Energy requirements to achieve federal “Net-Zero by 2050” likely impossible to achieve: study
The energy growth requirements for Canada to achieve “net zero by 2050” are likely “impossible to achieve,” a new study found.
Author: Clayton DeMaine
The energy growth requirements for Canada to achieve “net zero by 2050” are likely “impossible to achieve,” a new study found.
A recent study by the Fraser Institute looking at the energy projects needed to meet the energy requirements of Canada’s growing population, all while fully “decarbonizing” electricity generation, determined it would be an unachievable goal.
Canada’s Clean Electricity Regulations require all provinces to fully transition away from greenhouse gas-emitting energy.
The study looked at the estimated energy projects that would need to be built to meet the rising demand for electricity, if those energy projects produced few or zero carbon emissions.
“To meet existing and future electricity demand with low-emitting or zero-emitting sources within the government’s timeline, Canada would need to rapidly build infrastructure on a scale never before seen in the country’s history,” Kenneth Green, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of the study, said in a news release.
In 2023, Canada generated 636 terawatt-hours of power, but the Canada Climate Institute estimates that generation capacity would need to expand by up to 3.5 times by 2050, given Canada’s projected population which could reach close to 62 million. According to the Fraser Institute, Canada’s generation would have to increase from 636 TWh to 2,166 TWh over 25 years, according to this estimate.
“Even with significant efficiency improvements, electricity systems must grow substantially for a net zero world,” the Canada Climate Institute report said. “In fact, Canada must, on average, grow system capacity at a rate 3 to 6 times faster to 2050 compared to the previous decade,in order to support rising electricity demand associated with net zero.”
Further, Canada’s Department of Finance estimated that electricity demand would double by 2050 and estimated that energy generation must increase by 1.5 to 2.1 times Canada’s 2022 levels.
But it's not just about increasing energy. Canada must remove GHG-emitting energy production from the equation, while still being required to boost overall energy production.
“The scale and scope of what would be needed to meet the objectives of Canada’s net-zero/decarbonized electrical systems far exceeds what realistically can be done in the electricity sector within the 2050 timeline,” the Fraser study said.
If the energy demands were met while transitioning entirely to a net-zero economy – solely through wind power – the Fraser Institute estimated that approximately 575 wind-power installations the size of Quebec’s Seigneurie de Beaupré Wind Farm would have to be built within 25 years.
“With a construction timeline of two years per project, this would equate to 1,150 construction years,” the report said. “Meeting future Canadian electricity demand using only wind power would also require over one million hectares of land — an area nearly 14.5 times the size of the municipality of Calgary.”
If the same goals and needs were met solely through hydro, Canada would need to construct 134 facilities similar to the Site C power station in British Columbia.
“Meeting all future demand with hydropower would occupy approximately 54,988 hectares of land—roughly 1.5 times the area of the municipality of Montreal,” it said.
If Canada met the demand using solar-power generation, it would require the construction of 840 solar-power generation stations the size of Alberta’s Travers Solar. Each such facility takes two years to build.
Similarly, Canada would need to build 16 additional nuclear power plants, each equivalent to Ontario’s Bruce Nuclear Generating Station. It said the construction time alone of each of these facilities would be about seven years, meaning the project would require 112 construction years to complete.
This doesn’t account for the regulatory delays typically faced by such projects.
The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, for example, had a planning and regulatory process spanning 20 years starting in 1968, with four reactors being declared in service between 1977 and 1979 and four additional reactors made operational by 1987.
In May of last year, a separate Fraser Institute study also concluded that the net zero-goal by 2050 was “highly unlikely. That study instead examined Canada’s current reliance on fossil fuels and the ensuing carbon emissions, showing that Canada has made little progress despite all of its climate action policies.
The more carbon we produce the greener the environment becomes. Co2 is plant food; it's the gas of life. With all of the Co2 Canada's forests are consuming, Canada is already below the "net zero" horse shit. This "net zero" BS is nothing more than a corporate money making scam, from out of your pocket - into theirs.
There has never been a time in the history of this planet when Co2 was at "net zero". When Co2 levels are low, the forest dies and lightning puts them aflame, which in turn creates Co2, whereby the Forest becomes fully restored.
When Alberta's forests were aflame, did anyone notice that from the smoke, the trees and the vegetation all across Alberta became much greener and much stronger?
Politcans are among the stupidest humans who have ever walked upon this planet. They are not scientists - they are idiots; IPCC puppets for hire.
Ya think? Of course they are impossible. Our planet needs carbon. We also need to be good stewards of the earths resources. A common sense balance is needed that's for sure.