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This week: Renewable energy developers drool at the prospect of greening prairie grids, Ottawa sharpens its pencil on innovation funding, and Quebec directs automakers and dealers to push electric vehicles—or pay the price.

Quebec Says Automakers Must Push Electric Cars 
(No, not Literally.)

Quebec introduced legislation that would require 15.5 per cent of all cars sold in the province by 2025 to emit no pollution whatsoever. The law would kick in as of 2018, and would apply to all manufacturers producing more than 4,500 vehicles a year. Those that don't measure up would need to either purchase credits from another manufacturer that has exceeded its quota or cough up a penalty to the province. The new policy, styled after one in California, is the centerpiece of the province’s plan to place 100,000 EVs on roads by 2020. Canada’s vehicle manufacturers and Quebec’s car dealers opposed the plan, claiming that “forcing electric vehicles onto dealer lots does not mean that consumers will purchase them.” (See Also: Association des Véhicules Électriques du Québec statement; text of bill en francais.)


2. Canada’s Next Big Clean Energy Market: The Prairies

The renewable power opportunity in Alberta and Saskatchewan could be worth $50 billion over the next 14 years, and the industry can't wait to start pouring concrete. That was the buzz at last week’s Alberta & Saskatchewan Renewable Energy Finance Summit.

3. Ottawa Rolls Out the Coin for Clean Energy Research

PM Justin Trudeau committed to double Canada’s clean energy research funding at COP21, as part of the Mission Innovation project. Last week, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr assigned a cash value to Ottawa’s investment: a decent $775 million by 2020.

4. Wind and Solar Ready to Go in Five Arctic Communities

Iqaluit and four other Nunavut communities could replace one-third of their diesel power with wind and solar generation today without spending more money than they spend on fuelling and maintaining the aging generators. So says a report out last week.

5. Jaccard: To Slash Emissions, Stop Burning So Much Gasoline

Carbon pricing may be effective climate policy, but politically speaking it remains highly problematic. In Policy Options, Mark Jaccard noted that governments can get similar reductions by growing the market for zero-emission vehicles, as Quebec aims to do.

6. Former Alberta Finance Minister Endorses Carbon Pricing Platform

In the Edmonton Journal, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission high-fived Alberta for its “stringent, cost-effective and sensible climate policy.” Commission Chair Chris Ragan and economist Bev Dahlby signed, along with former Alberta finance minister Jim Dinning.

7. New Study Questions Viability of Short-term Energy Storage 

Energy-storage facilities that are designed to park electrons for just a few hours only make economic sense under very stringent carbon rules, and even then, only at low storage penetration levels. So revealed Argonne National Laboratory and MIT in a new study.

8. Woynillowicz: Canada Needs to Court Renewable Energy Dollars

Our governments have powerful policy levers at hand, and need to be pulling on them to attract more renewable energy capital, Dan Woynillowicz writes in iPolitics. We'll dig into how Ottawa could turn green into gold at a panel discussion we're hosting in Canada's capital on Thursday.

9. Mining Sector Increasingly Turning to Wind, Solar, and Storage

Mines consume a lot of power—typically in remote locations and often under harsh conditions. Historically that’s created demand for diesel. But now the sector is scrutinizing renewable energy and storage, as costs for these technologies fall. Tyler Hamilton excavates the story.

10. Tackling Climate Change and Terrorism at Once

Democrats fear climate change, Republicans fear terrorism, but one energy solution accounts for both. Alexander MacDonald lays out the pros for an “underground energy interstate” that can provide low-carbon, low-cost electricity, hidden from threats (and opposition) above ground.

How to involve more women in the clean energy sector? The Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) women’s initiative has been working on that since 2010. Each year prominent women are added to the International C3E Ambassadors Corps, to network and serve as role models to younger professionals in the field.

Clean Energy Canada's Merran Smith was named among this year's new C3E ambassadors—along with other accomplished Canadian women. Find out who else joined the ranks.


IMAGE CREDITS 
Electric vehicle sign: David Megginson, Flickr. | Researchers: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Flickr. | Energy storage system: Portland General Electric, Flickr. 

Did you miss last week’s Clean Energy Review? Catch up here.

Clean Energy Review is sponsored in part by Genus Capital Management, a leading provider of fossil-fuel-free investments. 
Coming Attractions

FRONT BURNER: Joining us in Ottawa? Thursday June 9, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., we will be hosting The Attractiveness Index: How to Make Canada the Destination for Renewable Energy Investment at the Westin hotel. Register today, space is limited!

June 8-9: Dan Woynillowicz and Clare Demerse will be speaking at the Forum on Hydropower, hosted by the Canadian Hydropower Association in Ottawa, ON.
 
June 19-22: Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition, hosted by the Electric Drive Transportation Association in Montreal, QC.

June 22: Don't miss Crafting Canada's Clean Economy, a webinar hosted by Clean Energy Canada. Register today!

June 23: Technology Transfer—Putting Canada’s geoscience-based industries back to work, hosted by CanGEA in Calgary, AB.

September 9-11: Alberta’s Green Energy Doors Open 2016, hosted by Ontario Sustainable Energy Association in partnership with Decentralised Energy Canada, in Calgary and Edmonton.

Clean Energy Review is a weekly digest of climate and clean energy news and insight from across Canada and around the world—plus a peek over the horizon. It is curated by Dan Woynillowicz and written by James Glave, principal of Glave Communications. If you received this from a friend, you can subscribe yourself here.

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