Yukon will miss emissions targets without energy storage, report says

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The report commissioned by the Yukon government analyzes how the territory can meet electricity demand until 2050.

Radio-Canada

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Without energy storage, the Yukon government could miss its emissions reduction targets, estimates a report from Navius ​​Research.

The territory aims to reduce its emissions by 45% by 2030. To achieve this, the government wants 97% of its electricity to come from renewable energies. 'by the end of the decade.

The challenge, however, lies in the fact that the quantity of energy produced by solar or wind power is variable, because it is subject to the weather. Also, with a population expected to increase, Navius ​​Research suggests that electricity demand compared to that of 2020 could double in the coming years.

For these reasons, the report states that the government's emissions targets will not be possible without storage, unless hydropower capacity is increased beyond planned expansions.

According to Navius ​​Research, pumped hydroelectric storage and lithium-ion batteries are the two most promising technologies for electricity storage in Yukon.

The report, commissioned by the Yukon government, analyzed how the territory can meet electricity demand through 2050 in the most economical way possible.

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Navius ​​Research therefore considered elements such as solar and wind projects in its analysis, which are the most cost-effective options for meeting new electricity demand on integrated and remote networks.

According to the territorial government's energy branch director, Shane Andre, there is already a significant amount of storage in hydroelectric plants.

He believes that the territory has the potential to build more hydroelectric and energy storage installations, recalling that certain projects have been proposed. For example, Yukon is building a grid-scale battery energy storage system, estimated to cost $35 million.

“You also see ideas for interesting projects like a grid connected to British Columbia, which would allow the territory to take advantage of energy storage in other jurisdictions,” he said added.

For Michael Ross, chair of the Northern Energy Innovation Industrial Research Council at Yukon University, the report's data is not surprising.

In his opinion, the government will have to find a way to store electricity on a daily basis while keeping costs low: One of the challenges is that the incoming power must be equal to the outgoing power, at any time [to maintain grid stability].

If there is a way to store additional energy when If there is excess energy, then using it when energy is inefficient could solve many of the problems utilities face, he said. p>

Cost, however, remains an issue, because according to him, the battery systems are quite expensive.

According to information from Julien Gignac