Stationary Combustion/
Public Electricity and Heat Production
Emissions from the equipment of public power utilities made electricity generation Canada's largest IPCC sector in 2005. Emissions in this sector have been dropping since then, despite Canada's rising population, due primarily to a reduction in the use of coal.
The "Public Electricity and Heat Production" IPCC sector refers to companies whose primary business is selling electricity or heat to the grid or the public. Emissions from this sector peaked around year 2000, and have been steadily declining since then due primarily to a reduction in the use of coal (blue). The use of natural gas (green) has been rising, and the use of other fuels (e.g. diesel, light and heavy fuel oils, petroleum coke, still gas, and wood) has remained relatively steady.
How might Canada reduce emissions in this sector to zero?
Critical Success Factors
The arithmetic of emissions in this sector is straightforward: to reduce emissions in this sector, we must either- require less public electricity and/or public heat, and/or
- reduce the average emission intensity per unit electricity produced, i.e. by
- reducing the usage of fossil fuels, and/or
- increasing the average efficiency of fossil fuel combustion.
To achieve net-zero, the emissions of this sector (which are mostly ) need, at a minimum, to be less than the average amount of carbon being sequestered annually. There is not yet a plan for annual sequestration at anything resembling the scale of current emissions in this sector. It appears net-zero requires the reduction of emissions in this sector by perhaps 99-100%.
Barriers
- Population: Canada's population is growing, so electricity demand is also growing.
- Electrification: Strategies for reducing emissions in other sectors (e.g. relating to heating) often depend on electricity as the replacement energy source, further raising the per-capita electricity requirement
- Growth: Rising economic productivity is historically associated with rising energy use.
- Cost and Speed: The infrastructure of public electricity is designed around large centralized plants.
- Limited Trade Options: Our only option for importing electricity is from US states. I believe the emissions intensity of electricity from states along Canada's border is similar to the provinces they neighbour. We cannot reduce emissions by importing electricity. Anyway, at present, Canadian provinces are electricity exporters.
- Geography: Canada is a northern country with relatively cold temperatures, and relatively little light per unit area, especially in the winter. The heating of buildings is a significant driver of Canada's combustion emissions, and the need for that heating comes at the time of year with the lowest incidence of solar energy.
- Fossil Wealth: Canada has a wealth of fossil fuels in several forms across the country, and decades of infrastructure to extract, transport, and use them. There are significant reserves of somewhat accessible fossil fuels for potential future extraction. Other than the emissions, they're pretty great. Fossil fuels are cheaper in Canada than in most countries, presenting tougher competition to alternative energy sources here vs. other markets.
Key Stakeholder Groups
Possible Strategies
| Description | Cost / tonne |
|---|---|
| Combust wood for energy, then bury the exhaust CO2 (energy with negative emissions) | |
| Deploy high-efficiency modern wood pellet boilers | |
| Produce oil and biochar from fast pyrolysis (Bio-Oil) | |
| Produce syngas from gasifying wood | |
| Generate public electricity from small modular reactors (SMRs) | |
| Generate behind-the-meter industrial electricity from micro modular reactors (MMRs) | |
| Cool buildings with so-called "sky windows" - heat bypasses greenhouse gases | |
| Roof buildings with highly-reflective ultra-white paint | |
| Deploy wind farms in cropland | |
| Deploy wind farms in managed forests | |
| Deploy wind farms in waterways | |
| Convert managed forest to solar farms | |
| Convert cropland to solar farms | |
| Convert water surfaces to solar farms | |
| Convert tidal flows to electricity |