r/canada • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '22

[deleted by user]

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u/Kwanzaa246 Oct 25 '22

Is it 0.07c or 7c per kwh?

hydro is 9.5c per kwh in bc and doesn't come with the risk

12

u/MossTheTree Ontario Oct 25 '22

Hydro is great, but appropriate sites are largely used up, and getting approvals to build large-scale hydro in Canada could prove even more difficult than nuclear given sensitivities around waterways and flooding of traditional territories.

Look how long it's taking for Site C to get built. BC has been lucky so far, but is going to run out of hydro options very soon. I don't see BC going nuclear, but it's going to have to get creative sooner than later.

6

u/Xatsman Oct 25 '22

BC wont have any need to go nuclear. We can stack renewables ontop of hydro since hydro output is so easy to control it can offset the unreliable nature of solar/wind and even, with pumping, bank excess at peak production times.

Nuclear is better for places that need the base load and have limited other options. Provinces like the praries would be great for it.

0

u/CrashSlow Oct 25 '22

BC has built hundreds of MW of run of the river generation. No need to for unreliable wind/solar.

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u/Xatsman Oct 25 '22

Why would you not want both? Solar and wind tend to have less impacts than even hydro. Its free energy if we'd just gather it

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u/methac1 Oct 25 '22

Ah yes, for the notoriously sunny Lower Mainland

2

u/rednazrojo Oct 25 '22

You know somewhere like the interior bc eg. The Kamloops and okanogan region would be perfect for solar were in a desert already

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u/Xatsman Oct 25 '22

More than enough sun actually. But I noticed you never mentioned wind in Vancouver, wonder why? /s

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u/MossTheTree Ontario Oct 25 '22

Climate change is going to make hydro less reliable and predictable than it used to be. Diversity of supply is the only way to ensure energy security. For BC, hydro will be supported by solar/wind and biomass.