Power To Change
Within 20 years, Alberta could reduce its heavy reliance on fossil fuel energy and instead supply the province’s electricity mostly from clean and renewable...
Conducting original research
Read our reports for timely research on the energy and policy landscape in Canada.
Reports
13. Sources
Alberta Electric System Operator, “AESO 2012 Long-term Outlook Update,” 2012. http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/AESO_LTO_Update_Final.pdf Alberta Electric System Operator, “2012 LTO Update...
12. Appendix
EFFECTIVE CAPACITY Effective capacity is a measure of a given generator’s capacity that the Alberta Electric System Operator can rely upon to be available during the peak load hours, such as early...
11. Recommendations
This report shows that it is technically feasible for Alberta to eliminate its very heavy coal reliance within 20 years, without simply switching this reliance to another fossil fuel. It acknowledges...
10. Results
Under a Clean Power Transformation scenario, within two decades Alberta could reduce its reliance on coal-fired power for grid electricity from today’s 63.8 per cent to a mere 3.6 per cent of...
9. Methodology
To understand the degree to which provincial policies could reduce coal’s share of Alberta’s power-generation mix, we modelled three scenarios, which we have called Continued Fossil Reliance,...
8. One Promising Path: A Renewable Energy Policy Framework
Alberta’s generation-demand gap presents the province with an unprecedented opportunity to seriously slash greenhouse gas emissions, lower public healthcare costs, and create new business and...
7. The Risks of Business As Usual
Alberta’s power industry is of course well aware of the looming demand-supply gap, and has a solution in mind: natural gas. As outlined in Scenario 1 on page 11, the industry expects to ramp up gas...
6. A growing need for power: Mind the supply gap
Alberta’s appetite for electricity will grow in lockstep with its oilsands sector. The Alberta Electric System Operator predicts that 6,190 MW of new electricity generation capacity will be needed...
5. A Power System Primed For Change
As any economist will tell you, the price of a given product or service should accurately reflect its true cost and value. In the case of Alberta’s electricity market, we know that pollution...
4. The Main Barrier To Renewable Power In Alberta
Simply put, it is extremely difficult to finance a wind or solar farm—or, for that matter, a hydroelectricity or geothermal power plant—in Alberta. Renewable energy is a capital-intensive...
3. The Lay of the Land: How Alberta Sources Its Power
In early 2009, the Pembina Institute released Greening the Grid: Powering Alberta’s Future with Renewable Energy. Thereport outlined how the province could use proven technologies to harvest its...