Alberta 
Alberta government proposing additional restrictions on wind and solar energy
The Alberta government is proposing additional restrictions on wind and solar farms that conservationists think are more about limiting renewable energy than protecting the environment. Last year the Alberta government imposed a seven-month moratorium on new renewable energy projects, after which Premier Danielle Smith announced her government would be taking an “agriculture first” approach to regulating renewable energy project locations. That approach includes preventing renewable energy projects from being within 35 kilometres of “pristine viewscapes” and parks and protected areas, and a near total ban where soil conditions are prime for yielding crops. Back in February Smith said the government was planning to go beyond viewscapes and cropland and would consider imposing further restrictions related to Alberta’s native grassland areas and irrigated and irrigable land. According to a webinar used in that engagement process, Alberta is looking to prohibit wind and solar farms on irrigated land. Jason Wang, a senior electricity analyst with the clean energy think tank the Pembina Institute, said if Alberta wants to protect grasslands and agriculture lands then restrictions like these would need to be applied across the energy sector, rather than solely on renewables.
Source: Lethbridge News Now
Electricity Prices for Alberta
The Alberta power pool price averaged 5.762 cents per kWh in October 2024. This price is 1.482 cents higher than last month’s average of 4.280 cents. The pool price has averaged 6.681 cents per kWh over the last 12 months.
As of November 1, 2024, the forward market was predicting electricity prices for the calendar years of 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029. These prices are 5.813, 4.632, 4.752, 5.625, 6.375, and 6.475 cents per kWh respectively.
Gas Prices for Alberta
Direct Energy’s gas rate for October 2024 was $0.627 per GJ in Alberta. The November 2024 rate has been set at $1.955 per GJ. Alberta gas prices have averaged $1.784 per GJ over the last 12 months.
As of November 1, 2024, the forward market was predicting gas prices for the calendar years of 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028. These prices are 1.73, 2.10, 2.88, 3.04, and 3.11 cents per GJ respectively.
British Columbia 
B.C. needs more power. Is nuclear energy worth the cost?
The technology promises large volumes of stable electricity, but analysts say it comes at a much higher cost than the alternative. It’s an idea successive B.C. governments, including the NDP, have rejected as too costly, particularly given the province’s wealth of hydroelectric power. About 87 per cent of electricity in B.C. is currently generated by hydroelectricity. According to a recent report from the Pembina Institute, new nuclear power comes at a cost of about US$140 per megawatt, nearly three-times the cost of other carbon-free generation options like solar or wind. Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Future Institute, said given B.C.’s growing demand for power, and concerns about how drought is affecting our hydroelectricity capacity, it is important to at least have the conversation about broadening our energy mix. “Traditionally nuclear power has been very expensive to build. Once it is built, the operating cost — and this is always open to argument — can be quite reliable and steady and stable and it produces a lot of power,” he said. Globally, Penner said nuclear power will likely need to be a part of the low-carbon future. But he said so far SMR technology remains essentially unproven in North America.
Source: Global News
Ontario 
Ontario launches new heat pump incentives to tackle rising electricity demand
Ontario has a new incentive encouraging homeowners to install heat pumps to reduce their energy use and lower planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions associated with home heating. The program is being offered by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and offers homeowners in some areas up to $5,000 to install an air source heat pump, and up to $10,000 for a ground source (geothermal) heat pump, which is more complex and difficult to install. The Incentives do not depend on household income, making them more accessible to a wider range of Ontario residents. Mary Bernard, supervisor of residential program performance at IESO, said that the program’s objective is to reduce strain on the electricity grid in specific regions where urbanization and population growth is increasing. By promoting energy-efficient upgrades like heat pumps, the IESO hopes to delay or avoid expensive infrastructure upgrades.
Bernard said the program covers about 30 per cent of installation costs; air source heat pumps typically cost around $15,000 and ground source systems average $30,000. Air source heat pumps are the most popular. They work by transferring heat from outdoor air to heat homes in winter and transferring heat from indoor air to cool homes in summer. Ground source heat pumps extract heat from the ground, which requires more complex excavation work but offers even greater efficiency. Air source heat pumps cut energy costs for heating by up to 50 per cent, depending on the home and system used. The Independent Electricity System Operator’s Pathways to Decarbonization Report predicts that Ontario might need to spend $400 billion to more than double its electricity generation capacity — from 42,000 megawatts today to 88,000 megawatts by 2050. And much of that electricity will be provided by additional polluting gas plants and high-cost nuclear reactors.
