Doctor Renewable
May 26, 2023: 008 - Doctor Renewable reviews a CBC article that discusses federal minister Freeland’s new budget that provides incentives to help green Canada's electricity supply. As the article alludes to the Shell's Quest carbon capture and storage project, Eric provides his perspective on this expensive project that expands market for fossil fuels, working against THE RED CUP which seeks to increase—and not decrease—the percentage of our energy from recent sunlight.
Canada’s electricity is mainly from renewables: hydroelectricity, biomass, wind and solar. However, 17% of our electricity is from fossil fuels. Ottawa wants electricity generation to not produce emissions within a 12-year time. This requires replacing 12.5 GW of fossil fuel capacity starting now which is not happening yet. Moreover, in the article, Minister Freeland is saying that electricity capacity will need to double in Canada to not produce emissions by 2050. Eric points out that to double the electrical capacity supply in Canada — from 150 to 300 GW — this would require more than the 6.3 billion tax credit contained in the 2023 budget, as 150 GW will cost more than 1.5 trillion. Eric is skeptical of how much of this green incentive in the recent budget is targeted to what he calls “anything but renewables” where in most government programs renewables typically quickly are moved to the bottom of the pile. Eric discusses with Robert a few of his own numbers he calculated on the Shell’s Quest project highlighting Canada’s commitment to continue to support the apartheid against renewables in the era of climate change (article available at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/green-electricity-budget-2023-freeland‑1.6793933).