Solar and Wind seven month moratorium.

[ZenOps]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-wind-solar-power-freeze-letters-analysis-1.6936415

Seems awfully spiteful to me. From a pure economic standpoint. Totalitarian that I can't choose vanilla or chocolate, all power must be carbon strawberry?

Even British kings don't usually have a say in how the electricity is made.

Strawberry.

[kertejud2]

This is the free market approach to public policy people voted for. No news story here. You need government to determine good land use!

[dirtsniffer]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but how can Alberta have a net zero grid by 2035 and what is the cost?

Even the feds admit that smr's will be a part of the solution, but on what planet can we add significant nuclear capacity in 10 years?

[pheoxs]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but how can Alberta have a net zero grid by 2035 and what is the cost?

Even the feds admit that smr's will be a part of the solution, but on what planet can we add significant nuclear capacity in 10 years?

In reality? We won’t even try.

But if we wanted to try. Last major hydro study showed AB has 5GW of potential generation from the peace river, slave lake, and athabasca river basins IIRC. So that could be over a quarter of our grid as zero emissions. The Travers solar project is 0.5GW on its own. Yes Solar isn’t 24/7 but if we built 10 of those equivalent solar farms we could have half our grid be green during peak times. As dumb as it is have gas plants idle during the day then spin up at night is still a huge reduction in emissions (again if we really wanted to try and hit net zero). Heck if the provinces could work together and the interchanges could handle it; BC could throttle back their hydro during the day and let AB pump huge solar into the grid then as it falls off they open up the dams and utilize higher capacity and flow half the day. Crazy but it is in fact doable since hydro can spin up and down in minutes.

Ontario generates 5GW from its two nuclear plants, granted those are full size ones and not SMRs. AB is actually the ideal place for SMR if you think about it as well. Our biggest consumer of electricity is the oil sands which also need huge amounts of steam. Slap a few modular reactors around that region and use excess heat to produce steam and we could instantly be green. Hell if you make the trucks and shovels electric you could potentially have zero emissions oilsands. Crazy fucking thought but it’s actually quite doable.

[ZenOps]

I question the greater sanity of delaying any electricity project with price at 31 cents. Not only should they not be blocking wind and solar, they should be looking at hamsters in wheels.

Or it could just be all of a greater plan to bill us more for everything, not too sure.

[ExtraSlow]

Is the biggest failure the pause, or the admission that the public policy has not kept up with the pace of change in the energy mix?

Alberta's "energy only" market isn't frankly great for stability. That's not a new problem, but the impact of it. Is worse with renewables than coal or gas.

Some level of "capacity market" is an option to pay for stability. That's a big change though, and not one that can be implemented quickly.

UCP and DS look bad here, probably justifiably so. But there are some issues that are easy to predict that need to be addressed with changes in public policy.

[pheoxs]

Is the biggest failure the pause, or the admission that the public policy has not kept up with the pace of change in the energy mix?

Alberta's "energy only" market isn't frankly great for stability. That's not a new problem, but the impact of it. Is worse with renewables than coal or gas.

Some level of "capacity market" is an option to pay for stability. That's a big change though, and not one that can be implemented quickly.

UCP and DS look bad here, probably justifiably so. But there are some issues that are easy to predict that need to be addressed with changes in public policy.


The NDP literally were changing it to fix it and Kenney killed it as soon as he came to power. They caused this solely because they were set on undoing everything the NDP tried to do because they were the ones that did it.


In late 2016, Alberta announced, based on a recommendation by the AESO, that it would transition to a capacity market in 2021

The UCP axed the transition and it also cancelled the 5000MW renewables that were being planned via the Climate Leadership Plan.

[msommers]

Alberta uses the most electricity in the entire country, both per province and per capita, simply because of the industrial sector here. Denying investment of Green Energy is an idiotic maneuver but to think we can get to net-zero by 2035 is a fool's errand.

Guilbeault is fucking clueless about how the rest of the country operates.

[Xtrema]

Ontario generates 5GW from its two nuclear plants, granted those are full size ones and not SMRs. AB is actually the ideal place for SMR if you think about it as well. Our biggest consumer of electricity is the oil sands which also need huge amounts of steam. Slap a few modular reactors around that region and use excess heat to produce steam and we could instantly be green. Hell if you make the trucks and shovels electric you could potentially have zero emissions oilsands. Crazy fucking thought but it’s actually quite doable.

