Phasing out coal in Alberta was supported by good policy design driven by carbon pricing and regulations with clear targets that offered necessary certainty to the industry and stakeholders
Coal accounted for 80 per cent of Alberta’s electricity grid in the early 2000s and it still amounted to 60 per cent just 10 years ago. When phasing out coal was just an idea being batted around, many said it couldn’t be done. This is not dissimilar to the rhetoric today around decarbonizing the grid. But Alberta’s experience phasing out coal shows environmental progress of this magnitude is possible.
Great headline but doesn't indicate what replaced it.
Carbon dioxide still getting produced in massive quantities.
Coal and other hydrocarbons still being produced for export. But, hey, if it gets burned in another jurisdiction that isn't our problem, right? We will put up those glass barriers all the way to space so our atmospheres don't mix.
Southern Alberta is probably the best place in Canada for massive scale solar installations. Get on it.
Alberta said that putting it on prime agricultural land needed some restrictions, and rightly so. The amount of good farmland that's under solar panels now in south and central is disconcerting. There's no end of shit land in Alberta that's better suited to solar panels anyway.
It goes to show how little they actually care about capitalism. If farmland is more productive (makes more money) producing solar, then capitalism would say turn it into solar.
They're literally stealing money from the farmers.
Alberta produces 2-3X more energy per capita from wind and solar than any other province, and has almost as much renewable energy storage than the rest of Canada put together.