Electricity in Alberta today

[flea beetle]

What’s the wind resource Like today in Alberta? Light winds? Strong winds? Sakpower is saying 50 % renewables by 2030 which includes hydro and hydro imports. Not 50% wind! The goal is to get rid of coal and reduce. carbon emissions.

Is hydro any better for the environment? Maybe it is for carbon emissions, but what about the wildlife habitats that are ruined? In my mind that is worse than the unproven possibility that carbon emissions are warming the earth. It is known that hydro dams ruin ecosystems. But you can't tax that...

[Crestliner]

December and January are some the worst months for solar because of the suns angle and short days. But when the sun starts to move north the production goes up significantly on sunny days and snow free solar panels put out near their capacity for 4-5 hours per day in March. Cold panels are more efficient and the snow will reflect more energy onto the panels.

Yah....whatever....keep talking yourself into a totally unsustainable or tenable energy source.

Long live King Natural Gas, King Coal and King Hydro!!! I’m going to turn up my gas fireplace and celebrate tonight my warm house.

Bye bye Suzuki and Greta....biggest jokes from the last decade.

[TASFarms]

Ontario is a good example of what not to do with renewables. I mean wind and solar. When I see sask power bringing in more wind power and solar I get a sick feeling. This is going to cost me more. Carbon capture is costing every sask power customer $100 a year for the foreseeable future. These wind mills are an 100% expense

[jazz]

When talking about solar, we need to think about that as a seasonal supplement for about 3 or 4 months of the year. Battery tech is never going to allow us to store from one season to another, so thats done. Niche technology for this latitude. Give some homeowners a grant and get the virtuous to throw some panels up on their roofs. I expect about a 5% of homeowners would do this. Maybe some businesses. You will still need back up, people are not going to stand for summer AC going down with brownouts.

When talking wind, we need to be talking about a intermittent resource that could possibly interact with temporary storage, however it would still need to be backed up.

The logistics of managing 5 or 6 different sources of power and heat would become overwhelming and just stress the grid leading to more brown and blackouts. Why would you start cycling on nat gas and other base units to allow a fleeting intermittent load onto the system. That's never going to happen and that would be irresponsible management of our energy grid.

[chuckChuck]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-denmark-windpower/denmark-sources-record-47-of-power-from-wind-in-2019-idUSKBN1Z10KE https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-denmark-windpower/denmark-sources-record-47-of-power-from-wind-in-2019-idUSKBN1Z10KE

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark sourced almost half its electricity consumption from wind power last year, a new record boosted by steep cost reductions and improved offshore technology.

Wind accounted for 47% of Denmark’s power usage in 2019, the country’s grid operator Energinet said on Thursday citing preliminary data, up from 41% in 2018 and topping the previous record of 43% in 2017.

European countries are global leaders in utilising wind power but Denmark is far in front of nearest rival Ireland, which sourced 28% of its power from wind in 2018 according to data from industry group WindEurope.

[sumdumguy]

We haven’t seen much of the sun for 2 weeks. Solar must be working just great!

[chuckChuck]

Yep. We know solar is intermittent and its not going to replace fossil fuels in Canada. But what it does do is reduce the use of fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. Wind is also in this category.

According to Bloomberg and the IEA, solar and wind are going to play a bigger role in electricity production world wide.

Solar is better adapted to dry southern climates but the southern prairies also have a good solar resource.

A 25 kw solar install will produce about 35000 kwh in the southern prairies.

Peak loads in summer because of AC are getting close to peak loads in winter. So solar is well matched to service the hottest parts of the summer day.

At this point it's not renewables vs fossil fuels which some like to frame the argument. The question is how do we integrate cleaner renewable sources in a cost effective and strategic way to reduce emissions? Canada's hydro resources are an important advantage.

Both Saskatchewan and Alberta have carbon taxes on large emitters and a plan to reduce emissions.

[FarmJunkie]

Either way logic tells me we freeze to death in this country when u need that shit to work.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Glad someone brought up Denmark. They certainly do prove that wind energy is possible. If you have agreeable neighbors willing to take the excess if you pay them enough to TAKE it, and provide back up at extortionate rates.

Resulting in this:

Denmark has the most expensive electricity rates for households in Europe, if not the world. The consumer electricity rate in Denmark is about 50% higher than the European average.

[fjlip]

Glad someone brought up Denmark. They certainly do prove that wind energy is possible. If you have agreeable neighbors willing to take the excess if you pay them enough to TAKE it, and provide back up at extortionate rates.

Resulting in this:


[ATTACH]5476[/ATTACH]

all around DUMB idea, thanks CC for quadruple the cost plus intermittent and unreliable!
Just try and sell that idea.
Another VOLCANO in Philippines, a few more and soon NO summer, will be TOO cold and where can we get more C02!

[Hamloc]

Yep. We know solar is intermittent and its not going to replace fossil fuels in Canada. But what it does do is reduce the use of fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. Wind is also in this category.

According to Bloomberg and the IEA, solar and wind are going to play a bigger role in electricity production world wide.

Solar is better adapted to dry southern climates but the southern prairies also have a good solar resource.

A 25 kw solar install will produce about 35000 kwh in the southern prairies.

Peak loads in summer because of AC are getting close to peak loads in winter. So solar is well matched to service the hottest parts of the summer day.

At this point it's not renewables vs fossil fuels which some like to frame the argument. The question is how do we integrate cleaner renewable sources in a cost effective and strategic way to reduce emissions? Canada's hydro resources are an important advantage.

Both Saskatchewan and Alberta have carbon taxes on large emitters and a plan to reduce emissions.

If I remember Chuck I brought this topic up in February last year when it was much colder than average for the whole month. And this morning it is -27 with a windchill of -33. You feel it is unfair that I choose this time of year to look at electrical generation, well when it is -27 heat is the difference between life and death. Your assertion that we need to integrate renewables in a cost effective and strategic way to reduce emissions is not how people in the Green Party or the NDP look at it. They believe fossil fuels must be phased out and replaced with wind and solar. My belief is that wind and solar would probably work 9 months of the year but what do you do for the other 3? As I ate breakfast this morning I looked at Alberta's power generation. We were importing 702 MW, 116 from Sask., 151 from Montana and 435 from B.C. Hydro was providing 159 MW out of a potential 894, 17.8% efficiency. Wind was supplying 15 MW of 1781 or less than 1% efficiency. I did look late yesterday afternoon as this arctic front was blowing in from the north and the wind farms were generating 477 MW, almost 27% efficiency. Chuck you have suggested that wind and solar with battery back up is now cost effective so I am going to watch how many days we are in this calm cold air mass with virtually no wind power generation to see how many days of battery back up Alberta would need. Enjoy your day.

[GDR]

For what it's worth I'm glad wind power isnt generating much power this week! Its cold enough as it is.