A 10 minute video from the provincial government’s energy monopoly corporation is titled “Innovation in Renewable Energy”.
So what’s so innovative about damming off a river to generate electricity and running transmission lines to market?
Why nothing at all, of course, and in the case of the Lower Churchill project, the ideas from transmission line running around Quebec to the entire project itself have all been around for about 45 years.
There’s even the highly unimaginative and incorrect claim that running a power line down to Soldier’s Pond will “displace” the diesel generators at Holyrood.
And the project is a heckuva long way from starting if the current trends continue.
The only real innovation mentioned is in the discussion of the Ramea wind-hydrogen-diesel test project.
But that’s one project, it’s a small project and it’s more than five years away from anything significant. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is much farther along in developing alternative energy technologies.
Maybe what the provincial government should be doing is figuring out a way to turn bullshit into energy. If that was the case, videos like this show they’ve already got a powerhouse that could displace the entire global output of greenhouse gases until the end of time.
At least when it comes to the Lower Churchill, the current administration has shown it is highly adept at recycling even if it’s complete lack of planning beyond what was done 20 years ago is painfully obvious.
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