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Alberta is nothing but empty space and sunshine. It is a prime location for Solar It will continue to be an energy juggernaut

SoftTalker 1y ago
During the summertime maybe? It's pretty far north to generate much from solar in the wintertime isn't it?
- bluefirebrand 1y ago
  I'm not a solar expert, but even during winter we get tons of sun, just fewer hours per day Northern Alberta would probably not do very good, but southern Alberta would be fine I'm sure
  - johnwalkr 1y ago
    It's not hard to look this up. It's not just fewer hours per day, latitude matters a lot. If you look at yearly totals[1] Alberta looks better than BC but not better than any other neighbors to the South or East. All its neighbors also have plenty of space. Plus, total energy consumption (electricity plus gas) is probably highest in winter when solar input is lowest. I think it's hard to argue Alberta will become an exporter of solar-derived power. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:World_DNI_Solar-resource-map_GlobalSolarAtlas_World-Bank-Esmap-Solargis.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:W...
  - Marsymars 1y ago
    In Calgary I rule-of-thumb 10x less solar energy in December than in June.
abdullahkhalids 1y ago
Alberta/Canada exports oil which earns it forex. Which allows it to buy stuff from other countries. Exporting solar electricity to earn forex will earn next to nothing.
slashdev 1y ago
Not really, the level of production in the winter would be very low, and no batteries can fix that. They have cheap gas though, and that could be used in the winter.
- BJones12 1y ago
  > the level of production in the winter would be very low, and no batteries can fix that But overbuilding can. It's already a fairly common idea.
  - slashdev 1y ago
    You’d need to overbuild by a ridiculous amount. I don’t think it’s currently close to viable.
bryanlarsen 1y ago
Alberta's solar energy might make BC rich. The price of electricity while the sun is shining is very low. The combination of Alberta solar during the daytime and BC hydro at night is valuable, but it's the hydro that'll get the vast bulk of the dollars. And Alberta is quite far from big electricity markets. It's far cheaper to put overbuild solar in places with poor sunshine than it is to build a HVDC line. Plus Alberta will have to compete with Arizona and neighboring states, which have even more sunshine than Alberta does.

SoftTalker 1y ago

During the summertime maybe? It's pretty far north to generate much from solar in the wintertime isn't it?

bluefirebrand 1y ago
I'm not a solar expert, but even during winter we get tons of sun, just fewer hours per day Northern Alberta would probably not do very good, but southern Alberta would be fine I'm sure
- johnwalkr 1y ago
  It's not hard to look this up. It's not just fewer hours per day, latitude matters a lot. If you look at yearly totals[1] Alberta looks better than BC but not better than any other neighbors to the South or East. All its neighbors also have plenty of space. Plus, total energy consumption (electricity plus gas) is probably highest in winter when solar input is lowest. I think it's hard to argue Alberta will become an exporter of solar-derived power. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:World_DNI_Solar-resource-map_GlobalSolarAtlas_World-Bank-Esmap-Solargis.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:W...
- Marsymars 1y ago
  In Calgary I rule-of-thumb 10x less solar energy in December than in June.

abdullahkhalids 1y ago

Alberta/Canada exports oil which earns it forex. Which allows it to buy stuff from other countries. Exporting solar electricity to earn forex will earn next to nothing.

slashdev 1y ago

Not really, the level of production in the winter would be very low, and no batteries can fix that. They have cheap gas though, and that could be used in the winter.

BJones12 1y ago
> the level of production in the winter would be very low, and no batteries can fix that But overbuilding can. It's already a fairly common idea.
- slashdev 1y ago
  You’d need to overbuild by a ridiculous amount. I don’t think it’s currently close to viable.

bryanlarsen 1y ago

Alberta's solar energy might make BC rich. The price of electricity while the sun is shining is very low. The combination of Alberta solar during the daytime and BC hydro at night is valuable, but it's the hydro that'll get the vast bulk of the dollars. And Alberta is quite far from big electricity markets. It's far cheaper to put overbuild solar in places with poor sunshine than it is to build a HVDC line. Plus Alberta will have to compete with Arizona and neighboring states, which have even more sunshine than Alberta does.