of a hundred years give or take, we’ve gone from zero to total dependence. (How many candles, whale oil or kerosene lamps, ice and iceboxes, wood- or coal-burning stoves do you keep on hand for light, heat and refrigeration?)
We are among the largest electricity consumers in the world – maybe it’s because it’s cold here. Or maybe it’s because we have a huge global advantage – our water resources and our technological resourcefulness have created hydroelectric powerhouses around the country – Quebec alone produces more than half our domestic electricity, BC’s facilities notch it up to two-thirds. These developed natural resources allow us to produce mostly clean energy in sufficient quantities that we can export about 10 per cent of what we produce. And we have a ready taker right next door.
There’s a huge demand for electricity and it’s growing at its fastest rate in years. Leaving aside developing economies like India and China, the increasing uptake of technologies that run on electricity – electric vehicles, a charging system for them, heat pumps and the data centres that teach artificial intelligences – are on course to set new demand records.
Canada’s gearing up for a lollapalooza future, right? Well, sort of.
Clean and relatively cheap electricity is made from manipulating water – Quebec does this most. Less environmentally-friendly electricity is made from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum) of which the western provinces have a lot. More expensive electricity comes from nuclear and renewable energy (on- and offshore wind, solar panels). We make electricity using all these methods and we argue a lot about how bad it is to use less-than-pristine-but-plentiful fossil fuels.
Our ace in the hole is our water – we’re one of the top five countries in the world with the most renewable fresh water. Here’s the double-edged sword. Unless we live on a reserve, whom the powers-that-be have despicably neglected, we’ve taken it for granted – we’ve failed to look after its infrastructure (think Calgary water main rupture), we haven’t priced it properly, we waste it.
Not only don’t we have a water conservation ethic, but we’re also oblivious to the dimensions of a world with less of it. Scientists at Environment Canada say that in the past four decades, snowfall in both Canada and the United States has dropped by about 4.6 billion tonnes per year. That’s a lot of lost water. According to a 2019 report commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada, temperatures in the country are increasing faster, on average, than the rest of the globe. With hotter summers and less snowfall in winter, water reservoirs aren’t filling up the way they used to. Without water, we can’t make cheap, clean electricity. Overall, exports to the US fell nearly 25 per cent last year, to the lowest level since 2016. Quebec, BC and Manitoba all reported less hydro production; the latter two reported more power imports from the US.
Less water may not be forever, but greater variability from Mother Nature seems assured. Water inflow variability is actually well understood in the hydropower industry – specialists have many ways to capture what’s available. It’s less clear that we have any interest in conserving water for purposes such as drinking, bathing and other somewhat civilized endeavors.
We don’t respect our natural resource bounty but we’re ingenious at exploiting it. Along with hydroelectric power, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and biomass are practically infinite. We’re in the world’s top-10 in onshore wind capacity, even though it produces only a small fraction of our electricity. The idea of placing turbines at sea to harness wind energy over open water has come to Newfoundland and Labrador – it hopes to have offshore wind areas leased by 2025 and has the federal government’s blessing to proceed with approvals in provincial waters. Unconstrained by hills or cities, offshore winds tend to be stronger and more consistent than onshore ones, able to produce three times the power of their onshore facilities.
We can do solar too, although solar energy’s potential varies across the country. Not so good on the coasts lower because of increased cloud cover, much better in the central areas. Solar panels on the roofs of these sunny residential homes could possibly supply half of Canada’s home energy demands. Notwithstanding the dozens of residential solar incentive programs currently available across the country, we’ve hamstrung ourselves with an equal number of legislative, regulatory, and infrastructure hurdles that prevent these installations.
As for storing electricity, Canada is #1 among 30 countries that were assessed for their potential to build a secure, reliable, and sustainable lithium-ion battery supply chain. “This [2024] marks the first time China has not claimed the number one position. Canada’s consistent manufacturing and production advances, and strong ESG credentials, have helped it become a leader in forming the battery supply chains of the future. Strong integration with the US automotive sector means Canada is also a big winner of the ‘friendshoring’ ambitions of the Inflation Reduction Act. The country’s position in BNEF’s ranking is propelled by policy commitment at both the provincial and federal level,” says a Bloomberg entity that specializes in energy.
Who’da thunk it? Where would we be if we pulled together?