OTTAWA – New Democrats in two Western provinces are split over the Liberal government’s goal of a net-zero electricity grid by 2035, with the federal party now saying it supports that time...
I think this is a situation where the last 10 percent is going to be harder than the previous 90. The issue is that the places that don’t have that low emission power generation are essentially run by oil companies as evidenced by Danielle Smith’s antics.
While true, electricity works a bit differently from most other resources, in that you don’t have to build it where you use it. Power lines can easily go for hundreds of km if you need to, so if one area refuses to get rid of their fossil fuel power plant, just build excess power somewhere that’s willing to do it and send the energy over. You can force that power plant to shut down just by being unprofitable.
This works even across provincial lines if you need it to. Ontario provides a lot of power eastwards, and there’s talk of redirecting Newfoundland power back to Ontario when we close one of our nuclear power plants in the next few years. Theoretically it can work, if we upgrade the power lines to be able to handle the reverse flow at least.
I think this is a situation where the last 10 percent is going to be harder than the previous 90. The issue is that the places that don’t have that low emission power generation are essentially run by oil companies as evidenced by Danielle Smith’s antics.
While true, electricity works a bit differently from most other resources, in that you don’t have to build it where you use it. Power lines can easily go for hundreds of km if you need to, so if one area refuses to get rid of their fossil fuel power plant, just build excess power somewhere that’s willing to do it and send the energy over. You can force that power plant to shut down just by being unprofitable.
This works even across provincial lines if you need it to. Ontario provides a lot of power eastwards, and there’s talk of redirecting Newfoundland power back to Ontario when we close one of our nuclear power plants in the next few years. Theoretically it can work, if we upgrade the power lines to be able to handle the reverse flow at least.