Taking Charge

Electricity consumers want more renewable energy

Wind energy, solar energy and energy storage, working together, will be at the core of Canada’s energy transition. One key reason for this is the fact that electricity consumers—corporations, governments, households and small businesses—have an increasing interest in renewable energy. Why renewables? They offer a mix of low costs, important environmental benefits and increased energy independence.

Corporations: An emerging driver of renewable-energy growth

A growing number of corporations are prioritizing the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions within their environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies and taking steps to ensure the electricity they use is generated by non-emitting sources, like wind and solar energy.

To that end, companies are signing power-purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable-energy providers. PPAs are long-term agreements through which commercial or industrial customers buy renewable power from renewable generators at an agreed-upon price. “Renewable power,” in this case, usually includes both the renewable attribute (either an offset or a credit) and the electricity itself.

Where it is not possible to directly purchase renewable energy through the grid, corporations may purchase renewable attributes alone, and by doing so, help to enable renewable power to be produced elsewhere.

In 2015, corporate PPAs facilitated the deployment of 4.7 GW of new renewable energy worldwide. By 2020, that number had increased to 23.7 GW – more than Canada’s total installed wind and solar energy capacity.

Globally, more than 300 leading companies have come together as RE100 to signal their commitment to 100% renewable electricity. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, these RE100 members will need to purchase 93 GW of renewable energy in 2030 just to meet their existing commitments.

This trend is evident in Canada, but on a smaller scale

In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market, 2021 has already seen a flurry of new PPAs from corporations like Amazon, Budweiser, TD, Bimbo and others, that will stimulate 769 MW of new wind and solar energy development.

Regulated electricity markets are also responding to growing corporate demand for renewables. The new Green Choice Program in Nova Scotia, for instance, will enable government, businesses and institutions to purchase new wind and solar energy.

Indeed, a growing number of utilities are now offering renewable-energy options for consumers in different parts of the country.

In addition to corporations, a growing number of municipal, provincial and federal governments are also looking to sign PPAs for renewable energy. For example, the City of Edmonton is now looking to sign such agreements to meet its electricity needs with wind and solar energy.

More potential for growth: distributed energy resources

Distributed energy resources are poised to provide increased opportunities for homeowners and small businesses to demand on-site renewable-energy generation. Indeed, such consumers have already enabled 190 MW of net-metered solar photovoltaics (PV) to be deployed across Canada. With a view to further stimulating such demand, the Alberta, Nova Scotia and Federal Governments have all recently made funding available to support the deployment of behind-the-meter solar PV.

While consumers may show an interest in distributed energy resources (DERs) for their economic and environmental benefits, these technologies can also enable them to become “prosumers.” By PRO-ducing the energy they con-SUME, they can take charge of the way they power their households and technologies, including electric vehicles. This can increase their energy security and independence.

Governments and utilities are also exploring the potential opportunities for DERs to provide system benefits as well. DER technologies, such as rooftop PV systems, heat pumps, electric vehicle (EV) chargers and batteries, can all be bundled into virtual power plants (VPPs) that can provide valuable grid-balancing services, in addition to meeting the needs of on-site consumers. This can help reduce the need for investments in new generation and transmission infrastructure, reducing the cost of the electricity system as a whole.

While Canada has made limited use of these resources, their contribution to the electricity system is significantly higher in markets like the United States, Europe and Australia.

Consumer interest in wind and solar energy is emerging as an important driver for renewable-energy deployment. But this is still at an early stage in Canada. Increasing public concern about climate change, however, coupled with the economic and environmental benefits of these technologies, ensure that consumer demand for these technologies will only accelerate going forward.

CanREA’s Vision

In my series of five blog posts on CanREA’s 2050 Vision, I have argued that wind energy, solar energy and energy storage will be at the core of Canada’s energy transition for five key reasons:

1. Because these technologies represent the most affordable path forward for Canada’s electricity system;
2. Because they offer many important economic benefits, such as good stable jobs and investment in rural communities;
3. Because they enable Canada to combat climate change, the most significant environmental challenge of our time;
4. Because they will help provide reliable solutions for Canada’s energy future;
5. Because consumers are increasingly demanding them. 

Read the full series of posts on CanREA’s 2050 Vision here.