Let's see if they get this running by 2028
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/team-forms-to-build-north-america-s-first-smr-801298916.html#:~:text=%22Canada's%20first%20grid%2Dscale%20SMR,attracting%20unprecedented%20investments%20in%20Ontario.%22

Lucky if AB/Sask get one by 2035.

If NIMBYs doesn't kill it, SMR is the look term answer to 0 emission energy.

Oilsand would have got a nuclear plant already if NIMBYs didn't kill it.

[pheoxs]

Let's see if they get this running by 2028
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/team-forms-to-build-north-america-s-first-smr-801298916.html#:~:text=%22Canada's%20first%20grid%2Dscale%20SMR,attracting%20unprecedented%20investments%20in%20Ontario.%22

Lucky if AB/Sask get one by 2035.

If NIMBYs doesn't kill it, SMR is the look term answer to 0 emission energy.

Oilsand would have got a nuclear plant already if NIMBYs didn't kill it.

Heres hoping they work well for Ontario and also that AB can begin the process now rather than wait 5 years kicking rocks.

Seems Ontario expanded their order last month to be 4 reactors now at 500MW a piece. That’s a great start.

[ZenOps]

The way I see it, Solar hinges on the Tsangpo dam.

That 100 coal power equivalent is atop the Himalayas, and would be rough to try and pull a power line down to the cities. I'm 90% sure they intend to go full electric 2500 degree arc furnace, ship up some sand - and ship out monocrystaline silicon ingots.

Thing is: They haven't even put a single shovel down on Tsangpo yet. What they need is Elons boring machine to dig the straw that the dam will be.

As much as Alberta likes to proclaim it is an energy powerhouse - it still pales in comparison to one Tsangpo.

[Xtrema]

The way I see it, Solar hinges on the Tsangpo dam.

That 100 coal power equivalent is atop the Himalayas, and would be rough to try and pull a power line down to the cities. I'm 90% sure they intend to go full electric 2500 degree arc furnace, ship up some sand - and ship out monocrystaline silicon ingots.

Thing is: They haven't even put a single shovel down on Tsangpo yet. What they need is Elons boring machine to dig the straw that the dam will be.

As much as Alberta likes to proclaim it is an energy powerhouse - it still pales in comparison to one Tsangpo.

I rather see solar and wind than hydro. Hydro kills environment upstream and unpredictable for downstream if we get these once a century flood yearly.


https://youtu.be/vLZElIYHmAI

Get hit with a drought and now you civilization got no power. Hit with a flood and flood release drowns downstream as shown what happened to Hebei just last month.

[ZenOps]

Thats the beauty of Tsangpo. Its in the middle of the Himalayas and its not a water holding dam, its a pure hydroelectric.

They will essentially build a shortcut straw on the "Great Bend" It doesn't actually hold back any water where any population lives. The only drawback is that the water might be a few degrees colder, but of course still has to be above zero to make it through the turbines.

[ExtraSlow]

It can be well below zero moving through the turbines.

[ZenOps]

It can be well below zero moving through the turbines.

Not sure myself. It is an unconventional dam so there will probably be some worry about the outer sheathing rock pores freezing before it even hits the power generation? It would all have to be uniquely built for sure. Its a straw, so if the falling pressure is near zero at the exit, there also could be freezing there? Removing 60GW of falling energy out of an enclosed pipe is out of my pay grade to figure out.

The fast flow over the natural bend helps keep it liquid as the 60 GW of falling energy is used up and also gained as friction?

Mind you, at 60GW they could probably use half a GW to heat both ends in the largest water heater ever made - if it is actually a thing, only have to heat up the outer circumference, it really doesn't matter if the center ejects as ice - as long as it keeps moving. At the altitude and ambient air of the pipe exit, it would not remain ice for more than a few seconds or minutes?

[ExtraSlow]

I have never said this to you, and maybe never will again, but this time you are overthinking it.

[g-m]

Is there a way to pay extra and be assured my money didn't go to this green shit? I'll take modern coal and gas turbines all day.