Electric Vehicles

An array of new tax credits for clean energy development and a pledge to secure Canada’s place in a global green economy are at the centre of this year’s federal budget, released Tuesday afternoon by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, with an estimated $80 billion in multi-year funding for mostly clean energy technologies.

Canada and the United States will work together to develop critical mineral supply chains, coordinate efforts on net-zero grid development and electric vehicle charging networks, advance long-duration energy storage, measure and monitor methane and carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, and promote trade in products like green steel and aluminium in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa March 23-24.

A stark choice between climate stability and global devastation is the constant drumbeat from a landmark report released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years,” the UN agency states in its Sixth Assessment Report.

Drastically reducing fossil fuel consumption while scaling up renewable energy and energy efficiency is the quickest but also the most affordable path to the rapid, deep emission reductions that can get the climate emergency under control, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes in its synthesis report released Monday.

More than 1,550 community solar, battery storage, and hydrogen firms in the United States were rushing to regroup after last week’s collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which had issued them billions of dollars in operating loans.

How is it possible that a year of new solar and wind installations can already deliver more than twice the total peak power capacity it took Canada a century to build? In this book excerpt, author and investigative journalist Paul McKay says it’s partly because renewable production costs per unit are going down as scales and sales go up.

Alberta’s ability to thrive and attract investment in a world shifting to low-carbon energy will depend on the climate and energy policy choices it makes in the weeks leading into this spring’s provincial election and beyond, the Calgary-based Pembina Institute warns in a 23-page policy roadmap released last week.

Toronto-based battery recycler Li-Cycle has landed a conditional US$375-million loan from the United States Department of Energy, based on its plans to build a new plant in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

Ontario is exploring the possibility of building new, large-scale nuclear plants in order to meet increasing demand for electricity and phase out natural gas generation.

A new report chalks out pathways for the United States to heavily reduce the amount of mined lithium it needs to decarbonize transportation and sidestep “irreversible harms” to water, air, and animal habitats—especially near Indigenous lands.