Steady as we go

A reliable electricity grid can be built on a foundation of wind and solar energy

Wind energy, solar energy and energy storage, working together, will provide reliable solutions to meet Canada’s energy needs in a net-zero greenhouse-gas emission economy.

Everyone knows that the energy of the wind and the sun is a variable force—the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.

Thanks, however, to emerging technologies in the electricity sector, and to new approaches to using existing technologies and infrastructure, it is now clear that a reliable electricity grid can be built on a foundation of wind and solar energy.

Relying on wind and solar

This is not science fiction. Wind and solar have already demonstrated they can make a very significant contribution to energy needs.

Today, approximately 6.8% of Canada’s electricity demand is met by wind and solar, and the contribution is much larger in PEI (25%) and Nova Scotia (13%).

But wind and solar can also go much further.

Wind energy already meets 16% of electricity demand in the European Union as a whole, with the numbers exceeding 20% in Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Spain and the UK, and reaching nearly 50% in the case of Denmark.

At the same time, solar energy now meets close to 10% of electricity demand in some countries.

In fact, Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that wind and solar will account for 56% of global electricity production in 2050, with penetration levels reaching 70 to 80% in some countries.

How can this be, given the variability of wind and solar energy production?

Wind energy production tends to be higher at night and in the winter, while solar energy production is highest in the summer and during the day. This natural complementarity can help reduce variability but, for the electricity-system operator tasked with balancing supply and demand, more is required to ensure reliability.

While wind and solar represent low-cost and emissions-free renewable energy, their rapid growth does introduce more variability into the grid.

Fortunately, system operators are being presented with an expanding number of tools to manage this variability while optimizing the benefits of solar and wind energy.

One rapidly emerging tool is energy storage.

Energy-storage technologies are quite diverse (batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro, compressed air, hydrogen), but they all share a common characteristic: they store electrical energy produced at one time for use at another time.

Battery technologies have attracted significant attention recently. They are being rapidly deployed, having declined in cost by 90% over the last decade.

Batteries can be used in conjunction with renewable energy projects (also known as hybrid projects), or on a stand-alone basis. They can respond quickly and accurately to system operator directions, making them attractive providers of reliability services to the grid, such as renewable-energy shaping, transmission-congestion management and voltage support.

While batteries can store energy for several hours, other developing technologies, such as compressed-air energy storage, have a longer-term storage capacity.

Canada’s massive hydroelectric resources can also store energy for much longer periods of time. Reservoirs behind dams store energy when wind and solar energy are operating, and release that energy when required. In fact, Minnesota uses Manitoba Hydro’s hydroelectric resources to help manage the variability of the state’s wind-energy production.

Interconnection between grids

Interconnection between electricity grids is another important tool for managing variability, and increasing these interconnections expands the range of options available to do so.

There is a significant body of research demonstrating the excellent investment value of improving interconnections and its critical importance in supporting increased deployment of renewables.

But it’s not all about building new transmission.

The rapid emergence of distributed-energy resources, and the prevalence of smart-grid technologies, are also providing system operators with new options to manage variability from the demand side.

For example, wind-energy production generally peaks at night when electricity demand is lower, so by increasing demand at that time—such as by encouraging electric vehicle charging in the overnight hours—this low-cost electricity could be easily utilized. In essence, the batteries in electric vehicles permit electricity to be stored on-site for later use.

It is also worth noting that new wind- and solar-energy technologies can themselves provide a variety of reliability services to the grid, such as Fast Frequency Response and Reactive Power Control. Another example is when electricity demand drops rapidly, these technologies can ramp down production much more quickly, and at a lesser cost, than any conventional generating technology can.

Foundation of the future grid

So, can we take advantage of the incredibly low cost of wind and solar energy and place them at the core of a reliable electricity grid? The answer is yes.

In fact, wind, solar and energy storage will serve as its solid foundation. The future grid will be more diverse, decentralized and interconnected. It will place wind and solar energy at its core, while providing the tools required to ensure reliability. And as a result, Canadians will receive better services, at a lower cost, while also fighting climate change.