Source: Canada’s National Observer
Saskatchewan 
Waste flare gas from oil drilling sites to help power Saskatchewan’s electricity grid
As pressure grows on the oil and gas sector to reduce its emissions, one Calgary-based company is banking on the potential to convert waste gas from oil wells into valuable electricity for nearby communities. The privately held Steel Reef Infrastructure Corp. — which owns and operates a network of crude oil and natural gas pipelines as well as processing and storage facilities in Saskatchewan and North Dakota — wants to become known as an industry leader in the relatively new space of flare gas recovery. The company announced it has signed a series of power purchase agreements with Crown corporation SaskPower that will see it provide the utility with approximately 100 megawatts of electricity per year for Saskatchewan’s grid — enough to power 100,000 homes annually. The electricity, expected to come onto the province’s grid by late 2027, will be produced at five of Steel Reef’s gas plants in Saskatchewan, using recovered gas that would otherwise be flared into the atmosphere at well sites.
Natural gas is a byproduct that comes to the surface when companies drill oil wells. If the volumes of gas are small, and there are no pipelines nearby to transport the gas, companies often choose, for economic reasons, to dispose of it through flaring. Steel Reef’s announcement also comes at a time when the practice of flaring is increasingly under environmental scrutiny. The combustion process involved in flaring releases a variety of byproducts and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, according to oil and gas data provider Enverus. The World Bank calls the practice of flaring “wasteful and polluting” and has identified the need to reduce flaring volumes globally as an urgent problem. It has also pointed to recent scientific studies that suggest more methane may escape into the atmosphere during the flaring process than previously assumed, suggesting the greenhouse gas impact from flaring could be underestimated.
Source: Construct Connect
Manitoba 
MMF launches Red River Métis Power Corporation with plans to build wind power capacity for Manitoba
The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), the National Government of the Red River Métis, established the Red River Métis Power Corporation. The company plans to develop, majority own, and operate high quality alternative energy infrastructure, including wind farms, to generate sustainable, clean electricity to serve the growing energy needs of residential, commercial, and industrial users. The company will work with technical, financial and legal partners and prepare for up to 300 Megawatts (MW) in wind energy production in Manitoba. Modern wind farms of 100 MW can provide the energy for 30,000 homes per day, the equivalent of the total number of homes in Brandon, Selkirk and Thompson combined. “Through their recently released Manitoba Affordable Energy Plan, Premier Kinew and the Government of Manitoba have created an unprecedented opportunity for Indigenous governments to provide utility scale electricity resource through wind power,” said David Chartrand, President of the MMF. “Our Government and its Red River Métis Power Corporation are well positioned to submit an Expression of Interest to Manitoba Hydro to deliver on up to 300 MW of the 600 MW of additional wind power it has stated is needed in the near term.”
Source: Manitoba Metis Federation
New Brunswick 
N.B. nuclear plant’s ongoing troubles an early threat to Holt government finances
More than 200 days after going offline for what was supposed to be a 98-day maintenance shutdown the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station remains idle with no definite word on when it will be able to generate electricity again. That is a potential problem for the incoming government of Susan Holt, whose Liberal Party won the New Brunswick election. Bills for the latest troubles afflicting the nuclear plant passed $100 million in late September and are climbing at a rate of $1 million a day or more with some uncertainty over who will pay. An upcoming decision of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board will rule on a number of matters concerning N.B. Power and the rates it charges, including whether Lepreau breakdown costs should continue to be paid by N.B. Power customers or be shifted to the utility and its owner — the provincial government.
After sitting idle for three months during that period, the plant’s 700-megawatt generator, which had not been among the components worked on during the outage, showed a problem during routine testing done on all plant equipment prior to being restarted. But the problem with the generator proved more complex than expected; it now says it is not sure when the plant will be operational. Major customers of N.B. Power have been expressing increasing levels of alarm about the nuclear plant’s poor performance and frustration that they are having to pay for its shortcomings. They suggested that unlike storm damage, or rising fuel prices that are outside N.B. Power’s control, failings at the nuclear plant can mostly be traced to poor maintenance, poor management and poor decision-making. They argued N.B. Power and the provincial government should be forced to absorb the financial costs of Lepreau’s troubles on their own and asked the EUB to make that happen in its ruling.
