Canada making advances in renewable energy

Clint r

Well-Known Member
copied from castanets news service:

The Canadian Press - Oct 14 7:41 am
The National Energy Board says a renewable power project building spree between 2005 and 2015 took its share of overall generation in Canada from two per cent to 11 per cent.

NEB chief economist Shelley Milutinovic says the buildup means Canada is the fourth-largest generator in the world of environmentally friendly power from sources including wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric plants.

Renewable generation capacity grew by 26 per cent from about 75,000 megawatts in 2005 to nearly 95,000 megawatts in 2015, according to the federal regulator's report, Canada's Renewable Power Landscape.

The report says hydroelectric power capacity grew by about nine per cent to over 79,000 megawatts during the decade.

Non-hydro renewables such as wind, solar and biomass grew more than six-fold, from 2,360 megawatts in 2005 to 15,600 in 2015. Meanwhile, coal-fired power capacity declined by 6,230 megawatts and natural gas capacity increased by 8,400 megawatts.

"I think that's one thing people don't really understand (is) just how significant on a world scale Canada is on the renewable front," said Milutinovic.

"It is fourth in the world on renewables after China, the U.S. and Brazil and it's second in the world in terms of hydro production; only China is bigger."

She says she expects the trend to renewable power to continue.

"Things like Alberta moving off coal by 2030, 50 per cent renewables for power generation in Saskatchewan by 2030, all of those things offer strong support for renewables."

The report notes that 11 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions came from the electricity sector in 2014, the latest year for which statistics were available. That's down from about 16 per cent in 2005.

Ontario and Nova Scotia have seen the largest gains in renewable power generation over the decade, with its proportion in Ontario increasing from 23 per cent to 34 per cent and in Nova Scotia from 12 per cent to 24 per cent, the report says.

Hydro is the dominant source of electricity in Canada accounting for 55 per cent of total installed capacity. Four provinces and one territory - British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon - derive more than 85 per cent of their power from hydro.

 
Nice to see changes in how a megawatt is being produced, but still has alot more to go. The average dwelling ROI is still 25 years. So the average home owner is not willing to invest in photovoltaic energy. It is nice to see hydro buying it back at 9.77 kw

Next 10 years will be interesting and would be nice to see photovoltaic price per watt drop in half or even lower.
 
Nice to see changes in how a megawatt is being produced, but still has alot more to go. The average dwelling ROI is still 25 years. So the average home owner is not willing to invest in photovoltaic energy. It is nice to see hydro buying it back at 9.77 kw

Next 10 years will be interesting and would be nice to see photovoltaic price per watt drop in half or even lower.

I have been watching this for a number of years and last time I went through the numbers I did not get the 25 year ROI. Mine worked out to 15 but I think that's still too high. Interesting side note was that half was for labour so I think that's where we could see some price drops.
Here is a link that you may find interesting that also has spreadsheet so you can do your own ROI.
http://www.gabenergy.com/faq-pv/

The trend is clear....
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I didn't work any numbers just took it from hydro. To hard to work numbers for an avg dwelling as every install is different. My annual draw will be different than a dwelling with a hottub or suite. 15 -20 is a long time for ROI. As electrical installs are only 20 years and its just around then that you break even, just in time for it to start failing.
I dont think labour will ever drop when installing DC power. As the industry emerges more code will come into play and labour will just go up. The only factor will be demand. If demand spikes or increases it could drop mark up on jobs.but could go the other way and create a specialized technician for PV field
The next ten years is going to interesting to watch and see what happens. The increase in PV technology will definitely show where it goes.
 
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