REGINA — Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says 50 per cent of the province's power will come from renewable sources by 2030.
The announcement is officially scheduled for Monday, but Wall slipped in the details while answering questions in the legislature about the province's position on climate change.
Wall said he believes the goal is achievable.
"The conveyance for that will be solar and wind and some geothermal and we'll get into some specifics around that. I think there's a lot hope around all of those," Wall said Wednesday.
"What will be relatively new is the emphasis and the focus on solar power. In the last number of years, I think there's been pretty good advancements in technology."
Wall noted that solar panels are being installed on many homes in the southwestern United States. That also allows homeowners to feed power back onto the grid if they generate more than they need. It's called net metering.
Ontario's Hydro One has a net-metering program that allows customers who generate electricity for their own use from a renewable energy source such as wind, solar or biomass to send electricity to the distribution system.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, Saskatchewan with three per cent of Canada's population accounts for 10 per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions. Most come from the oil and gas sector and electricity generation.
Just three per cent of Saskatchewan's power came from wind last year, according to SaskPower. Forty-four per cent of Saskatchewan's power came from coal.
"We just think because of the advancements in renewable technologies, the mix towards renewables can be much greater. We want it to be greater. We need it to be greater because, as you know, we have high emissions per capita in this province," said Wall.
The premiers meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau next week to discuss Canada's climate-change plans ahead of an international climate summit in Paris.
Jennifer Graham, The Canadian Press
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