As construction of first small modular reactor looms, buyers wait for the final tally

[chuckChuck]

Renewable hydro is the lowest cost electricity source in Canada by far.

Manitoba and Quebec have the lowest electricity rates in Canada and in North America.

And they are also increasing in price.

So any suggestion that new renewables should "reduce" the retail cost of electricity is absurd.

That's not going to happen when generation makes up only a portion of the system costs!

North Dakota has a lot of wind energy. But their electricity prices are relatively speaking on the lower end.

As of January 2025, the average price of residential electricity in North Dakota was 12.07 cents per kilowatt-hour ($0.1207/kWh).

"EU electricity consumers are expected to save an estimated EUR 100 billion during 2021-2023 thanks to additional electricity generation from newly installed solar PV and wind capacity. Low-cost new wind and solar PV installations have displaced an estimated 230 TWh of expensive fossil fuel generation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to a reduction in wholesale electricity prices on all European markets. Without these capacity additions, the average wholesale price of electricity in the European Union in 2022 would have been 8% higher."

[url]https://www.iea.org/reports/renewable-energy-market-update-june-2023/how-much-money-are-european-consumers-saving-thanks-to-renewables[/url]

[LEP]

How many hours have you spent cleaning off your solar panels this winter chuck?

Now imagine if you have 300 acres of them. Or several thousand acres in the province.

Call in the Army!

[chuckChuck]

Nature keeps them clean most of the time. A bit of sun and wind the snow disappears on its own. Every year they are putting out about 35,000 kwh regardless.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Nature keeps them clean most of the time. A bit of sun and wind the snow disappears on its own. Every year they are putting out about 35,000 kwh regardless.

In other words, they produce so little in the winter that it isn't worth the time and effort to clean them off at all.
That is the conclusion that all of the commercial scale solar plants have come to.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

So much for the Liberals forcing the provinces to phase out coal by 2030, this from Sask's crown investment minister:

the provincial government believes there is a future for coal. We have already announced that both Boundary Dam Unit 3, and Shand Power Station will continue to operate as long they are viable. In the case of Shand until at least 2042. SaskPower is currently seriously examining whether to extend the operating lives of other coal generation units at Boundary Dam and Poplar River. I recently toured both of those facilities and committed to employees that we will have firm answers by summer as to what this future looks like.

Electricity generation is exclusively within our constitutional authority as a province, and it is imperative that we maintain a reliable and affordable power supply to support our regional needs and growth.

Saskatchewan has the resources, expertise, and proximity to be at the centre of North American energy security. We are going to fully and unapologetically utilize our natural blessings to ensure we realize our full potential.

[shtferbrains]

In other words, they produce so little in the winter that it isn't worth the time and effort to clean them off at all.

The solution is obvious.
You have explained it to us .
You need to buy a Ford Lightning for the unusual days that there is power being produced and use the battery in the truck to run your yard on the days you produce zero?
It would be all free?
No need for grid tie?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Nature keeps them clean most of the time. A bit of sun and wind the snow disappears on its own. Every year they are putting out about 35,000 kwh regardless.

Coincidentally, humans breathes on average 35,000 hectalitres of air per year.

In modern society and in Canada's climate, electricity is nearly as vital to survival as air for breathing.

Would you be in favor of receiving your average allocation of breathing air for the year in sporadic unpredictable lump sums? Going without for hours, days or weeks at a time, for example when it snows, can you go without breathing for a few days?

[chuckChuck]

A5 another dumbass idea? LOL Comparing renewables to breathing!

Even gas and coal plants only run about 85% of the time.

So does that mean consumers don't have electricity for 15% of the time? Nope. When they aren't running the rest of the system picks up the slack.

But of course the pretengineer can't imagine how this might work even after I pointed out several times that Texas and North Dakota and even Alberta get very significant amounts of electricity from renewables.

The 35,000 kwh I get from my solar annually offsets my average annual consumption and provides electricity for other consumers when I don't need it all which, is most of the time.
And the cost of the solar electricity is much lower than Sask Power.

Utility scale solar and wind add low priced capacity that is not subject to volatile fuel costs.

They are the lowest costs sources of new electricity generation capacity.

So it looks like Sask power has realized that Nuclear is not an affordable option and are going to keep their aging coal plants going longer. But they are also installing more wind and solar.

So Sask Power must think solar and wind are good investments then.