With the oil industry weakened with a war over market share, global purchase of renewable energy is setting new records, according to a new are convinced that boasts: “While fossils crash, clean energy soars.”
The exception is Canada, where investment in renewable energy plummeted 46 percent in 2015 when compared with 2014, to some paltry US$4 billion, even as Canadian governments were rushing to promote and subsidize clean energy.
In comparison, Canada’s gas and oil industry investment was forecast at $45 billion in 2015, down nearly 40 per cent from $73 billion in 2014. In Alberta’s oilsands alone, 2015 capital investment was forecast to become lower by almost another, to $23 billion, compared to $33 billion in 2014, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
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The 16-page Clean Energy Canada report, released Monday, said Canada is lagging on alternative energy since it has a patchwork of provincial renewable power policies that haven’t produced long-term certainty.
“The country has additionally suffered from deficiencies in overarching federal policy support: pipelines trumped power lines like a national priority,” the audience, associated with Burnaby, B.C.-based Simon Fraser University, writes within the report.
“But there is good news late in 2015 – Alberta and Saskatchewan both announced targets to increase their production of renewable power, and also the newly elected federal government has established that getting more clean energy around the grid is a priority.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, provincial premiers and aboriginal leaders are meeting in Vancouver now for discussions on a pan-Canadian framework to meet greenhouse gas reduction emissions commitments produced in Paris in December included in a brand new global agreement.
The framework will build on actions already taken by provinces and territories, so that Canada can meet – or exceed – its climate commitments, Trudeau said in a Feb. 10 statement.
Clean Energy Canada, which works to accelerate the transition to alternative energy, said an unprecedented US$367 billion was invested globally in renewable power in 2015, and also the Paris commitments will boost its momentum.
“Turmoil in fossil fuel markets led many analysts to suggest clean energy investment would similarly stall out,” executive director Merran Smith said in the report.
“How could alternative energy possibly compete with cheap oil, gas and coal? But clean energy did compete, also it won. Once again, more income flowed into new renewable electricity than new power from fossil fuels.”
The group says clean energy cost is coming down as production and experience increase.
In the U.S., it says, the unsubsidized technology cost of wind energy has come down 61 percent since 2009, and utility-scale solar photovoltaic is down 82 per cent, thanks to improved efficiency minimizing costs of components like panels, inverters and turbines.
The top investors in alternative energy in 2015 were China (US$110.5 billion), the U.S. (US$56 billion) and Japan (US$43.6 billion). With only US$4 billion invested, Canada was at eight place.
Globally, the alternative energy of preference were solar (US$161 billion), wind (US$110 billion) and large hydro projects (US$42 billion).
“These global trends have to be on the radar of Canadian business and political leaders, simply because they paint an image of great opportunity,” Smith said within the report.
“There will continue to be markets for our fossil fuel resources for serious amounts of come, however their future is increasingly uncertain. It’s clear in which the puck goes.”
ccattaneo@nationalpost.com