This is the fourth article in a series of CanREA Vison blogs, in which I’ve argued why wind energy, solar energy and energy storage will be at the core of Canada’s energy transition. 1. Because these technologies represent the most affordable path forward for Canada’s electricity system. 2. Because  they offer many important economic benefits, such as good stable jobs and investment in rural communities. 3. Because they enable Canada to combat climate change, the most significant environmental challenge of our time. 4. Because they will help provide reliable solutions for Canada’s energy future. And 5. Because they empower Canadians.

Carpe diem, Canada

We can mitigate climate change, but only by putting wind, solar and energy storage at the centre of a comprehensive clean-energy transition, starting today.

I have been advocating for actions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions for more than 30 years, primarily from within the environmental community and as a representative of renewable-energy industries. While we can point to some real progress in that time, the pace of change has been wholly inadequate. We are slowly walking into a climate catastrophe when we should be sprinting to do all we can to mitigate it.

Canada’s average temperature is increasing twice as fast as the global average and the signs of a changing climate are everywhere: our permafrost is melting, our coastal sea levels are rising, our snow-cover patterns are changing, and our weather is becoming more extreme, with floods, droughts, and intense storms on the rise.

We are already seeing serious impacts on our ecosystems, communities, infrastructure and economies, and things are currently on track to get much worse.

Under the Paris Agreement, Canada has committed to reducing its GHG emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and has joined more than 120 other nations in pledging to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. We have also made a clean-grid target, aiming to have 90 percent of Canada’s electricity coming from non-emitting sources by 2030 and 100 percent before 2050.  

Targets are one thing. Results are another. Despite the measures taken to date, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have remained relatively stable since 2005, at more or less 700 Mt per year, getting no closer to our Paris target of 524 Mt.

In December 2020, CanREA welcomed the federal government’s new plan, “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy,” as an important step forward on the path to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, but it is critical that the new proposals identified within the plan are translated into concrete actions that deliver meaningful results starting in 2021.

So how do we get there?

Meeting Canada’s 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets will be challenging, but it is clearly doable.

The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices recently released a report examining 60 different potential pathways for Canada to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They conclude that existing “safe bet” technologies can get us most of the way to 2030 and much of the way to 2050 – although some of a broad range of potential “wild card” technologies will also be required to fully complete the job.

While there are important differences between the scenarios, they all rely on a significantly expanded, non-emitting electricity grid to get us to net-zero.

Fortunately, Canada is better positioned than most countries to build a strategy around this cornerstone. Doing so requires action on three fronts.

1. The first step is to clean up the electricity supply.

In Canada, 82 percent of our electricity system is already non-emitting. The remaining 18 percent—and significantly more—can easily be supplied by Canada’s massive untapped renewable energy resources.

We need to ensure that all new electricity generation is enabled through competitive processes and market signals that seek to deliver the most affordable, non-emitting generation.

Halkirk Alberta Wind Farm. Photo: Capital Power

The cost-competitiveness of wind and solar energy will make them a key focal point for such new investments, while additional investments in interprovincial transmission and energy storage will help to ensure reliability.

President Biden has said the U.S. will move to decarbonize its electricity grid by 2035. Canada has the potential to meet a similar target and should accelerate its efforts to decarbonize the grid, while also working with the U.S. to allow Canadian clean-electricity exports to help them achieve their goal.

2. Step two is transitioning away from fossil fuels because cleaning the grid is not nearly enough.

We can have the cleanest electricity in the world, but until we electrify transportation, heavy industry and heating, we will not substantially reduce the bulk of our country’s GHG emissions.

Currently, electricity supplies 16 percent of Canada’s energy needs. The remaining 84 percent is supplied largely by fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal). Luckily, there are tremendous opportunities to use electricity to service many of these energy needs.

The transition should start with transportation. There have been many positive signals on electric vehicles in recent months, including commitments by automakers to shift production to electric vehicles, growing purchases of such vehicles by consumers, and increased investments in electric vehicle-charging infrastructure.

In addition, we have seen commitments to ban the sale of gasoline cars: by 2035 in Quebec and by 2040 in British Columbia. All of these promising initiatives must now be brought together in a comprehensive federal–provincial strategy for the electrification of passenger transportation.

Similar strategies will ultimately be required for the electrification of heavy industry and buildings. Governments are correctly focused on improving energy efficiency within existing building stock, but it is critical that such retrofits also explore opportunities for energy self-supply, through the on-site production of electricity, such as rooftop solar.  

