Renewable Energies Decline in Canada

Aug. 28, 2015 - PRLog -- Electricity generated from wind turbines declined 1.5% during the first six months of this year compared with the January-to-June period of 2014, while output from solar photovoltaics declined 5.2%, according to the latest data released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

These reductions in output contradict industry claims of record levels for capacity installations for both renewable energy technologies. The third source of emerging green power tracked by the federal agency, tidal generation on the east coast, dropped 53% during the period.

Output from electric utilities and industrial producers posted a 0.4% rise during the six months, fueled by a 6.4% increase from nuclear reactors, 4.4% more from internal combustion turbines, and a 1.2% increment from hydro dams, Canada’s largest source of electricity. Coal-fired generation declined 6.5% over last year’s period.

These data are for a half-year but, on the last annual report, wind dropped 1.5% in 2014 over 2013 while, in 2013, solar PV reported a 7.6% decline over 2012.

In terms of market share for electricity, nuclear gained the most among the nine generation sources tracked by Statistics Canada, accounting for 16.4% of national output in the first half of 2015, almost 1% more than the same period last year. Hydro’s share increased 0.5% to 64.5% while the contribution from wind turbines declined to 1.49% from 1.52% and solar panels generated 0.04% of total electricity for the fourth year in a row.

Total output during January-to-June of this year was 308 million megawatt-hours, of which almost 200 million MWh came from hydro, 50 million from nuclear and 54 million from all sources of combustion, while the six-month output from wind was 4.6 million MWh and solar PV generated 120,000 MWh.

Statistics Canada data are analyzed by the canadian association for renewable energies (we c.a.r.e.) to quantify the amount of renewable energy produced and consumed in Canada. Executive Director Bill Eggertson has been involved in the sector since 1985.

The report (table 127-0002 - Electric Power Generation) is available at http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLan...=