The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing, and we are the dawn of a new and clean energy era. That was UN secretary-general António Guterres’s message at Climate Week NYC on July 22.
“This is our moment of opportunity to build the energy system of the 21st century, meet the world’s surging electricity demand sustainably, [and] use trade, investment and finance to supercharge a just energy transition,” Guterres said.
This forceful assertion of clean energy’s ascendence coincides with a new ruling by the International Court of Justice, which found that governments that fail to curb the production and consumption of fossil fuels could be in breach of international law. The court also determined that historical emitters like Canada have a greater responsibility to address the climate crisis.
Mark Carney’s Liberal government, confronted by an unpredictable yet persistent trade war with the United States, enacted its One Canadian Economy Act on June 26. The act introduces two pieces of legislation that seek to break down interprovincial trade barriers and accelerate approvals for major projects that would increase Canada’s economic independence from its southern neighbour.
While fossil fuel projects like pipelines have dominated the public conversation, both the urgency of the accelerating climate crisis and the clear trends toward renewable energy dominance in global energy systems suggest that Canada’s best opportunities lie in electrification.
To discuss these opportunities and how Canada can build on its strengths, Ralph Torrie, director of research at Corporate Knights, and Frederick Morency, vice president of sustainability at Schneider Electric, held a live discussion on Thursday, July 24. Watch the full conversation here.
Canada’s advantages in electrification: experience and expertise
There’s no shortage of opportunities, the panellists agreed. “The transition to a sustainable energy system is generating a huge spectrum of opportunities all along supply chains,” Torrie said.
Canada is the world’s seventh largest electricity producer, of which over 85% comes from non-emitting sources. The country’s electrical industry specializes in grid technology, power electronics, cleantech and energy efficiency, as well as a history of leadership in artificial intelligence.
“We have built one of the biggest electrical infrastructures in the world,” Morency said. “Electricity is going to be the blood of our economy for decades to come.”
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Canada is one of the only countries in the world that claims a wide diversity of electricity systems, Torrie noted. Within Canada’s borders are different generating systems, different regulatory approaches, and different market structures from one province to another.
Altogether, this variety provides a broad scope of experience and expertise. “We need to think strategically about how we can take the electricity industry in this country and turn that into an integrated, collaborative and coordinated effort to offer this experience and these services to the rest of the world,” Torrie suggested.
For example, Canada has lots of experience providing electricity to remote communities, and that’s still a big issue in parts of the world.
Another area of strength lies in smart buildings and smart infrastructure, Torrie proposed. “We have some of the biggest commercial building landlords in the world. One of the key components of this transition is that we’re going to see the emergence of some very smart buildings,” he said.
“The system that’s emerging is multi-directional for transferring information,” Torrie said. “That’s an area that’s growing like gangbusters, and Canadian companies own many buildings around the world.”
Next steps: grid interconnection and energy efficiency
In order to build on our strengths in electrification and assume leadership in the energy transition, “we need to lean into the expansion of our renewable electricity supply,” Torrie argue. “In Canada, that means wind.”
Canada is too far north for solar to do the heavy lifting, and there isn’t enough hydroelectricity available for development to meet our future demands.
“You could do it with nuclear but the cost goes so high,” Torrie said. “You’re left with the conclusion that we need a large supply of wind power.”
But to make wind power generation at the scale we need to satisfy Canada’s renewable energy requirements, we need a trans-Canada high-voltage DC transmission line, he said.
“It can save literally $150 to $200 billion in the cost of the transition if we’re interconnected as opposed to continuing with the provinces that are balkanized with their independent grids all trying to decarbonize independently,” Torrie explained.
Another important area of growth, Morency suggested, is energy efficiency. While provincial premiers are starting to put energy efficiency at the centre of their investments and strategies, “we are behind other nations in the world when it comes to [these] measures,” Morency said. “This is our biggest opportunity.”
Electrification itself is an incredibly powerful efficiency measure, Torrie pointed out. Electric vehicles use a quarter of the energy per kilometre per travel than in internal combustion engines, heat pumps use a fifth of the energy as a gas furnace. “It’s our number one efficiency option.”
Frederick Morency has been with Schneider Electric for over 25 years and is the quarterback for Sustainability in Canada, guiding net-zero actions across the company’s operations and value chain and supporting customers’ sustainability journey.
Ralph Torrie is an expert in the field of energy and environment with 30 years of entrepreneurial and consulting experience that includes hundreds of initiatives in research, business development, and advocacy.
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