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BC imported 1/5th of it's power in 2023, partially because hydro dams could not operate at capacity due to the drought. Much of this power came from non-renewable sources.
BC Hydro has a total production capacity of 12,049 MW from a mix of renewable and non-renewable sources
Site C will provide 1100MW
The largest solar farm in Alberta is rated at 465MW at peak, likely 30% will be the average so say 139.5MW and takes up 3300 acres (CoV is 28,170 acres)
The average nuclear reactor produces 900MW
There are usually 5 reactors per plant in Canada, so 4500MW total
It is estimated that 500MW of power can power a factory that can sequester 7.9 million tons of CO2. 5078 factories would cancel out world CO2 emissions (564 4500MW nuclear plants).
LNG Canada up in Northern BC requires 400MW of power to power turbines for the chilling process, they have switched to powering them using gas because BC is unable to meet their energy demands (both transmission and power).
It is estimated that potential customers up north require 3000MW of power
It was estimated in 2019 that BC will need to increase capacity by around 50% by 2050 to meet climate goals such as the transition to electric vehicles. This was before there was additional need by LNG up north.
BC needs around 10-15 Site C's to power our future energy demands and completely switching over to renewable power sources. There are few good sites for hydro dams left with Site C already posing major issues. Not to mention hydroelectric energy is weather-dependent.
My personal opinion is that besides a possible geothermal site up in the north east, BC's only good option is nuclear power. Solar requires sun and large amounts of flat land, its more efficient to build it in the US or Alberta/Sask which has more sun and flat plains. It isn't windy enough here and there's too many mountains blocking the wind. While it is a earthquake zone on the coast, in the interior is relatively safe and Japan has managed fine despite being in an active earthquake zone.
If we want to meet our climate goals, clean nuclear energy in mass is a must. One plant will increase our power generation by a third and make us climate independent.
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