The government is encouraging Canadians to switch to EVs and heat pumps to fight climate change. But many CBC News readers have asked: won’t electrifying everything break the grid and drive up energy costs? Here’s what electricity operators and those researching the transition say.
All the other commenters seem quite optimistic, although I still have reservations
in my province (PEI) our government is doing a great job handing out heat pumps to pretty much anyone who asks. However I don’t see a sufficient investment in the supply side of this equation. Pretty much everyone I know who got a free heat pump is switching over from oil, meaning that the energy we were importing as oil is now being demanded from New Brunswick’s electrical grid. We do have solar incentives, (I think there’s a rebate + an interest free loan for sure), but maybe 1 in 8 of the people I know who installed heat pumps also installed solar.
I know it can be done, but I’m concerned that PEI doesn’t have a cohesive plan to address the demand we’re inducing.
moving to even oil-generated power to feed electric heat pumps keeps the oil in one place and not befouling residential land further with spills and normal mess with delivery and transport, and enables the second phase where we can switch to non-oil power by making it a single head-end swap.
nothing’s gonna drive the adoption of alternate power generation like a demand for power that doesn’t need to be oil specifically. Options allow for competing methods, which avoids monopolies, which gives better pricing, which allows upgrades.
Canada should add a tiny tiny tax onto fuel and use the proceeds to push for cleaner power generation and subsides for the heat pump adoption. … which I think we are, right? Genius.
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All the other commenters seem quite optimistic, although I still have reservations
in my province (PEI) our government is doing a great job handing out heat pumps to pretty much anyone who asks. However I don’t see a sufficient investment in the supply side of this equation. Pretty much everyone I know who got a free heat pump is switching over from oil, meaning that the energy we were importing as oil is now being demanded from New Brunswick’s electrical grid. We do have solar incentives, (I think there’s a rebate + an interest free loan for sure), but maybe 1 in 8 of the people I know who installed heat pumps also installed solar.
I know it can be done, but I’m concerned that PEI doesn’t have a cohesive plan to address the demand we’re inducing.
Yes, the plan now sucks. But, two things:
moving to even oil-generated power to feed electric heat pumps keeps the oil in one place and not befouling residential land further with spills and normal mess with delivery and transport, and enables the second phase where we can switch to non-oil power by making it a single head-end swap.
nothing’s gonna drive the adoption of alternate power generation like a demand for power that doesn’t need to be oil specifically. Options allow for competing methods, which avoids monopolies, which gives better pricing, which allows upgrades.
Canada should add a tiny tiny tax onto fuel and use the proceeds to push for cleaner power generation and subsides for the heat pump adoption. … which I think we are, right? Genius.