A new report projects that if Canada is to meet future electricity demand affordably and reliably, 70% of new capacity through 2050 will come from wind, solar, and battery storage. The analysis highlights billions in investment opportunities and hundreds of thousands of jobs tied to renewable energy growth.

The 2025 Renewable Energy Market Outlook—a “Canadian report for a Canadian market”—offers a clear price outlook for wind, solar, and battery storage technologies across the country, giving policymakers and energy planners a benchmark to compare their costs and competitiveness, say its authors from the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) and Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors.

It evaluates onshore wind, utility-scale solar, and utility-scale battery storage, but not other clean energy technologies like offshore wind, alternative energy storage, or behind-the-meter resources. By one simplified model in the report, which does not consider policy or emissions constraints, 70% of the new electricity capacity needed to meet Canada’s future demand will come from onshore wind, utility-scale solar, and battery storage.

Canada has roughly 150 gigawatts of installed generation capacity overall, predominantly hydro, plus fossil fuels and nuclear—and in smaller degrees, wind, solar and storage, Dunsky partner Ahmed Hanafy explained at the launch. That needs to more than double by 2050, to around 300 to 350 gigawatts. “What’s really exciting here is, if you look at where that growth is coming from… it’s really those three technologies, wind, solar and storage: These account for 70% of all new supply that has to be built in Canada between 2025 and 2050 if we want to meet emerging load needs in an affordable and reliable way.”

The report factors local conditions to show how renewable energy deployment varies across jurisdictions. It considers energy technologies in five key markets—British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Alberta has been a “clear leader” in renewables growth over the last five years, but the turmoil of the provincial moratorium introduced in August 2023 created significant uncertainty and is threatening higher costs and reduced revenues for renewable projects there, the report authors say.

Ontario is “on the edge of significant change,” the report says, as the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator’s recent energy procurement windows will greatly increase capacity—though the procurements have been “technology agnostic” to include non-renewable sources.

Quebec, too, has signalled a significant increase in capacity, with recent announcements for up to 11 gigawatts of new wind capacity and commitments to purchase 3,000 megawatts of solar power by 2035.

Onshore wind capacity is ramping up in Atlantic Canada, and there is great opportunity to capitalize on offshore wind resources there, say the report authors. Meanwhile, British Columbia is seeking to add more wind and solar.

Technological advancements and declining costs for wind, solar, and storage are expected to continue in the short to medium term, Dunsky partner Ahmed Hanafy told the launch. Those falling costs will likely level out in time due to factors like inflation, or labour and supply chain bottlenecks.

The report also sheds light on a promising “economic story of renewables,” Hanafy said. Overall net investment opportunities are expected to reach as high as $14 to $20 billion of per year for wind, solar, and storage—adding up to “something in order $143 to $205 billion investment that will be injected into Canadian economy” over the next 10 years, as well as employment benefits on the order of 250,000 to 350,000 direct and indirect full-time equivalent job-years.

This is not just “a feel good story” for the economy and climate, Hanafy said. “These are resources that will contribute significantly to an affordable electricity system and also unlock billions of dollars of investments to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and support our long-term prosperity as a country.”