As the west has oil and natural gas, and Quebec has hydro power, we have some of the best wind resources in the world. That’s the good news. The bad news is that those resources are largely untapped.

 

The catalyst for this column was some data points I read recently about electrical generating capacity. I bet few of you would have known that China now produces 2.5 times the amount of electricity as is produced in the United States. Alarmingly, this divide is projected to increase dramatically. In 2024 alone, China added 429 gigawatts vs. the U.S. at 51—nine times the amount. The numbers for Canada are worse. We are simply not keeping pace, far from it.

Though it still relies heavily on coal, China is now the largest generator of renewable or clean electricity in the world.

Why is this important, you might well ask? Electricity is at the heart of economic growth, and unless the amount of new electricity being offered to the market is consistent with the growth in demand, prices will rise, hurting both consumers and industrial competitiveness. That growth is lagging demand in both Canada and the United States.

Everyone knows the huge bet being made by the world on AI. At the moment, the U.S. is running at the head of the race to build large data centres (the largest new consumers of power) and the AI models which put that computing capacity to work. But others, especially China, are catching up quickly and the lead now enjoyed will be lost if new electricity generation doesn’t keep pace.

 

 

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