Author: Brian Zinchuk

What the minister has to say about the Sask First Act, and not freezing in the dark

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 39 Comments

Here’s a deep dive interview with the minister behind the Saskatchewan First Act.

“So let’s take let’s take the power thing first of all,” Eyre said, noting the proposed Clean Electricity Standard, if adopted in its current form, would mean no fossil fueled power generation in this province by 2035.
According to SaskPower’s Where Your Power Comes From website, on any given day, coal and natural gas combined provide 65 to 84 per cent of the power in Saskatchewan. On Nov. 6, it was 77 per cent.
Eyre said, “That’s a federal policy which we hope will never see the light of day, but which is moving along. We will freeze in the dark. And we know that. Saskatoon (is) powered by the Queen Elizabeth, a natural gas-powered power station. The entire City of Saskatoon (would be) in huge trouble.”

We don’t need no giant stinking fans. But we’re going to build a lot of them.

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 25 Comments
Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Party government sure seems to have some mixed messages when it comes to wind and solar power. We keep building more, and will build a lot more, but it turns out they don’t produce as advertised.

In two throne speeches on Nov. 2, one MLA spoke praises of SaskPower’s buildout. But another pointed out that you don’t get anywhere close to what the nameplate capacity is.

Our solar capacity is 20 and we were getting 2. You cannot run a province, you cannot run business, you cannot run industry, you cannot run people’s homes on that unreliability

 

Saskatchewan First Act is about keeping the lights on and letting farmers keep using fertilizer

Climate Cult youmightbeinsaskatchewan 38 Comments

The other media simply didn’t get it, or didn’t read the full text of the Saskatchewan First Act, introduced on Nov. 1. It’s all about Saskatchewan imposing its own veto on federal initiatives that, if carried out to their fullest extent, by 2035 will literally mean cutting off up to 84 per cent of our power production on any given day. Those rules will also mean less fertilizer usage meaning less food.

This is Saskatchewan swinging for the fences, constitutionally. Here’s Pipeline Online’s take on the Saskatchewan First Act.

Thou shalt not use coal for power generation post-2030, the federal government hath said. And it’s moving to do the same with natural gas by 2035. It also wants to limit farmers’ fertilizer usage, all in the name of climate change policies.

On Nov. 1, the Province of Saskatchewan said, “To hell with that,” but in a more sophisticated, legal manner.

Saskatchewan threw down the gauntlet with the federal government on Nov. 1, introducing Bill No. 88, The Saskatchewan First Act. If implemented in its current form, the Act basically says Saskatchewan will make its own decisions and rules on environmental standards, particularly those applying to greenhouse gas emissions and power generation.

And here is Zinchuk’s column interpreting it. His daughter wonders if we’ll be reduced to kerosene lamps.

SaskPower’s proposed 100 megawatt solar facility at Estevan, plus a bonus up to 10 megawatt pilot project on mined land

Climate Cult youmightbeinsaskatchewan 86 Comments
Multiply this by 10, and that will be Estevan’s new solar facility.

Estevan is getting not one, but two solar facilities.

ESTEVAN – SaskPower held a two day open-house regarding at proposed 100 megawatt solar facility on Oct-26-27 at the Estevan Legion Hall.

In actuality, it’s not just a single project of 100 megawatts, but two projects – a 100 megawatt solar facility and a secondary, up to 10 megawatt pilot project.

The 100 megawatt facility is to be built on seven quarters of land approximately 10 kilometres southwest of the Boundary Dam Power Station. While SaskPower has large swaths of reclaimed mine land in the area, this block of farmland was chosen because it was undisturbed. Building on disturbed land would mean the foundations would be more costly.

It’s seven quarters of land in total, 1,120 acres or 453 hectares. The land has been optioned, but has not yet been purchased. It falls within the southwest corner of the RM of Estevan, Township 1, Range 9, west of the second meridian.

And, of course

As for Estevan, when asked “What do you do when the sun goes down?” the SaskPower official said, “You don’t generate any solar power.”

European Parliament is wrong to endorse ‘fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty’

Climate Cult Ethical Energy Insufferable Twits 14 Comments
European Parliament. Image from Storyblocks, as licensed by Brian Zinchuk

The European Parliament is wrong to endorse ‘fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty’, writes Deborah Jaremko of the Canadian Energy Centre. In this column carried by Pipeline Online, Jaremko writes about these facts:

  1. The world needs oil and gas to function
  2. Europe’s largest economy is walking back on renewable energy
  3. Renewable energy is not reliable at scale to replace oil and gas
  4. The world’s growing population requires more energy, not less
  5. Canada is a responsible, reliable oil and gas supplier
  6. Canada’s natural gas can help the world get off coal  

Who gives a frac? That’s a really good question

Drill, Baby, Drill youmightbeinsaskatchewan 14 Comments
If you truly give a frac, this is what it looks like.

A huge reason behind Saskatchewan’s growth as a ‘have’ province was the advent of horizontal oil wells with multi-stage fracking, which had a substantial impact on oil production. And Crescent Point ended up with most of the fracked oil plays in Saskatchewan – the Bakken, Torquay and Shaunavon. But in what can only be considered a stunning move, Crescent Point announced on Wednesday that it’s trying to drill wells in the Bakken but not frac them.