Source: CBC
Prince Edward Island 
Energy distribution difficult to control in P.E.I.
More Islanders are adopting electricity rather than fossil-fuel consumption as part of their commitment to living a more sustainable lifestyle, and that demand is becoming evident to the province’s main utility. Maritime Electric’s chief executive officer, Jason Roberts, said that demand comes from population growth in P.E.I. as well as federal and provincial government policies that encourage the move towards electrification. “It’s an industry challenge. We are interconnected to our counterparts in the Maritimes, and regional capacity challenges can and do have a knock-on effect on our energy supply,” he said. Being interconnected with the mainland grid brings specific obligations placed on Maritime Electric, Roberts said. The Charlottetown Thermal Generating Station, which is on track for its complete demolition in 2024 is fully decommissioned, and it’s the province’s last heavy fossil fuel oil burning plant. The initiative is contributing to the company’s greenhouse gas reduction objectives.
Source: SaltWire
Québec 
Quebec to spend $1 billion to protect 30 per cent of environment
The Quebec government announced details of its Plan Nature 2030, a $922 million roadmap that will enable Quebec to protect 30 per cent of its territory over the next few years – Quebec currently protects around 17 per cent of its territory. The plan comprises three main areas of action. The roadmap indicates that $466.9 million will be devoted to nature conservation, $360 million to improving access to nature and $95.7 million to mobilizing citizens to protect our natural heritage. These three axes are broken down into 14 targets and 33 objectives. Each of the Nature Plan’s targets includes a multitude of actions that will be financed to achieve 30 per cent biodiversity protection, such as improving the network of protected areas or creating new national parks. According to the Nature Plan, the list of actions to be taken to achieve biodiversity protection objectives is very long.
Here are just a few examples: reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture, draw up a portrait of threatened or vulnerable species in Quebec and protect their habitats, promote the conservation and sustainable use of private forests and support forest owners to this end, prevent the introduction of new invasive exotic species and new pathogenic organisms on the territory, support the development of tools facilitating the disclosure of the biodiversity impacts of businesses and investors. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), states that “75 per cent of the Earth’s surface is now significantly altered by human activity, 60 per cent of vertebrate populations have disappeared in the last 50 years, and one million species are threatened with extinction or will become so in the coming decades, unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of the factors causing biodiversity decline”.
Source: City News Montreal
Newfoundland and Labrador 
Newfoundland Power Leads the Way with Testing of Environmentally Friendly Oil Alternative, Supported by the Provincial Government’s Green Transition Fund
Newfoundland Power is the first North American utility to assess replacing mineral oil in transformers with a synthetic biodegradable alternative. The Biodegradable Ester Pilot is receiving $101,532 in Provincial Government support through the Green Transition Fund. Biodegradable esters can provide a range of potential benefits that will be explored through this pilot project. In the case of a spill, environmental impacts could be minimized as the compound is highly biodegradable. The ester has a higher flashpoint than mineral oil, improving fire safety and reducing the risk of a transformer fire. Other potential benefits include lower clean-up and transformer replacement costs and improved employee safety. The ester may also help avoid the use of larger transformers in instances when customers increase their electricity use, such as when a homeowner switches from oil to electricity for home heating. The ester might help existing transformers handle more electricity use, therefore potentially helping avoid
transformer upgrades and reduce costs for customers. The pilot, which includes pole and pad mounted transformers, will run into 2026. The company will then
assess the effectiveness of the ester alternative and potential for further use.
Source: Newfoundland Power
Nova Scotia 
Nova Scotia’s Higgins Mountain Wind Project secures C$118M loan after court challenge
A wind project in Nova Scotia landed a C$118-million federal loan to build 17 turbines, enough to power 40,000 average homes, after surviving an earlier court challenge. Elemental Energy’s Higgins Mountain Wind Project will generate 100 megawatts of electricity, cutting 200,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually by replacing coal-fired energy, according to a September 25 media release from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). The funding is part of CIB’s $10-billion allocation for clean power priority sectors. Located in an area with strong winds and nearby transmission infrastructure, the project is already under construction. The wind farm is expected to begin operating in 2025. Elemental Energy is partnering with Stevens Wind and Sipekne’katik First Nation (SFN) to oversee design and construction. The project is expected to create 100 jobs during construction, with additional full-time positions available when operations begin.
