Why this is important to Wisconsin businesses: Wisconsin businesses providing equipment or services to the renewable energy sector may find an interested market in Canada’s Prairie Provinces.
Canada’s Prairie Provinces—Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan—will lead the country’s renewable energy growth over the next several years, according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), the government agency that oversees and regulates Canada’s energy operations and development.
CER’s recent report, Canada’s Renewable Power, offers a short-term outlook for renewable electricity capacity in each Canadian province and territory through 2023, with interactive visuals that compare regions and electricity sources across the country.
Highlights from the report include:
- Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s grids will expand, thanks to an increase in wind and solar capacity and a decreased reliance on coal.
- Manitoba will strengthen its position as a prominent hydroelectricity producer in Canada.
- New, large-scale hydropower, wind and solar projects will push the share of renewables in Canada’s electricity mix to 71% of installed capacity in 2023.
- While the pace of overall renewable energy growth is expected to slow nationally between now and 2023, it will grow in the provinces that rely largely on fossil fuels.
Some experts are predicting a surge of projects that could make Alberta the leader in utility-scale wind and solar capacity by 2025.
Canada is a world leader in renewable power and generates roughly two-thirds of its electricity from renewables—predominantly hydropower—with demand expected to grow as Canada moves to a lower-carbon economy. CER anticipates that the speed of renewable power’s growth beyond 2023 will be affected by technology developments, consumer preferences and government policies and programs.
Read the CER press release on renewable energy growth in the Prairie Provinces.
