Wind Energy in Canada
2022 wind energy numbers
In 2022, Canada increased its installed wind energy capacity by just over one gigawatt to a total of 15.31 GW. Wind-generated electricity reached 39.06 TWh, a record for the country, representing 6.6% of national electricity demand.
The majority of growth in new capacity was located in the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. There were several significant announcements related to offshore wind, including the initiation of regional assessments to support decision-making on offshore wind in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, and an announcement by the province of Nova Scotia for a target of 5 GW of offshore wind energy leases by 2030.
To read more about Canada’s wind energy sector, read their chapter in the IEA Wind TCP 2022 Annual Report.
National Targets
Canada’s national decarbonisation target is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, which was brought into legislation in 2021 through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.
In March 2022, the Government of Canada released the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, which outlines a roadmap on how Canada will meet its enhanced Paris Agreement target to reduce emissions by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2030 [1].
The province of Nova Scotia announced a target to offer leases for 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030, with the first call for bids slated for 2025. The province has indicated an interest in the use of offshore wind-generated renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen for use in the province and for export and announced that it is developing a green hydrogen action plan to be released in 2023 [2].
Progress & Operational Details
Seven onshore wind projects became operational in 2022, comprising 221 turbines and totalling 1,006 MW of new capacity. Six of the seven projects had installed capacities greater than 100 MW. Most of the growth in new capacity was located in Alberta (four projects equal to 604.9 MW) and Saskatchewan (two projects, 377 MW), with the remaining 24 MW project located in Quebec. The average cost of new projects in 2022 was roughly 1,775 CAD/kW (1,207 EUR/kW; 1,312 USD/kW).
The average turbine capacity across all projects installed in 2022 was 4.55 MW. The first projects in Canada with turbines greater than 5 MW each were installed in 2022. This occurred at three sites – the 177 MW Blue Hill Wind Project in Saskatchewan, the 130 MW Rattlesnake Ridge Wind Project in Alberta, and the 122.4 MW Wheatland Wind Project in Alberta. Each of these projects featured the Siemens Gamesa SG 5.0-145 turbines with a nominal power of 5 MW.
National RDD Priorities and Budget
Developing new technologies and enhancing existing infrastructure to support electrification continues to be an active area of research. The Government of Canada’s Budget 2022 proposed 600 million CAD (412.8 million EUR; 443.4 million USD) over seven years starting in 2022-2023 to Natural Resources Canada for the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program to support additional renewable electricity and grid modernisation projects [7].
The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) launched the Electricity Transformation Hub, supported by funding from Natural Resources Canada. The Hub is intended to be a knowledge-transfer tool to support electricity utilities and system operators in accelerating their decarbonisation efforts, facilitating the integration of the larger amounts of wind energy, solar energy and energy storage needed to support electrification and Canada’s net-zero GHG-emission targets [8].