3. Step three will be to produce a lot more electricity.

Studies, like those undertaken by the Trottier Institute, the UN’s Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, and Transition Accelerator, have consistently found that Canada’s current electricity system will need to double or triple in size by 2050 to address climate change.

To significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, there will be increased demand for clean, non-emitting electricity to power electric vehicles, electric heat pumps, and new, innovative industrial machinery in sectors like the aluminum industry.

Such a build-out will take time and we need to start planning today for the electricity grid of 2050 if we are to be successful.

Global leadership

Canada has an opportunity to become a true global leader when it comes to the energy transition. We have a competitive advantage provided by our abundant renewable energy resources, and we are well positioned to build on this advantage: Cleaning and significantly expanding our non-emitting electricity grid will do much of the heavy lifting required to reach net zero by 2050.

There is no reversing climate change, but by working together across all sectors and provinces, we can slow it down to keep its impacts at a more manageable level while ensuring opportunities for all Canadians.  

We have a fleeting opportunity to avert a catastrophe for our children and grandchildren. We need to seize it. Today.

Carpe Diem.

This is the third article in a series about CanREA’s Vision, exploring why wind energy, solar energy and energy storage, working together, will be at the core of Canada’s energy transition. I have so far argued that these technologies represent the most affordable path forward for Canada’s electricity system while also offering many important economic benefits, such as good stable jobs and investment in rural communities. Clean power also represents the core of Canada’s efforts to combat climate change, the most significant environmental challenge of our time. In my next Vision Blog, I will explore how wind energy, solar energy and energy storage, working together, can help create the best possible future for Canadians by empowering consumers.

Real Returns from Renewables

The strong economic case for putting wind energy, solar energy and energy storage at the centre of Canada’s energy transition.

In a previous blog, I argued that today’s low-cost wind and solar energy, coupled with existing hydropower and increasingly economical energy-storage options, represent the most affordable and best path forward for Canada’s electricity future.

Here, I explore another facet of the economic argument: that affordable, clean and reliable power not only provides the lowest-cost pathway to meeting our climate-change goals, but also offers many other important economic benefits for Canadians.

Putting wind energy, solar energy and energy storage at the centre of Canada’s energy transition will benefit Canada economically in many ways: significant new local investment and job creation, and direct benefits to homeowners, small businesses and host communities in rural and remote areas of Canada, including Indigenous communities.

Investment

Renewables and energy storage represent the foundation of the energy transition required to move Canada to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

On a global scale, Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that, between now and 2050, 80 percent of all investment in new power-generating capacity will go to wind, solar and batteries. This represents $12 trillion in new investment.

With its abundant, untapped and high-quality solar and wind resources, Canada should strive to position itself as a competitive destination for such investment.

Every 100 MW of new wind-energy capacity represents approximately $180 million in total investment, while every 100 MW of new solar-energy capacity represents $112M. These investments bring significant benefits to local communities throughout the life cycle of the project.

Job creation

This new investment in wind energy, solar energy and energy storage will also create significant employment opportunities in Canada.

It is already happening around the world. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), approximately 5 million people were employed in the wind energy and solar photovoltaic (PV) industries in 2019, up from just over 2 million people in 2012. There is rapid growth in these industries, and it is accelerating at a rapid pace worldwide.

Investments in solar, wind and energy storage create employment opportunities throughout the project life cycle: development, construction, operations and decommissioning. Additional jobs are created through the manufacture of these technologies and their key components.

When one considers the rapid projected expansion of wind and solar energy, the opportunities for job growth are significant. Indeed, the United States has already reported that wind turbine and solar technicians are the fastest growing jobs in the country.

Benefits for individuals and communities

New utility-scale solar- and wind-energy development provides lease income to local landowners and municipal tax revenues for host communities, along with a diverse range of benefits that contribute to the priority needs of the community, as per agreements with project developers.   

For example, an Alberta supply-chain study found that 100 MW of wind provides approximately $1 million in annual property taxes for host communities and approximately $500,000 in royalty payments to landowners.

