As the Middle East war rumbles on, the petroleum that made the region so important, begins to fade in importance.
Who will still be buying new gasoline cars in 2030? A tiny number of people, and the fleet that is left on the road will be aging, and decreasing in resale value.
Analysis: UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time
BC Hydros plan is 50% growth by 2050. The Federal government is 100%. Why the discrepancy?
“Without the right growth trajectory, B.C. risks having to make difficult choices between industrial electrification and the electrification of homes and transportation that will help save British Columbians money at a time when gas prices and costs of living are high. EVs save typical drivers about $23,000 to $32,000 over 10 years of ownership, while heat pumps are the cheapest form of heating and cooling in most of the province. “
The world is changing rapidly: geopolitical conflict, shifting trade relationships, rapid technological change, and resulting volatility are placing strain on global energy systems and intensifying competition for resources, investment, and supply chains. More recently, consumers are being buffeted by energy pressures, exacerbating the affordability squeeze.
Major economies are moving decisively to strengthen their electricity systems, which are critical to economic growth, energy security, and long-term competitiveness. China is investing in clean technology and grid expansion at an unprecedented scale and now leads globally in manufacturing electricity technologies. Europe is making substantial investments in electricity systems, including new generation and major upgrades to its transmission and distribution networks. Traditional energy exporters like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are also diversifying, investing heavily in clean electricity.
Access to abundant, affordable, and reliable electricity is – more than ever – fundamental to competitiveness, energy security, and economic sovereignty. It shapes where investment flows and influences where industries decide to locate. It defines how productive economies can be.
It also drives critical progress towards climate goals. Mass electrification, advanced in a way that balances reliability, sustainability, and affordability, will enable countries to drive down economy-wide emissions in the most cost-effective way. In Canada, it will be a key element of our climate approach which, in addition to reducing emissions, will generate billions in total energy cost savings for Canadian households over coming decades.
Canada must act now to seize our window of opportunity. Electricity systems must be strengthened to reduce exposure to external shocks and help protect affordability for Canadian households and businesses at a time when price pressures are significant. Given the increasingly uncertain global environment, we must bolster reliable domestic energy supply to strengthen Canada’s sovereignty and economic stability.
We must also keep pace with Canada’s increasing power needs. Domestically, industrial growth is accelerating, buildings and transportation are electrifying, and demand is rising from emerging sectors such as critical minerals development, artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, and advanced manufacturing. These shifts are driving a sharp increase in electricity demand, which is expected to double by 2050, placing unprecedented demands on our electricity systems.^(Footnote 1)
Affordable, clean power
Canada is entering this critical moment with a strong competitive advantage: a reliable, low-cost, low-emission electricity system that ranks among the most affordable in the world, with abundant, affordable natural resources to help generate additional power. This achievement, built over decades, reflects the leadership and sustained investment of provinces and territories, utilities, generators, system operators, and ratepayers. This foundation must now be both protected and strengthened in the face of rising demand and a more complex global environment. Recognizing that a stronger, more resilient grid will, in turn, strengthen Canada’s overall energy security, the task facing Canadians will be to carry these advantages forward. This means scaling the electricity system to meet the country’s growing needs, while preserving affordability for businesses and households.
Given the scale of the system build-out required, all levels of government will need to work together, and the approaches adopted will need to reflect varied regional realities. In Canada, jurisdiction over electricity rests primarily with the provinces and territories, and the evolution of provincial and territorial electricity systems reflects the different resources that they can access (for example, hydro in British Columbia, Quebec, and Manitoba, nuclear energy in Ontario, and low-cost natural gas in Saskatchewan and Alberta). The federal government also has a role to play, centred on its responsibilities for international and inter-provincial trade, nuclear energy, and its shared responsibility for environmental protection.
Just a friendly reminder of MAGA pride.
The Esmeralda 7 development would have been the largest solar farm in the U.S. But it was sited on federal land, so it needed an OK from the Trump admin.
Esmeralda 7 was unique for its size: It would have installed 6.2 gigawatts of solar generation and 5.2 gigawatts of battery capacity across 62,300 acres of Nevada desert. No other solar project in the U.S. comes close to that scale. It was also a test case for a new, more efficient approach to federal permitting, one that promised to get clean energy infrastructure built more quickly.
For decades, Lebanon has relied on diesel generators because the national grid has struggled to keep the lights on. Today, many have simply disappeared.
Why? Not because the electricity grid was fixed.
It happened because rooftop solar became the cheaper alternative.
"This report draws on two years of PhD fieldwork, including over one hundred interviews with solar energy companies, government officials, civil society organizations, international aid organizations, and citizens to understand the political, economic, and technological dynamics that shaped Lebanon’s rapid adoption of solar energy systems in the wake of an extended energy crisis in 2021. It traces how and why a system of neighborhood backup electricity known as Ishtirak vanished without protest or enforcement, and why this transition has unfolded unevenly across space, producing a bifurcated energy landscape: an increasingly solar-powered countryside alongside ever-more diesel-reliant coastal cities.
The disruption of orthodox visions of how electricity infrastructure and markets function has profound implications for policymakers. In rural Lebanon, energy transition has unfolded outside formal planning frameworks, reshaping demand, pricing, and provision through millions of household-level decisions rather than through reform or regulation. From a technical and environmental perspective, the rapidly expanding stock of solar systems already installed across the country constitutes a significant generation asset that it would be irrational to exclude from any future electricity system. And importantly, similar trends of crisis-induced decarbonization are unfolding elsewhere in the world"
Fortescue has long argued that the switch to wind, solar, battery storage and electric trucks and other mining equipment has been an economic necessity as well as an environmental one. This electrification will provide them with a long term cost advantage over their competitors forcing others to electrify to stay competitive. This is going to happen very rapidly across many industries not just mining.
Fortesque is quite amazing, building the largest off grid renewable energy system with auto lifting wind turbines and automated solar piling and module racking systems that can install panels at scale and at speed. GW of solar, GW of BESS, 100s MW wind.
The Minas Passage, the narrow gap where Fundy’s tides funnel in and out of the Minas Basin, is not a friendly test site. It is about 5 kilometers wide and 150 meters deep, and at the height of the spring tides it carries more water than all the world’s rivers combined, pushing it through at up to 5 meters per second, according to Canada’s National Observer. The local tides swing by as much as 16 meters every six hours. This is not a place that tolerates mistakes.
Wow. More solar!
Saw this come through on Tuesday and had to double check it wasn't a typo. 1.038,25 €/MWh for a 15 minute window, 20:45 CET. heatwave across most of central/western europe, demand up, solar already tailing off for the evening, wind basically a no-show.
everyone's calling it the highest since 2011 (the 2.999 software bug one), which is technically true if you're only looking at ENTSO-E data, since that only goes back to 2016 anyway. belgium actually had a comparable spike in 2007 too, around 2.500, but that one's a different story entirely, CREG opened an investigation into whether one of the big suppliers was leaning on the market rather than it being an actual scarcity event. so three records, three completely different causes, which i think is more interesting than anything.
curious if anyone in other markets saw similar prints this week, seems like NL and DK1 both broke records too.
New analysis shows that since the start of the Iran war households with gas boilers and petrol cars have seen energy bills rise almost four times more than those with heat pumps and EVs. A typical household could save around £1,200 a year today by combining an EV, a heat pump, solar panels and a time-of-use tariff. This rises to around £1,900 for some rural homes.