The Netherlands generates way more solar power than Canada. Here's how they do it - Global investment in solar power now tops all other energy generation technologies combined, says IEA

I don't think it's fair to look at Canada as a monolith. Quebec is generating most of its energy from hydro, whereas Ontario relies on a well established nuclear energy infrastructure. Provinces that need to change are Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.

Edit: Manitoba actually relies on hydro for 97% of their usage. So correction: only Alberta and Saskatchewan!

They also have a lower cost of living, legalized sex work, lower crime rates including lower car theft rates and lower violent crime rates, and way better public transportation.

So what? It isn't as though solar is the only clean energy option out there (and the externalities from the production and disposal of solar panels make it not as environmentally friendly as it looks at first glance, although obviously still better than fossil fuels). Wind, hydro, nuclear, and even tidal may be more appropriate for our much larger, much colder, much less dense, more northerly country. We already have a lot of hydro and (in Ontario) a lot of nuclear, and both seem to serve our needs well.

What we really need to do is shift Alberta's economy away from fossil fuels. That would do a lot more good than a Netherlands-sized installation of solar panels.

However, unless unlike Germany, Canada has a stellar nuclear energy industry.

Our CANDU reactors are amongst the best and the safest in the world.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Netherlands is known for scattered showers, abundant waterways, and actively-used agricultural land, so it took ingenuity for the small country to soar to the top of the continent's solar pyramid.

One in three homes has rooftop solar, commercial ventures are grabbing up space on waterways, and even old landfill sites are finding a second life as energy generators.

While Canada lags behind in solar adoption, many places including Germany, China, Japan and even the United States are moving quickly.

In fact, on certain days, some places are generating so much energy, the price to purchase it is dropping below zero, prompting concerns about storage capacity for the abundant power source.

"Even if the transition is propelled by economics alone, with no further policy drivers to help, renewables could still cross a 50 per cent share of electricity generation at the end of this decade," BloombergNEF's 2024 New Energy Outlook states.

Project Manager Bart Meij says using otherwise empty rooftops offers an untapped revenue stream for building owners is an easy sell.

The original article contains 930 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

I haven't read the article but.... :)

Generally the big problem we still have to solve with reviewables is storage.

I think that one advantage that the NL has with renewables is that they don't have the storage problem, because they can always reroute to more pumping water out the polders.