These are important economic benefits for the rural communities that host utility-scale wind-energy and solar-energy projects. Many of these host communities are found in rural areas with a limited industrial base. Revenues from this type of renewable energy development provide increased stability for economies that often rely on variable revenues from activities like agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

What’s more, rooftop solar PV installations bring direct economic benefits to homeowners, businesses and community organizations, helping to reduce energy costs and increasing the economic value of the building.

Benefits for indigenous communities

Increasingly, indigenous communities across Canada are seeking opportunities to benefit from wind- and solar-energy development; project proponents, along with government policy, are responding to this interest.

According to Indigenous Clean Energy, 197 of Canada’s medium-to-large renewable-energy projects (more than one third of them solar or wind) are fully or partially owned by indigenous people and benefit from indigenous involvement, while approximately 2,000 small renewable-energy systems have Indigenous leadership and partnerships in place. These numbers are poised to grow significantly over the next few years.

The role of storage

Energy storage is at an earlier stage of deployment than wind and solar energy in Canada, but it already promises strong economic benefits.

Energy storage is proving to be the Swiss Army Knife of the energy transition because of the multiple services that storage can provide. These include grid reliability services, decreases in costly outages, and a reduction in system costs, by enabling the more efficient use of reliable and affordable wind and solar energy resources.

Already, many renewable energy companies and utilities are including storage in their development and planning activities:  this activity is expected to accelerate as the costs of storage continue their rapid decline.

Returns on renewables

Canada needs to significantly increase its development of wind energy, solar energy and energy storage if it is to have any hope of getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Just as importantly, Canadians—and the communities in which they live—need to capture the strong and significant economic benefits associated with maximizing the development of these renewable energy technologies. These benefits will continue to give back for generations to come.

In my next blog on CanREA’s vision, I will explore why wind energy, solar energy and energy storage are critical in our efforts to combat climate change.

For more data on solar energy, wind energy and energy storage in Canada, please see our By the Numbers page.   

Massive expansion of wind and solar energy critical to ensuring the affordability of Canada’s future electricity system

Why will wind energy, solar energy and energy storage play a central role in transforming Canada’s energy mix? The key reason is affordability.

There is no doubt that wind and solar energy are experiencing substantial growth in Canada, and around the world.

The 2020 New Energy Outlook from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projected that wind and solar energy will grow from meeting 9% of global electricity demand today to an impressive 56% of global electricity demand by 2050. This is consistent with the findings of DNV-GL’s 2020 Energy Transition Outlook, which projects that wind and solar energy will meet 62% of global electricity demand by 2050.

What might surprise you about these studies is that the primary driver of such staggering growth is economic, over and above its power to confront climate change.

Wind and solar energy have become the dominant choice for new electricity generation globally because they provide new electricity at the lowest cost. Keeping electricity costs low for Canadians will require adding a lot more solar and wind energy to the mix.

According to Lazard’s 2020 Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis, the cost of solar energy has fallen 90% since 2009 and the cost of wind energy has fallen 71%. Solar and wind energy now have a levelized cost lower than any other form of new electricity generation in the United States.

It’s a similar situation in many other parts of the world. According to BNEF, either wind or solar energy is now the lowest-cost form of electricity generation in countries representing three-quarters of the world’s economy. The International Energy Agency’s 2020 World Energy Outlook calls solar energy “the new king of electricity supply,” and the cheapest source of electricity in history.

Here in Canada, wind and solar projects are competitive with any form of new electricity generation. We are seeing contracts signed for wind energy in Alberta and Saskatchewan at prices below $40/MWh, and solar energy contracts signed in Alberta at prices averaging $48/MWh.

Incredibly, these low costs are projected to fall still further thanks to continued technological evolution. BNEF projects that electricity from new wind and solar energy facilities will become cheaper than electricity produced from existing coal and natural gas-fired power plants as soon as the mid-2020s.

Some will argue that these costs are understated because the variability of wind and solar production means they will need to be paired with other technologies to achieve high levels of penetration in the electricity grid, but Canada’s massive existing hydroelectric resources are an excellent, low-cost partner to facilitate wind and solar energy integration in many parts of the country.

At the same time, BNEF, DNV-GL and Lazard all report significant declines in the cost of many other energy-storage technologies. For example, BNEF found that the cost of lithium-ion batteries fell by almost 90% in the last decade, while DNV-GL predicts it will drop another two-thirds by 2030.

