Canada has hit the 11GW mark for installed wind capacity as the country saw growth of 1500MW in 2015.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association has released figures showing that wind energy has grown by an average of 23% over the last five years and Canada is now seventh in the world for total installed wind capacity with 11,205MW and sixth globally for the total installed in 2015.
In 2015 Canada added 1506MW of new wind capacity through the commissioning of 36 new projects and wind energy supplied 5% of Canada’s electricity demand in 2015.
“Not only has the wind energy industry continued its five year trend as the largest source of new electricity generation in Canada,” said CanWEA president Robert Hornung, “the industry in Canada has demonstrated a five year annual average growth rate of 23 per cent per year.”
Ontario led the way with 871MW of new capacity, taking the total to 4361MW. The organisation said the province’s procurement process shows there is still 2000MW more of wind planned to be built in Ontario in the next few years.
Quebec is Canada’s second biggest wind market and added 397MW in 2015, taking its total to 3262MW. The province has another 700 MW due to come online in the next two years.
Nova Scotia has 552MW and added 186MW in 2015. New Brunswick has 294MW, Prince Edward Island 204MW and Newfoundland 55MW, bringing the total installed capacity in Atlantic Canada to 1104MW.
Alberta, Canada’s third largest wind energy market, added just 29MW in 2015 but in November the province did commit to replace two-thirds of coal generation with renewable generation which should increase installed wind energy capacity in Alberta by thousands of megawatts over the next 15 years.
In November, Saskatchewan which added 23MW in 2015, committed to significantly grow this capacity from 221 MW presently to more than 2,000 MW by 2030, starting with an initial procurement of new wind energy capacity in 2016.
British Columbia held steady in 2015 at 489 MW of installed wind energy capacity, as did Manitoba with 258 MW, the Northwest Territories at 9 MW, and Yukon with just under 1 MW.
The organisation cited a report from US investment bank Lazard, which showed that the cost of adding wind power has fallen by 60% in the last six years, meaning it is now cost-competitive with almost all other potential sources of new electricity generation.
Image: Canadian wind farm (CanWEA)