Source: Energi Media
Nunavut 
Nukik Corporation and Qulliq Energy Corporation sign memorandum of understanding to advance a clean energy future for Kivalliq region
Nukik Corporation and Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC) are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where the companies will work together to advance the planning and deployment of reliable, green energy solutions for the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. This agreement represents an important way local leaders are coming together to build a stronger future for the Kivalliq region. Nukik Corporation is the proponent of the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link (KHFL), a strategic multi-purpose infrastructure project that will bring renewable power and fibre-optic capacity from Manitoba into five communities in the Kivalliq region and future mining operations. This project will be Nunavut’s first infrastructure link to Southern Canada and will support the energy needs of the Kivalliq region for generations to come. QEC delivers electricity to approximately 15,500 customers across Nunavut.
They generate and distribute power to Nunavummiut by operating 25 stand-alone diesel power plants in 25 communities, with an installed capacity of approximately 84,000 kW. QEC also provides mechanical, electrical, and line maintenance services from three regional centers: Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay. Nukik is an Inuit-owned corporation that was formed to lead major infrastructure projects in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. Nukik is a 100% Inuit company owned by the Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) and Sakku Investments Corp. Nukik primary focus is the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link (KHFL), a nation-building clean power and fibre-optic project connecting Nunavut to Manitoba. The KHFL provide enough renewable power and fibre-optic internet capacity for the Kivalliq region for generations to come.
Source: Nukik Corporation
Northwest Territories 
For the first time, Northwest Territories commits to net-zero by 2050 target
The Government of the Northwest Territories’ (GNWT) recent commitment to develop a net-zero emissions target by 2050 represents a critical step forward for the territory’s future energy plans and initiatives. The NWT deals with a unique and longstanding mix of energy and climate challenges related to disproportionate impacts of climate change, diesel dependency for urban centers and remote communities, and vast land mass resulting in high transportation emissions. An ambitious and collaboratively determined net-zero emissions target will not only support communities and industry as they champion made-in-the-north climate solutions, it will also support the territory as it competes in a shifting global economy which increasingly prioritizes low carbon solutions that would mitigate future greenhouse gas contributions to climate change.
As the GNWT commits to net-zero, we strongly encourage it to work directly with Indigenous governments to build a comprehensive emissions reductions plan that acknowledges the rights, capacities, and interests of communities. This collaborative work will be especially important for addressing the decades-long challenge of diesel dependency in remote communities, where climate change and supply chain challenges are dramatically driving up the cost of diesel for consumers. Working directly with these and other concerned communities to implement an independent power producer policy as part of the territory’s eventual emissions reductions plan will also be key for introducing clean energy solutions to replace or mitigate the use of costly diesel systems, bringing about opportunities for economic reconciliation, and building on the clean energy momentum taking shape in communities across the territory.
Source: Pembina Institute
Yukon 
How Yukon plans to meet rising energy demand pre-B.C. grid connect
Connecting the Yukon to the B.C. electrical grid is potentially $2-billion dollars and ten or more years out. Territorial opposition party leaders want to know what the Yukon government is doing in the interim to address what the Yukon Party and Yukon NDP have called an “energy crisis.” The federal government is putting up $40 million for an engineering study on connecting to the big grid, which Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon said isn’t a bad thing. Dixon cited the proposed Atlin hydro expansion project, which Premier Ranj Pillai told the News this fall has a lot of work to be done, and the Moon Lake pumped storage project in Northern B.C. as examples. As for the Haeckel Hill wind project, which did come online, Dixon said it doesn’t provide any base-load capacity, which is what’s needed.
For the last eight years the territory has been reliant on rented diesel generators to supply backup power, which his party has been critical of. Energy Minister John Streicker said that grid connection is important for mining critical minerals, supporting Arctic security and addressing population growth in the Yukon which has increased demand on the system. A new grid-scale battery storage system, which the Yukon Energy Corporation’s website states is located on Kwanlin Dün First Nation Settlement Land on Robert Service Way near the Alaska Highway in Whitehorse, is due to be done this fall, per Streicker.
Source: Yukon News