A Canadian Press story in early May highlighted that renewable energy accounted for 66% of energy generated in Canada in 2015, and appeared widely – for example, in the Globe and Mail (May 2) and the Toronto Star . The information behind the news was drawn from Canada’s Adoption of Renewable Power Sources – Energy Market Analysis May 2017 by the National Energy Board , which provides much more detail about each type of renewable energy, and notes the factors influencing their adoption rates (including costs, technological improvement, environmental considerations, and regulatory issues). The NEB also compares Canada to other countries, and perhaps most interestingly, includes a section on Emerging Technologies , which highlights tidal power, off-shore wind, and geothermal. Canada has no existing production capacity for either off-shore wind or geothermal, although the report outlines proposed developments.
Some highlights from the Canada’s Adoption of Renewable Power Sources: the 2015 proportion of 66% renewables in our energy mix is an increase from 60% in 2005; only five countries (Norway, New Zealand, Brazil, Austria, and Denmark) produce a similar or larger share of electricity from renewable sources; China leads the world in total hyroelectricity production – Canada is second; over 98% of Canada’s solar power generation capacity is located in Ontario.
Other useful NEB publications: Canada’s Renewable Power Landscape (October 2016), which documents historical growth rates for renewable power in Canada, and each province and territory, and for the latest in energy projections, see Canada’s Energy Future 2016: Update – Energy Supply and Demand Projections to 2040 . These projections, which include fossil fuels as well as renewables, were published in October 2016 and therefore don’t reflect the policies of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change.