Tuesday 4 August 2015

Canada’s hydropower capacity ‘to reach 85GW by 2025’

The total installed capacity of hydropower in Canada is forecast to rise to around 85GW in the next decade.

That’s an increase from 77.6GW last year, according to a new report.

It predicts hydropower to remain the dominant energy source in Canada’s energy mix by 2025.

The report expects the renewable source to provide around 49.4% of the nation’s installed capacity by the end of the forecast period.

Other green sources such as wind, solar, biomass and biogas are expected to contribute 34.9GW of capacity – or 20.3% of the share.

Wind and solar power alone are forecast to contribute 24.9GW and 6.9GW by 2025.

Chiradeep Chatterjee, GlobalData’s Senior Analyst covering Power said: “Canada is a global leader in hydropower generation, with the technology favoured as a low-cost base-load power source that does not emit greenhouse gases.

“While installed hydropower capacity is expected to increase at a modest Compound Annual Growth Rate of 0.7%, a number of large hydropower projects are currently in the construction phase and the country has the infrastructure in place to cope with more than double its current hydropower capacity.”