A review of renewable energy in Canada, 1990-2003

This paper provides a comprehensive database of renewable energy facilities in Canada by province and by resource type. It considers technologies used for power generation or cogeneration, renewable energy heating systems, hydrogen generation and transportation fuels. Renewable energy technologies convert naturally regenerating resources into useful energy such as electricity, thermal energy, hydrogen or bio-fuels. The database contains information on renewable power operations in Canada over a scale of 100 kilowatts of rated capacity. Smaller applications have been included for run-of-river, hydro, earth, wind and solar power. There are 753 records for renewable energy facilities in Canada, including wind, hydroelectricity, wood residue biomass, landfill/sewage gas, solar photovoltaic, municipal solid waste, and tidal energy. The data in this report was acquired from Statistics Canada and other public information sources. For each of the 753 renewable energy power plants, this report states its type of renewable energy, the province, the name of the project, its location, its operator, electrical generating capacity, number of generating units, average annual electricity production, and the year it began operation. Canada currently has an installed electrical capacity of 115 GW, of which renewable energy sources constitute 76 per cent with the dominant source being hydroelectricity. Manitoba has the highest portion of renewable energy in its installed electrical capacity. Approximately 40 per cent Canada's renewable power capacity is in Quebec, followed by 15 per cent in British Columbia. Nova Scotia has Canada's only tidal power plant. Most of the installed renewable energy power capacity in Canada is owned by integrated electric utilities and a small percentage is owned by renewable electricity generating companies, aluminium companies, pulp and paper companies or diversified electricity generators. It is expected that interest in renewable energy will grow with the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. refs., tabs., figs