Alberta’s Fossil Fuel Fixation Is Dimming Renewables’ Bright Future

For decades, Alberta has been one of North America’s most important oil producers. Today, only Texas pumps more oil than Alberta.

However, Alberta’s oil producing stature has camouflaged the province’s emergence as a green energy leader.

One Alberta energy regulator observed that renewable electricity production was growing “by leaps and bounds.” The Canadian Renewable Energy Association reported that 75 per cent of the country’s new renewable electricity generation came from Alberta in 2022.

Rystad Energy, the international energy consultancy, predicted Alberta would be Canada’s largest wind and solar electricity producer by 2025.

The biggest contributors to Alberta’s revolutionary potential? A mixture of industry-wide technical changes and a market where generators are paid only for the power they generate. These changes in the solar sector drove down solar costs by more than 80 per cent between 2009 and 2023 and electricity sector greenhouse gas emissions fell by 51 per cent from 2015 to 2021.

The data seems clear, renewables have a secure, and growing, position in Alberta’s electric grid.