
Table 1: Total Ontario generation, and related CO₂ emissions, in hour preceding 06:04 EST on Jan 27 2015
FUEL	MWh	CO₂, tons
Nuclear	11,750	0
Hydro	3,833	0
Gas	2,449	1,189
Wind	813	0
Other	0	0
Oil & Gas	0	0
Coal	0	0
TOTAL	18,869	1,202
CO₂ intensity per kWh (CIPK) in the last hour: 63.70 grams.

If Ontario’s nuclear-generated electricity were replaced with electricity from natural gas-fired plants, then last hour’s CO₂ emissions would have been 7,665 metric tons instead of the 1,202 tons shown in Table 1, and the CIPK would have been 406.2 grams instead of 63.70 grams.


Table 2: Total Ontario generation, and related CO₂ emissions, midnight to 06:04 EST on Jan 27 2015
FUEL	MWh	CO₂, tons
Nuclear	82,079	0
Hydro	27,804	0
Gas	16,462	7,950
Wind	5,059	0
Other	0	0
Oil & Gas	0	0
Coal	0	0
TOTAL	131,568	8,042
Average CO₂ intensity per kWh (CIPK) over period: 60.86 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™

Some un-frozen thoughts on humanity, progress, and the dangers of pretending we can run an electricity grid with power that can’t prevent water from freezing

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 23, 2015 • 11 Comments

Comfort Station, Mew Lake, Algonquin Park. This building, powered by the Ontario electric grid, is why so many people try their hand at winter camping at 45.577837° North and 78.513652° West.

This gallery contains 3 photos →

Fight carbon: why ALARA should become the leading principle of electric power generation infrastructure planning

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 7, 2015 • 12 Comments

How reasonable is it to require electric power utilities to reduce CO2 as much as possible? Germany, which has failed to reduce CO2 since it embarked on its much-vaunted Energy Transition, might think it is not reasonable. But France, which cut its CIPK by about 90 percent over a short decade and a half beginning in 1974, would find it very reasonable. Who is right?

This gallery contains 1 photo →

To kick off 2015, carbon concentration in our planet’s atmosphere spikes above 400 ppm, again: is this the permanent end of the 300s?

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 2, 2015 • 2 Comments

Readings of the air in Hawaii, taken in April of 2014 from this observatory, showed CO2 concentrations above 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. Today’s reading also was greater than 400 ppm.

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Ontario data goes into the (Virginia coal) cloud, and off its own clean power

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 23, 2014 • 0 Comments

A stereotypical Ontario scene, brought to you courtesy of coal that was dug out of the ground and burned in Virginia. Ontario outsourced its data centres to Amazon’s cloud server services. Amazon’s cloud servers are in Virginia, where electricity is cheap, unlike in Ontario.

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Walking lightly on the planet: a comparison of uranium and gasoline

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 22, 2014 • 3 Comments

Darlington dry cask storage facility, December 10 2014. Each of the big white containers in the background holds nearly 400 radioactive fuel bundles. But the casks provide such good shielding that each of the humans standing in the foreground is probably receiving a bigger radiation dose from the radioactive potassium atoms disintegrating by the thousands every second in their own and others’ bodies.

This gallery contains 4 photos →

Ashes to ashes: the easily traceable dust of Ontario nuclear energy

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 17, 2014 • 3 Comments

Hamlet ponders fluid dynamics. If he were holding a nuclear fuel bundle instead of Yorick’s skull, Hamlet’s imagination would have no trouble tracing the bundle’s passage through the cycle of inception to interment. That is because the bundle is as scrupulously managed, documented, and accounted for as Yorick’s skull. We could not say the same about fossil-generation waste.

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**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
1,202	7,665
63.70	406.20
Tons CO₂ CIPK, grams If gas had replaced nuclear last hour, Ontario power plants would have dumped enough CO₂ to fill Rogers Centre 2.7 times. As it was, 1,202 tons were dumped, which would fill Rogers Centre 0.4 times.

Canadian Energy Issues

Where energy converges with environment in Canada and the rest of the world

Some un-frozen thoughts on humanity, progress, and the dangers of pretending we can run an electricity grid with power that can’t prevent water from freezing

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 23, 2015 • 11 Comments

Fight carbon: why ALARA should become the leading principle of electric power generation infrastructure planning

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 7, 2015 • 12 Comments

To kick off 2015, carbon concentration in our planet’s atmosphere spikes above 400 ppm, again: is this the permanent end of the 300s?

by Stephen E. Aplin • January 2, 2015 • 2 Comments

Ontario data goes into the (Virginia coal) cloud, and off its own clean power

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 23, 2014 • 0 Comments

Walking lightly on the planet: a comparison of uranium and gasoline

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 22, 2014 • 3 Comments

Ashes to ashes: the easily traceable dust of Ontario nuclear energy

by Stephen E. Aplin • December 17, 2014 • 3 Comments