Alberta Shines: Dissecting the Record Low Emission Intensity in Electricity Grids

Source: Arcus Power Corps. | · LINKEDIN · | April 26, 2024

Earlier this week, the Alberta electricity grid AESO achieved a record for lowest historical hourly emissions intensity, reaching a minimum of 317 gCO2e/kWh on April 21st, just in time for Earth Day. A positive signal, the hourly record was set well below the rolling average for 2024, which hovers around 450 gCO2e/kWh thus far.

So, what causes the difference between hourly and yearly emissions? How was this record achieved? And what can grids do to achieve sustainable and long-term low-emissions electricity?

Today in the “Decarbonization in the Energy Sector” newsletter, we will cover the broad topic of electricity grids.

While other factors were at play, the #EarthDay record low emissions intensity was heavily tied to another near record in the province, combined generation from wind turbines and solar PV farms. Wind has been a significant contributor to energy in Alberta for over a decade and has seen a rapid rise in recent years going from a rough share of 6% of total energy generated in 2019 to over 12% in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, over 40 grid-scale solar installations are now operating in Alberta, including Travers, the largest PV farm in Canada with an installed capacity of 465 MW. Spring sunshine, combined with the classic Alberta spring wind, led to a total generation of over 4,000 MW, nearly 2/3 of total installed capacity (wind and solar combined), and over double the average generation from those two sources. In the hour the emissions intensity record was broken, wind represented over 30% and solar roughly 10% of all generation in the province.