Demand is growing so fast, Manitoba Hydro may need to have new power generation on line by the end of the decade, its chief executive officer says.
“When we built Keeyask (generating station), we didn’t think we’d need that new power until 2045. We may need it by 2029 or 2030,” Jay Grewal said in a Tuesday morning speech in Winnipeg to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.
Grewal told the audience — in so many words — there’s likely going to be a lot more wind farms in Manitoba in the near future.
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Comments
This creates a great opportunity for distributed power generation, namely tens of thousands of square metres of rooftop solar connected to the grid. Roofs offer a huge collective area for solar in our cities.
Net metering is key, and if MH offered a decent per kWh credit, say 85% or 90%, thousands of homeowners and businesses would line up to finance their own solar panel arrays. MH can keep 10% or 15% to cover the costs of bidirectional meters and transmission upgrades, but will not have to assume the up front capital costs of generation.
This is also a great opportunity to partner with First Nations and farmers on wind and solar, and to subsidize geothermal. Closed loop deep bore geothermal systems developed, for example, by Canadian company Eavor show huge promise anywhere hard granite or basalt exist at deep levels.
It's also a great opportunity to test various battery technologies already appearing in the world's grid, an also new battery tech coming off the lab tables.
Hello Ottawa, where are you? Can you please look at deeper investmests and tax credits to help Manitoba out with renewables instead of throwing way too much into CCUS in Alberta, which is literally dumping taxpayer's future into carbon emissions just as fossil fuel demand is entering a permanent decline?
Gosh, where will that tiny province find room for wind turbines?