STORAGE SOLUTION

ENERGY
STORAGE SOLUTION
Backing up Canada’s drive to decarbonize the energy sector
by Mark Douglas Wessel
O
Achieving improvements in energy efficiency
Canada has committed to getting to net zero by 2050 and
to achieve that goal the International Energy Agency advises (whether for Canada or any other country on the net
zero path) that it will require “massive improvements in
energy e昀케ciency,” and changes that include “comprehensive energy e昀케ciency renovations… and the growing use
of renewable energy while increasing grid 昀氀exibility.”
Tied to meeting the country’s net zero goals and decarbonizing our grid, last August National Resources Canada
(NRCan) produced a vision paper for the future of the
Canadian electricity system known as Powering Canada
Forward, which spokesperson Michael McDonald says is
the 昀椀rst step toward releasing a clean energy strategy by
the end of 2024.
And an integral part of those recommendations will be
not just producing clean energy but backing up and stor-
Mark Douglas Wessel
Mark Douglas Wessel is an urban journalist and
communications consultant. He writes a regular
column called Green Living for Postmedia.
24
RENEW CANADA – MAY/JUNE 2024
ing that energy. Observes McDonald, “energy storage can
play a role to help manage electricity demand, especially
during peak periods. It can improve grid reliability and reliance (and) help balance electricity supply and demand.”
He adds that other bene昀椀ts of deploying more backup
energy solutions include “enabling utilities to develop
new operational processes and allow higher integration of
renewable energy.”
Charging forward
In what may already be a conservative number, a 2022
report commissioned by Energy Storage Canada predicts
that by 2035 the country will need 8-12 gigawatts (GW)
of storage. Which means this country needs to embrace a
hockey stick model and begin ramping up a great number
of energy storage projects on a much larger scale.
Initiatives like the Edwards & Sanborn Solar Energy
Storage site in Kern County, California, which according
to the U.S. Engineering, Procurement and Construction
(EPC) contractor Mortenson, is the world’s largest combined solar/storage project to date.
Spanning 4,660 acres of desert, Edwards & Sanborn
consists of more than 1.9 million solar panels (capable of
producing 864 MW of energy) and 120,720 batteries (with
a storage capacity of 3,287 mWh). Impressive numbers
indeed and yet according to Brent Berland, Mortensen’s
vice-president of project development for energy storage,
those numbers weren’t written in stone when the site was
昀椀rst envisioned.
“The project originally was smaller and started with
solar only. And then as the California market evolved
quickly in energy storage, it became apparent to Terra-Gen
(the independent energy producer that initiated the project
and brought Mortensen on board) that they should 昀椀gure
out a way to incorporate energy storage,” recalls Bergland.
“In fact, the amount of solar and storage wasn’t 昀椀xed for a
pretty signi昀椀cant period of time,” with Terra-Gen working
in tandem with all of the partners involved—both public
and private, before deciding on the 昀椀nal scope and scale.
Bergland says that a key role for the Kern County site
and others, which may not be co-located with wind or
solar (as in the case with En昀椀nite’s installations) is load
management. Management in terms of “using energy storage as an asset to deal with the duck curve (that occurs)
when solar power comes o昀昀 during the end of the day and
MORTENSEN
N THE WORLD STAGE 145 countries have committed to
net-zero targets, representing approximately 90
per cent of carbon emissions—half of which are
produced by China, the EU, the U.S., and India
according to the independent scienti昀椀c Climate
Action Tracker.
Contributing to an estimated 1.5 per cent of the world’s
greenhouse gases, Canada’s emissions are smaller than the
aforementioned top four. That said, our current population of 39 million is a mere 0 .5 per cent of the globe’s 8.1
billion. And yet at 1.5 per cent, our carbon footprint is
three times our population, which translates into being the
world’s second highest producer of greenhouse gas per
capita and the 11th largest emitter, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The above-mentioned numbers, coupled with the growing incidence of 100-year storms and natural disasters—including more than 6,000 wild昀椀res in Canada alone in 2023,
all point to the need to decarbonize by meeting net zero
goals as quickly as possible.
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