Brad Wall said Saskatchewan would have 50% renewables by 2030!

[chuckChuck]

I am not Glen. So focus on the arguments.

You clearly said "easy to spend other peoples money"

The naysayers have been whining about subsidies to renewables since day 1.

But then seem to ignore the fact that fossil fuels, farmers and many industries get incentives and subsidies.

New solar and wind don't need subsidies any more because they are much cheaper than fossil fuels and nuclear options.

[furrowtickler]

No one ignores it , just those industries create massive wealth and tax money for millions in Canada and the government
probably 100x return

[chuckChuck]

They provide significant revenues but that is not an argument to choose more expensive options when lower cost options will do the job.

Subsidizing fossil fuels, coal and nuclear have significant costs.

The oil industry generates a lot of wealth because its very profitable. And those profits come from the transfer of wealth from consumers.

[furrowtickler]

Not in a winter in western Canada 24/7

[shtferbrains]

The oil industry generates a lot of wealth because its very profitable.

Did you see all those delegates from U.S States that Danielle Smith invited up to the Calgary Stampede Chuck?
From all over the USA right down to Alabama and the Gulf states.
Can she still be part of Team Canada if she is associating with all those terrible Americans?
MAGA for sure?

[shtferbrains]

The oil industry generates a lot of wealth because its very profitable.

I just can't get over that you noticed that Chuck.
One of Canada's greatest geographic gifts?
LPC and NDP tried to bury it for many yrs.
But even Carney, with all his Climate Crusader baggage seems to have realized it's his salvation?

[furrowtickler]

What interesting is that solar and wind generate very very little wealth in comparison and are just as environmentally suspect as oil / gas when one looks at the reality of mining critical minerals and disposal of expired solar panels and windmills.
but zero is acknowledged there

[chuckChuck]

You don't care about the environmental impacts of mining Furrow! Don't make shit up!

If you did you would have been concerned about it a long time ago before solar and wind were a threat to the dominance of the oil industry!

You want consumers and taxpayers to pay for the higher costs of of very profitable non renewable resources plus the cleanup afterwards?

Again none of you came up with what you would cut in the list of things governments do!

Just a lot of political rhetoric and hot air!

And wind energy works in cold weather! As if the wind doesn't blow in winter! LOL

Renewables and storage. Brad Wall said 50% renewables. They got cheaper and better since then but suddenly its only coal and nuclear in Saskatchewan?

[furrowtickler]

lol. Check out the consumer cost of electricity in Western Europe, especially the countries with the most “renewables” …. Then get back to us

[chuckChuck]

Furrow electircity prices are solely determined by a lot of policy differences not just the cost of generation.

So your generalization is not accurate.

For example in Spain

Regional Disparities: Countries with massive renewable penetration like Spain have seen wholesale prices decouple from gas, resulting in some of the cheapest rates in the EU. Conversely, countries heavily reliant on continued fossil fuel generation, like Italy, suffer from higher structural prices.


Wind and solar cut EU electricity prices by 24% – but gas still rules market

By Wester van Gaal ([url]https://euobserver.com/author/wester-van-gaal/[/url]), Amsterdam , 23 April 2026 07:30 T

The rapid build-out of wind turbines and solar panels across Europe has driven wholesale electricity prices down by an average of 24 percent over the past two years.

That is the central finding of a analysis ([url]https://www.datocms-assets.com/132494/1776758395-pmeu-renewables-price-report-v3.pdf[/url]) published by Positive Money, a Brussels-based advocacy group for financial reform.

Its author, Jordi Schröder Bosch, says accelerating wind and solar is the “low-hanging fruit” for bringing down power prices.

But he warns that gas still sets power prices in many EU markets most of the time, leaving consumers exposed to price shocks that grow more likely the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

A separate analysis ([url]https://energyandcleanair.org/eu-countries-with-cleanest-energy-mix-will-save-58-percent-more/[/url]) this week by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) puts concrete numbers on the gap between gas-reliant countries and cleaner ones.

Consumers in the five ‘cleanest-mix’ countries — Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden and Slovakia — stand to save up to €8.5bn this year, a full 58 percent more than their counterparts in the five most fossil-dependent countries (Poland, Italy, Greece, Estonia, the Netherlands).
How gas still sets the price

The mechanism at the heart of both studies is Europe’s merit-order pricing system, where prices are set by the hour. The most expensive source sets the wholesale price, which is usually gas.

Wind and solar cost almost nothing to run and are called up first. More renewables means fewer gas plants get called up.

On a very sunny afternoon or a windy morning, solar or wind can flood the grid and no gas is needed at all, at which point the link between gas and power prices breaks entirely.

This happens more often in countries with more wind and solar power. And the higher the share, the faster prices fall.

Positive Money’s analysis of hourly grid data found that in France, raising renewables from 10 percent to 20 percent of the load cut prices by 16 percent, but going from 25 to 35 percent cut them by 45 percent.
Winners, laggards and outliers

CREA’s analysis found that in 2025, electricity was eight percent less sensitive to gas prices than in 2022, which they put down to the EU’s transition towards renewables.

But there are large differences between countries. On average, a €1 per MWh rise in gas prices pushed power prices up by €0.37.
[ You are reading EUobserver Voice, a daily opinion piece by our staff writers. .]
In Sweden, where 99 percent of electricity comes from clean sources, the increase was just €0.04.

Spain and Portugal today are 53-percent less exposed to gas prices than three years ago, driven in large part by a 74 percent surge in solar capacity that now contributes roughly a fifth of total generation, equalling gas.