Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Any day now they'll figure out they just need to start digging up.

Really they could do anything they want and still form government for the next 36 years.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Cappy

Spoiler!

How embarrassing

Update:

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Update:

Needs pointy hats and change the title to “The Resis-Dunce”.

[Fuzz]

In fairness, I have no idea ff Manitoba's Premier is a dunce or not, but she's in the picture, so she gets a hat.

[Yoho]

Satisfying low brow humour at its best.

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Yoho

Satisfying low brow humour at its best.

You gotta admit it was pretty good.

[Slanter]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Update:

How is possible that Doug Ford's head looks just as photoshopped as the rest of them?

[Whynotnow]

Well this wasn’t at all predictable. Unwarranted chaos in an emerging industry, causing them to consider next steps.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...nies-1.6942597

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by Whynotnow

Well this wasn’t at all predictable. Unwarranted chaos in an emerging industry, causing them to consider next steps.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...nies-1.6942597

I was expecting a lot of stupid decisions from this government, but I did not expect a decisive attack on our energy industry be one of their first orders of business. Strange times

[Doctorfever]

Hey fellas.

You need to go back in this thread and read posts 14272 and 14331 that Frequitude made.

Lays out the whole reasoning for the “pause”.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

Hey fellas.

You need to go back in this thread and read posts 14272 and 14331 that Frequitude made.

Lays out the whole reasoning for the “pause”.

What have they done the last 5 years to address this very predictable problem? Regardless of if this pause is currently warranted it’s still a failure of government. This issue didn’t just show up. And it’s not like this was a campaign promise to change course from a previous government.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Major Major

I was expecting a lot of stupid decisions from this government, but I did not expect a decisive attack on our energy industry be one of their first orders of business. Strange times

Installing Chinese solar panels and American wind-turbines isn't much of an energy industry.

Does the general public still remember when Ontario killed its renewable energy industry? It even had factories building wind turbines and solar panels, but without subsidies it was not competitive. And it wasn't even killed by Doug Ford, Katherine Wynne was still premier then.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...sing-1.4210184

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...uiet-1.5058216

https://www.guelphmercury.com/busine...567a1a98d.html

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by accord1999

Installing Chinese solar panels and American wind-turbines isn't much of an energy industry.

Does the general public still remember when Ontario killed its renewable energy industry? It even had factories building wind turbines and solar panels, but without subsidies it was not competitive. And it wasn't even killed by Doug Ford, Katherine Wynne was still premier then.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...sing-1.4210184

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...uiet-1.5058216

https://www.guelphmercury.com/busine...567a1a98d.html

Where do you think most of the components are made for the oil sands? It’s not like that stuff isn’t coming from overseas, so not sure that should be your measuring stick.

As for Ontario, different time, different place, Renewables projects are pretty competitive in Alberta for a host of reasons, they are also increasingly viable in a lot of different jurisdictions that they weren’t 5 years ago.

As said just above, the pause is a failure of government, there was lots and lots of time for these issues to have been dealt with in advance and not cause this. I also don’t fully buy the pause is needed myself, the issues need to be addressed but not sure they warrant.a full scale shut down. I’m in the energy sector, have been for 25 years, we’ve had bigger problems that this and not once would the government even considered Ed a full shutdown. So ask yourself why treat renewables this way?

[Fuzz]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1693682798924824944


They paused geothermal too??? What a bunch of morons. Good thing they are helping our homegrown energy companies find markets in Europe, since they've been kicked in the balls here. The incompetence is incalculable.



Oh please, UCP defenders of our brittle deregulated energy market, tell me how this makes sense.

[Mr.Coffee]

It’ll be crickets in reply to you on that one. Simple truth is it doesn’t make any sense.

[Faust]

Does geothermal energy have a place in Alberta?

https://energyrates.ca/geothermal-energy-place-alberta

According to the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, there is a geothermal resource potential of 388,500 megawatts (MW) in Alberta that can be used under existing technical, structural and ecologic restrictions (with a 14% recovery rate.)

In terms of theoretical generation potential, there’s a total of 8,176,000 MW in Alberta. Bill 36 can further develop Alberta’s geothermal resources to raise its technical potential.

So then, is geothermal worth the investment? According to Osler, there are a number of reasons why it’d be worth it to make the investment – since Alberta has extensive experience developing gas and oil resources, this experience would also transfer over to developing geothermal resources. Other advantages Alberta would have with geothermal investment include:

availability of extensive subsurface data, a well-established service sector and existing infrastructure.

opportunities for co-production with oil and gas and to repurpose inactive oil and gas wells.

Drilling and completions expertise and lead technologies, as well as extensive oil and gas expertise.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Whynotnow

Where do you think most of the components are made for the oil sands? It’s not like that stuff isn’t coming from overseas, so not sure that should be your measuring stick.

With oil and gas, the imported components are used to produce products for exports that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. That's the value of an energy industry for a low population area like Alberta.

As for Ontario, different time, different place, Renewables projects are pretty competitive in Alberta for a host of reasons, they are also increasingly viable in a lot of different jurisdictions that they weren’t 5 years ago.

Ontario was attempting to create a real energy industry, where they produced the turbines and panels in-province and create lasting jobs. But like most attempts in the West, it was a failure since it could not compete against cheaper foreign producers.

Ultimately, the mediocre solar and wind potential in Alberta meant that it would quickly run into diminishing returns. Right now it's already installed a fair amount of both, roughly equal to the UK on a per-capita basis.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://twitter.com/user/status/1693682798924824944


They paused geothermal too??? What a bunch of morons. Good thing they are helping our homegrown energy companies find markets in Europe, since they've been kicked in the balls here. The incompetence is incalculable.



Oh please, UCP defenders of our brittle deregulated energy market, tell me how this makes sense.

I'd suspect that it's because the Eavor solution is very expensive by North America standards, but Germany is desperate for energy with the war in Ukraine and the shutdown of its last nuclear power plants.

The first commercial-scale project is likely to be built in Germany at a site in Geretstried owned by Enex Power Company, which was attempting to create its own geothermal energy project, but found there wasn't enough heat for the type of installation it was planning.

There is, however, enough heat to run an Eavor-Loop. And the geothermal permits are already in place, as well as a deal with the German government to buy the power produced for about $270 per megawatt-hour. And there's a couple of wells already drilled. An ideal first project.

Eavor CEO John Redfern told Recharge News this first project is likely to start out as a 10-MW station, with construction starting next January if it gets the green light. But there's ample space at the site to ramp it up to 200 MW simply by adding more underground loops. Scaling up to this degree would cost around $2.9 billion.

https://newatlas.com/energy/bp-chevr...othermal-loop/

[Fuzz]

That's not an explanation for pausing it. A company can decide for itself when it is economically viable.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by accord1999

I'd suspect that it's because the Eavor solution is very expensive by North America standards, but Germany is desperate for energy with the war in Ukraine and the shutdown of its last nuclear power plants.

https://newatlas.com/energy/bp-chevr...othermal-loop/

Yes energy in Germany is more expensive, but it's more that Germany spends money to develop by purchasing/testing expensive set ups in order to bring costs down. They're the reason solar costs are now 95% cheaper than the first panels installed in Germany