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Electricity

Solar PV, CO2 avoidance, and magic wands: attractive packaging and misleading advertising

by Stephen E. Aplin • July 23, 2020 • 6 Comments

The International Energy Agency’s Integrated Smart Grid Action Network—what does just the title of the organization say? To me, a cynical pro-nuke climate hawk, it connotes exactly the type of bureaucracy that is simultaneously useful and frustrating. Useful because it…

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Electricity

Wind power in Ontario, June 2019: Dances with… Hydro

by Stephen E. Aplin • June 18, 2020 • 6 Comments

Last time I noted the operation of one particular Ontario gas-fired generating plant in relation with provincial electrical demand, total in-province generation, “market” price, and aggregate wind output. I showed that although through the month of June 2019 total generation…

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Electricity

Did wind-generated electricity displace gas-generated electricity in Ontario in June 2019?

by Stephen E. Aplin • May 26, 2020 • 1 Comment

Financiers of green energy projects often claim in public filings that the energy generated by the projects they have financed has avoided some definite number of tons of CO2 emissions. Run the numbers, and you usually find they have assumed…

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Electricity

“E” vs “SG” in ethical investing: how sustainable is mollification-by-cherrypicking

by Stephen E. Aplin • April 11, 2020 • 7 Comments

In the great game of whack-a-mole that is capital raising in Canada’s oil patch, it must be frustrating, for those whose full-time job when there isn’t a global pandemic is whacking the moles of ESG criteria on which they feel…

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Electricity

Green bonds, greenwash, and risk: how to tame the new Wild West

by Stephen E. Aplin • September 23, 2019 • 3 Comments

What makes a green bond green? A cynic might say the easy answer lies in the word “green”: take a bond, put the word “green” before the word “bond,” and congratulations—you have created a green bond. In reality, to sell…

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Electricity

New wind farm in Alberta comes online September 1: AA, anyone?

by Stephen E. Aplin • September 2, 2019 • 8 Comments

The Whitla Wind project phase I came onto Alberta’s grid yesterday (September 1 2019) around 1:05 pm local time. Phase 1 is 202 megawatts capacity, making it the second-largest farm in the province— Blackspring Ridge, at 300 MW, is the…

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Item A1 Current concentration of CO2 in the global atmosphere:
415.67 parts per million
In the last hour:
  • Nuclear reactors contributed 52.2 % of total electrical power generated in-province.
  • 89.6 % of Ontario-generated electricity was carbon-free.
  • Nuclear reactors contributed 58.2 % of Ontario's carbon-free electricity.
Table A1: Total Ontario generation, and related CO2 emissions, in hour preceding 18:05 EST on Feb 26 2021
FUEL MWh CO2, tons
Nuclear 8,687 0
Hydro 4,512 0
Gas 1,665 399
Wind 1,933 0
Biofuel 30 30
Oil & Gas 0 0
Solar 447 0
TOTAL 17,274 436
CO2 intensity per kWh (CIPK) in the last hour: 26.18 grams.
Table A2: Total Ontario generation, and related CO2 emissions, midnight to 18:05 EST on Feb 26 2021
FUEL MWh CO2, tons
Nuclear 173,692 0
Hydro 85,005 0
Gas 26,805 8,070
Wind 22,746 0
Biofuel 531 531
Oil & Gas 0 0
Solar 29,210 0
TOTAL 311,721 8,719
Average CO2 intensity per kWh (CIPK) over period: 27.98 grams
This content is updated at 50 minutes past the hour. Refresh at that time to see latest available data. Sources: www.ieso.ca and EmissionTrak™
Table A3 Should we replace nuclear plants with natural gas-fired ones? This table compares actual Ontario grid CO2 emissions from the last hour with those from a grid in which gas has replaced nuclear.
Actual Ontario grid Gas replaces nuclear
436 5,214
26.18 313.01
Tons CO2
CIPK, grams
If gas had replaced nuclear last hour, Ontario power plants would have dumped enough CO2 to fill Rogers Centre 1.8 times. As it was, 436 tons were dumped, which would fill Rogers Centre 0.2 times.

Recent Comments

  • Stephen E. Aplin on Alberta’s coal phaseout: can wind replace coal?
  • Marlow Currie on Alberta’s coal phaseout: can wind replace coal?
  • Engineer-Poet on Solar PV, CO2 avoidance, and magic wands: attractive packaging and misleading advertising
  • Stephen E. Aplin on Solar PV, CO2 avoidance, and magic wands: attractive packaging and misleading advertising
  • Glen on Solar PV, CO2 avoidance, and magic wands: attractive packaging and misleading advertising

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