Canada's wind and solar build set for 'five-fold' boom fuelled by oil-rich Alberta: S&P
Research house forecasts North American nation will install some 5.5GW of new clean energy plant, up from 1GW in 2021, as Ottawa's net zero ambitions start to see traction
Canada is on track to see a better than five-fold ramp-up in installation of wind and solar power this year with over 5.5GW of new plant expected to wired-in, according to latest data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The growth foreseen by the analyst - some 3.5GW of wind and almost 2GW of PV – would be a giant leap forward from the less-than-1GW of the two technologies was added nationwide last year.
Renewables industry body CanREA forecasts some 3GW of renewables will be commissioned in 2022 and a similar volume again in 2023.
“Continuing the 2021 trend of renewable energy accounting for the largest share of new additions of power generation in Canada, planned wind and solar additions total 5,558MW in the country,” said S&P, adding that the country is expected to add a total 7,292MW of power capacity in 2022, including 778MW of gas plant and 621MW of hydropower.
The majority of Canada’s new wind and solar farms will be built in oil-rich Alberta, S&P noted, pointing to the prairie province’s “deregulated market for surplus power sales and… established market for emissions credit valuation and trade” as having historically underpinned country-leading investment in the sector.
Long a hotbed for wind development in Canada, Alberta will see utility-scale solar projects coming online including Greengate Power’s 465MW Travers – most which is being sold to online retail giant Amazon, Solar Krafte Utilities’ 400MW Brooks, and China Sinogy Electric Engineering’s 150MW Indus.
Earlier this month, the Canadian government in its 2022 budget earmarked $250m to support clean power developments of ‘national significance’, including interprovincial electricity transmission projects.
“These new investments will help Canada achieve... net zero by 2050 [via] an almost ten-fold expansion of Canada’s wind and solar energy, and energy-storage capacity, in addition to significant investments in other forms of electricity generation and infrastructure,” CanREA’s vice president of policy, regulatory and government affairs, Brandy Giannetta, said at the time of budget announcement.
(Copyright)