 

Believe it or not, those giant stinkin’ fans actually did run near full capacity, for a day, in Saskatchewan

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 13 Comments
Giant stinkin’ fan at Assiniboia.

What do you know? Some days the wind does actually blow in Saskatchewan. And not from politicians talking, either.

This is an exceptionally rare occurrence where the 617 megawatts of wind power generation in Saskatchewan actually put out somewhere close to nameplate capacity. Who’d thunk it?

Beck says Moe doesn’t have a plan for when commodity prices fall

Political Animal youmightbeinsaskatchewan 31 Comments
Carla Beck at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show.

The Saskatchewan NDP had their first in-person convention this weekend, with new leader Carla Beck at the helm.

The province is also experiencing a resource windfall in potash, uranium and oil brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global supply issues. But Beck criticized Moe’s government for having no plan for when prices fall.

If everyone’s going to need batteries, the lithium might as well come from Saskatchewan

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 9 Comments
Prairie Lithium drilling the first lithium well in Saskatchewan. Pipeline Online

Saskatchewan is in the very early stages of lithium exploration and development. Say what you want about electric vehicles, everything from your iPhone to your laptop to yes, your EV, is going to require massive amounts of lithium. And Prairie Lithium of Emerald Park is the leader in this field.

Moe’s Drawing the Line: releases white paper with profound impact on energy.

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 37 Comments

It’s 6 a.m. and after pulling an all-nighter I am finally finishing writing these three pieces. Huge impact on energy policy in Saskatchewan, affecting oil, coal, nukes, farming, fertilizer, even manure. Moe even mentions possibility of carbon capture on Shand. But feds want to kill off all fossil fuel power generation by 2035. On Oct. 9, 82% of Saskatchewan’s power came from coal or natural gas.

Part 1

Drawing the Line: Saskatchewan releases white paper defining how federal climate change regulation is choking this province

Part 2

From food and fuel to cow crap: How 9 federal climate change policies will suck Saskatchewan dry over the next 12 years

Part 3:

Brian Zinchuk: There’s only one word for all the greenhouse gas programs the feds have or will impose on Saskatchewan: strangulation

 

Spinny things in Alta. produce 18 ten-thousandths of their capacity

Uncategorized 24 Comments
That’s nine minutes of battery power output from one of Alberta’s four expensive battery backups.

Saturday night, Alberta’s wind power collapsed, again.

But on Friday, wind in Saskatchewan actually had a good day, if you consider operating at one-third capacity good.

If you were taking out your turkey in Alberta Saturday evening to get ready for Thanksgiving, it’s almost certain your lights were not being powered by wind.

That’s because at 9:18 p.m. on Saturday, Alberta’s fleet of 29 wind farms capable of a nameplate capacity of 2,734 megawatts was contributing five megawatts. That’s 0.18 per cent. That’s 18 ten-thousandths of its capacity.

It also accounted for only 0.05 per cent of Alberta’s total power generation at that time, or five ten-thousandths of total power production. That’s only slightly more than solar, which was zero.

And those expensive batteries didn’t come to the rescue. But they did the day before – for 9 and 10 minutes apiece. And that was it for those 24 hours.

Spinny things don’t work for over 200 hours a month, says retired engineer from Alberta

Little Known Facts 21 Comments

From Pipeline Online: Letter to Editor: No matter how many wind farms are built, there will always be over 200 hours of zero wind power, says retired engineer

Perhaps of most concern is that there were 257 hrs (over 10 days in total) when the wind power output was zero – and the months of most ZERO hours are the coldest months when freezing temperatures are happening.  So the 2017 data confirms the earlier 2012 data – meaning that no matter how many wind farms are built, there will always be over 200 hours of ZERO wind power.  From an atmospheric viewpoint, whenever there are recurring periods of prolonged stable high pressure (such as frigid winter weather or summer heat waves) when there is also next to no wind – leading to no (or very low) wind power.

Ivan Purdy, P.eng, (retired)

Without coal, the lights would have gone out in Saskatchewan this week. The spinny things only put out 6% of their capacity

youmightbeinsaskatchewan 23 Comments
Boundary Dam Power Station

For months, Pipeline Online has been pointing out that Alberta puts out detailed data on its power grid, but SaskPower did not. Apparently others have been asking for the same information as well. Now, @SaskPower has responded. What does a day of power production look like in SK? Wind put out 6% of its capacity, and 2% of total generation. Coal provided 42% of total  power

REGINA – While it’s not the same minute-by-minute data provided by the Alberta Electric System Operator for their grid, SaskPower has begun breaking down where its power is coming from on a daily basis. And the data from Oct. 3 and 4 showed wind generated an average of just 7.3 per cent and 6 per cent of its rated capacity of 615 megawatts. And while the Crown corporation often points out that “conventional coal accounts for approximately 24 per cent of SaskPower’s total generation capacity,” on those days, coal was providing an average of 42 per cent of the power in this province.

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