Different jurisdictions use different sources for power generation. B.C., Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon typically generate over 80% of their electricity from hydroelectricity. Ontario, New Brunswick, and NWT rely on various combinations of nuclear, hydro, wind, biomass, coal, natural gas, and petroleum–although not all provinces or territories use all of them. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Nunavut generate most of their electricity fromfossil fuelssuch as coal, natural gas, or petroleum.
Generation from wind farms and solar photovoltaic panels grew from a negligible amount in 2005 to approximately 5% of total electricity generation in 2019.
In 2019, Canada’s wind power capacity was roughly 13.2 gigawatts (GW). Most of the wind facilities in Canada are in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
In 2019, Canada’s had about 2.9 GW of solar power capacity, the majority installed in Ontario. New large solar farms planned, under construction, or completed inAlbertaandSaskatchewanare expected to result in Canada’s installed solar capacity growing to 3.6 GW by 2022.
In 2019, Canada produced 632.2 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. More than half of the electricity in Canada (60%) is generated fromhydro sources. The remainder is produced from a variety of sources, including natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal,biomass, solar, and petroleum (Figure 2). In 2020, Canada had thefourthlargest installed capacity of hydropower in the world.
