While electrification across all areas of society will be integral, BC Hydro含羞草研究社檚 CEO said Wednesday that B.C. won含羞草研究社檛 meet its climate targets through clean power generation alone.
Chris O含羞草研究社橰iley, who heads the crown corporation, told Greater Victoria business and community leaders that meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets will take electrification plans mingled with more energy efficiency, buildings swapping natural gas for biofuels, carbon capture and more.
The province is fortunate and well-positioned with about 98 per cent of its electricity coming from renewable sources, mostly from hydropower, but O含羞草研究社橰iley emphasized that about 70 per cent of all the energy consumed in B.C. still comes from fossil fuels.
Noting climate change is spurring more extreme and unpredictable weather that含羞草研究社檚 hitting all of B.C., O含羞草研究社橰iley said the goal is to have clean electricity responsible for about a third of all energy use by 2040. That, he said, will take switching from light-duty gas vehicles to electric models, replacing gas furnaces with heat pumps and having industry shift from diesel to alternatives.
As other jurisdictions, like neighbouring Alberta, have significantly reduced emissions by decommissioning coal power plants, B.C. cutting GHGs will take action from all sectors, O含羞草研究社橰iley said. The BC Hydro leader is confident they can meet the demands of a more electrified society, pointing to the Site C dam that will generate enough power for half-a-million homes and how the crown corporation recently made its first call for new power in 15 years.
含羞草研究社淲e含羞草研究社檙e now forecasting that the need for new renewable energy resources, like wind and solar, has moved up,含羞草研究社� he said.
Those two sources are expected to dominate the call for power as wind especially has seen a lot of technology and cost improvements in the last decade and a half.
BC Hydro含羞草研究社檚 goal will be to have large solar and wind projects scales to keep rates affordable and is looking especially to remote areas in the province含羞草研究社檚 North that have been identified as good suitors for those projects.
The CEO added that renewable prospects like tidal and offshore wind likely won含羞草研究社檛 be scaled up due to the costs of connecting those generation types to the grid. Asked about the small amount of generation on the Island, O含羞草研究社橰iley said cables from the mainland will continue to be the primary electricity source for Islanders.
Several Greater Victoria communities have enabled the recently implemented zero carbon step code, which gives municipalities the authority to mandate the amount the emissions from new buildings. BC Hydro supports cities taking those strides as O含羞草研究社橰iley said it含羞草研究社檚 much harder to retrofit existing buildings 含羞草研究社� which account for about 21 per cent of provincial emissions and overwhelmingly use natural gas for space and water heating.
The CEO noted the province含羞草研究社檚 plan also calls for reducing emissions from natural gas utilities by 47 per cent and they含羞草研究社檙e looking to support Fortis in those reductions.
含羞草研究社淚t含羞草研究社檚 a big chunk of the emissions and I do worry that gas utilities aren含羞草研究社檛 pushing on that as hard as they could be,含羞草研究社� he said. 含羞草研究社淏ut we also recognize that, today, the most mature pathway is electrification.含羞草研究社�
He sees significant opportunity for electrification in the industrial sector 含羞草研究社� which across oil, gas and other operations produces 40 per cent of B.C.含羞草研究社檚 emissions 含羞草研究社� adding he hopes existing facilities will switch to electricity and new ones will choose clean power over natural gas. O含羞草研究社橰iley also gave the example of BC Hydro helping a Princeton copper mine using hybrid hauling trucks instead of diesel for a portion of their operations.
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