Manitoba plans to use wind power to double or triple energy-generating capacity over next 2 decades
Future hydro-electric dams likely too costly, despite growing demand for electricity
Manitoba says it needs to double or triple its electricity-generating capacity over the next two decades — and it won't build new hydroelectric dams to meet that goal.
The province plans to rely on wind farms and other forms of green power to boost generating capacity from 6,600 megawatts right now to somewhere between 10,000 and 16,000 megawatts by the 2040s, according to a new energy policy announced on Friday.
A growing demand for cleaner energy has increased demand for hydroelectric power and that demand is set to rise as more companies phase out natural gas and petroleum products, Manitoba Hydro board chair Edward Kennedy told reporters outside the Crown corporation's downtown Winnipeg headquarters.
This will force Hydro to increase its generating capacity and save more power. On the generation front, Hydro expects to rely primarily on wind power, likely by purchasing from private companies and then selling it to consumers and industrial customers.
Premier Heather Stefanson said this does not mean Manitoba Hydro is for sale.
"Manitoba Hydro will remain the sole energy provider for Manitoba. That means any private providers will always need to sell power to Hydro and rates will always be set by the Public Utilities Board," Stefanson said at the same news conference.
Sandy Riley, a former Manitoba Hydro board chair who is assisting the province with its energy policy, said Manitoba did not invest in wind power in the past because it possessed an excess of generating capacity.
That's no longer the case and there is no prospect of engaging in new hydroelectric megaprojects. The high cost of Hydro's most recently completed generating station, Keeyask on the Nelson River, makes future investments in dams highly unlikely, Kennedy said.
"That last generating station exceeded the cost of the book value of all of our other generating stations combined but created only 11 per cent more capacity and doubled the debt of Manitoba Hydro to $22 billion," he said.
On the savings front, Hydro said it will explore the use of battery storage to even out the high winter demand for power with the lower summer demands.
The new energy policy also calls for Manitoba Hydro to utilize "smart meters" that could charge consumers lower rates for power during off-peak hours.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew criticized this idea, characterizing it as "surge pricing."
The province's new energy strategy also calls for major investments in electricity transmission and distribution, as well as the careful selection of new industrial developments that use electricity.
Right now, the province is considering 18 energy-intensive industrial proposals that together would require 4,400 megawatts of power.
As a result, the province will give preference to industrial proposals that provide the greatest economic benefit as well as the lowest environmental impact.
"It will require a lot of nimble, careful selection of technology and investment," Kennedy said.
$3B solar-panel manufacturing campus
One of those proposals already favoured by the province is a plan by German manufacturer RCT Solutions to build a $3-billion solar panel production campus near Winnipeg.
It would employ 8,000 people and produce enough panels to generate 10 gigawatts of power — that is, 10,000 megawatts — every year.
RCT founder Peter Fath said the campus would be built out in stages, likely at a site or sites close to Winnipeg, and would eventually be powered by the panels it manufactures.
He said Manitoba is attractive because it offers carbon-neutral hydroelectric power, a lot of annual sunshine, good logistics for shipping and an abundance of ultrapure silica sand, the raw material for solar panels.
The province, however, has yet to approve a proposal by Calgary mining company Sio Silica to drill below the surface for this sand. Fath said other North American jurisdictions would compete with Manitoba for this plant if sand mining does not go ahead here.
"Our preferred choice is Manitoba and I'm totally positive that the Manitoba government, which is so supportive, will find a way to clear this licensing issue," Fath said Friday in a telephone interview from Boston.
The province signed a memorandum of understanding with RCT Solutions earlier this week. Environment and Climate Minister Kevin Klein said that does not increase pressure on him to approve Sio Silica's proposal.
The Clean Environmental Commission, Manitoba's environmental regulator, raised concerns in June that sand extraction could diminish the quality of water in an aquifer that serves as a source of drinking water for tens of thousands of Manitobans.
Sio Silica CEO Feisal Somji said in an interview he hopes those concerns can be addressed in a licence that would require his firm to demonstrate, via testing, that its sand-extraction methods do not have adverse effects on drinking water.
The new energy policy also said the cost of making Manitoba's electricity generation entirely free of greenhouse gas emissions — right now, it's 97 per cent emissions-free — would be inordinately expensive. Some natural gas will continue to be used in the coming decades, it envisioned.
Curt Hull, project director at Climate Change Connection, said the plan ought to envision an entirely electric future.
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With files from Victor Lhoest and Ian Froese