RC110 JanFeb 2024 - Magazine - Page 19
ITH THE SHIFT from fossil fuel to zero-carbon energy sources, Canada’s energy transition is in full swing. But what does this mean
for municipalities, construction 昀椀rms, and transportation entities, and what are they doing to prepare for this transition?
Whatever path they’re on, infrastructure stakeholders are
trying to close the gap between strategy and implementation.
During a recent ReNew Canada Webinar—with support from AECOM
—a panel of experts discussed what the energy transition means
to di昀昀erent organizations and what opportunities and challenges
lay ahead as Canada attempts to meet its clean energy goals.
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ReNew Canada: What does Canada’s energy transition mean for
organizations, and what are they doing to prepare for this transition?
MARIE-JOSE CROONEN (AECOM): The energy transition is a component
of our move towards reducing the e昀昀ects of climate change,
reducing energy use, and decarbonization. But another very
important element is how it a昀昀ects people and how can we
make sure that we are more resilient as a community towards
the e昀昀ects of climate change. The energy transition is a piece, but it’s a very
elemental piece, and we must make sure that we put that into the bigger
context of decarbonization and resilience and overall, making sure that we
will have a place for everybody to live.
TODD ERNST (GREATER TORONTO AIRPORT AUTHORITY): Everybody thinks
of the energy transition to net zero or typically the easiest
pathway to get there is to electrify everything. Well, what
we’re 昀椀nding and how we’re looking at the energy transition
is in terms of the energy ecosystem and what our options are
beyond just electri昀椀cation to get there because there is no single magic
bullet, and we have to look at multiple pathways to achieve that goal.
CAROLYN BOWEN (CITY OF CALGARY): Calgary, of course, has a very
strong energy sector. The energy industry has a net zero by
2050 target and looking for certainty from a policy/regulatory
perspective, more investment into energy transition and
mitigation approaches such as carbon capture and storage, etc.
Organizations are preparing through supporting residents, diversify the
economy by attracting innovation and cleantech sectors, upskilling and
building capacity in the market for supporting a greener economy. In
addition to supporting those actions, The City of Calgary (the municipal
government), is developing programs for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, getting to net zero and building a climate resilient city. The city
is focusing on climate action through land use planning and city building,
buildings, transportation, energy supply, natural infrastructure and
education and outreach.
WILLIAM SMITH (TERRESTRIAL ENERGY): I would de昀椀ne it a little bit
more precisely perhaps as an alternative to fossil fuel
combustion, not alternative to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels play
too much of an important role in everyday products and
services that we consume. So, in our case, it’s where is
combustion taking place, how then can we contribute our zero-emission
technology to displacing combustion, maybe that fuel can be sold
elsewhere in the world at an economic advantage to Canada in this case.
RENEWCANADA.NET
ReNew Canada: What are some of the biggest factors
and drivers accelerating the energy transition?
CAROLYN BOWEN: I think one of the most important things is
the policy and regulatory forces that need to drive change.
Accelerated implementation of regulations in energy transition and the corresponding funding that’s going to be
needed for the implementation from all orders of government and private investment is a driver. Accelerating and
increasing investment into the energy transition, requires
a certain degree of certainty with investors. Residents and
market demand are also driving the energy transition. In
Calgary, energy a昀昀ordability has risen as a key factor.
WILLIAM SMITH: Our customers are genuinely interested to
continue to create value for their assets and they see less
value in the emissions than they used to. That gives us
an opportunity, of course, to step in. And that is in return
attracting private capital where it probably hadn’t gone
before. It’s important to tell folks that private capital,
which is market disciplined, is looking at investments
in the transition in a perhaps di昀昀erent way than it did a
decade ago.
TODD ERNST: Extreme weather events are much more frequent, which can cause power disruptions. And having
su昀케cient resiliency in the power supply is important.
So, we need to plan our power requirements accordingly. From a government policy incentive perspective, the
GTAA bene昀椀ted greatly from some of the energy incentives that were o昀昀ered over the years.
Back in 2011, our initial GHG goal was to be 20 per cent
below the 2006 baseline by 2020. And we leveraged the
Ontario Save on Energy program quite a bit to go after
GHGs associated with electricity through energy conservation. And that, combined with the cleaning of the grid
here in Ontario, we 昀椀nished 2020 more than 60 per cent
below the 2006 baseline, and that was largely driven by
government policy to shut coal plants and by incentives
that helped us to improve our energy e昀케ciency.
MARIE-JOSE CROONEN: Regulations are going to be
foundational for a lot of the solutions that we can
provide on a larger scale. A lot of my work has focused
on resiliency. While developing resilience strategies one
of the key elements was one of the big unknowns—what
is it going to cost us when we don’t do anything? We
rarely monetize the risk of not doing anything, i.e. what
are the future avoided costs? With what we’re deciding
today, with what we’re implementing today, what is that
going to save us in capital and operational costs 20-30
years from now? If we consider future climate change
or resilience e昀昀ects now, we can extend the lifespan of
critical infrastructure and provide continuity and reliable
assets to our clients and citizens.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 – RENEW CANADA 19