A future blog will explore in more detail the most cost-effective ways to ensure reliable grids with high penetrations of wind and solar energy. It is increasingly clear that today’s low-cost wind and solar energy, coupled with existing hydropower and increasingly economical energy-storage options, represent the most affordable and best path forward for Canada’s electricity future.

Get more data on solar energy, wind energy and energy storage in Canada on our By the Numbers page.   

Economic Recovery Can Power Canada’s Net-Zero Carbon Future

Economic stimulus investments in the wake of COVID-19 must support growth in wind energy, solar energy and energy storage

Canada is making steady progress in mitigating the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the health of Canadians and the Canadian economy. While this work is far from over, public attention is shifting to the question of how governments can best stimulate economic recovery. The scale of investment required makes this a once in a lifetime opportunity to “build back better” – ensuring that new economic activity helps us simultaneously address other significant challenges as we move forward from COVID-19.

Canada faces no bigger challenge than the threat posed by climate change.  

Consistent with climate science, Canada has committed to moving to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. While there are many potential pathways to net zero, modelling and analysis consistently show that three elements will be critical:

  • Canada must move to an electricity system that emits virtually no greenhouse gas emissions,
  • Canada must significantly increase (e.g., double) its electricity production and use that electricity to replace other energy sources in transportation, buildings and industry, and
  • Canada must dramatically increase its production of wind and solar energy, in combination with energy storage, to contribute to these outcomes.

Unfortunately, our current pathway won’t get us to the net-zero destination. The Canadian Energy Regulator’s most recent supply and demand projections to 2040 suggest that Canada’s electricity production will move from 81% non-emitting today to just 83% in 2040. Electricity production is envisioned to increase by only 14%. And while the production of wind and solar energy is expected to double over this time period, greenhouse gas-emitting natural gas is projected to be the largest source of new electricity generation.

Government stimulus strategies in response to COVID-19 can serve to create high-quality and widely dispersed jobs, while also putting us on a viable pathway to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This could and should involve:

  • Support for labour-intensive work like the deployment of solar energy and energy storage systems for homes and commercial and institutional buildings across Canada,
  • Support for major new electricity infrastructure like new transmission lines and energy storage projects, which will enable better integration and use of wind and solar energy,
  • Support for the electrification of transportation and the production of green hydrogen from wind and solar energy, which could create new industrial opportunities while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.

It’s also important to remember that economic stimulus is not only a matter of new spending. Governments can also remove market and regulatory barriers to investment, and in ways that will support progress towards net zero. This could include:

  • Creating transparent, fair and competitive electricity markets and procurement processes focused on deployment of the lowest-cost non-emitting generation and energy storage, and
  • Enabling and supporting increased customer choice in electricity supply, including increased customer opportunities for self-supply.

If Canada is to get on a net-zero emissions pathway, we must act now. While 2050 may seem a long way off, 30 years is not a lot of time in the electricity sector. Most of the electricity generating facilities we build today will still be operating beyond 2040. Major new infrastructure projects like transmission lines can take many years to permit and build once approved.

Changing the design of electricity markets and the regulatory frameworks that govern them is also a complex and time-consuming process. Success in 2050 depends on decisions taken today – and the wrong decisions could lock us into pathways that will make it impossible to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050 without stranding assets and investment.

On July 1, 2020, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association was formed. We support Canada’s net-zero commitment and are working to enable increased deployment of wind energy, solar energy, and energy storage across Canada – from large utility-scale facilities to commercial and residential applications.

Canada already ranks in the top 10 globally for installed wind energy capacity and in the top 20 for installed solar energy capacity. Over the last decade, wind energy has been the largest source of new generating capacity in Canada and has become the lowest cost source of new generation. Solar energy costs have been falling at an even faster rate. With our massive untapped resources, however, we can do much more.

Our response to the economic impacts of COVID-19 provides that opportunity for acceleration. The pandemic has forced us to reassess many aspects of our lives and our economy. Life after COVID-19 will not be the same, and it can in many ways be better. If we are serious about climate change and our net-zero target, we need to reassess the future of our electricity system and “build back better”.

We still have time to shape the future we want, but only if we act today.

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