Scaling Up Clean Electricity

This report by the Electrifying Canada task force outlines the requirements and barriers to scaling up Canada's clean electricity system to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It argues that current utility planning is insufficient to meet the projected demand growth and proposes five catalysts—including regulatory mandates and private investment—to accelerate the transition.

• Canada must at least double its total clean electricity generation by 2050 to support economy-wide electrification for net-zero goals. This growth is driven primarily by buildings (approximately 50%), transport (one third), and the industrial sector (10–15%).
• There is a significant gap between current utility planning and the requirements for decarbonization. While pathways suggest a need for 12%–25% more power by 2030, most utility plans fall short. Collectively, Canadian utilities plan for 40% growth by 2050, whereas net-zero pathways require 65%–115% growth.
• Three primary barriers hinder the scaling of clean electricity: demand forecasting and system planning that ignore net-zero requirements, a regulatory context that prioritizes low cost and reliability over climate targets, and the high capital costs of build-out which may increase electricity rates and impact affordability.
• Provincial governments are urged to modernize regulator and utility mandates to embed net-zero objectives. This would allow utilities to align supply planning with net-zero modelling and optimize the mix of non-emitting resources while maintaining safety and affordability.
• To address capital constraints and over-leveraged utilities, the report calls for public-private-Indigenous financing initiatives. This includes using public funds to mitigate risk and exploring models such as utility project equity partnerships and private power purchase agreements.
• Indigenous entities are already significant contributors to Canada's energy landscape, with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit entities as partners or beneficiaries of nearly 20% of the country's electricity-generating infrastructure, most of which is renewable.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2022). Scaling Up Clean Electricity. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/scaling-up-clean-electricity-en.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Scaling Up Clean Electricity. 2022. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/scaling-up-clean-electricity-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Scaling Up Clean Electricity |date=May 2022 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/scaling-up-clean-electricity-en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2022scaling, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Scaling Up Clean Electricity}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/scaling-up-clean-electricity-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }