The United States' aggressive new carbon emissions rules could provide plenty of opportunities for Canadian companies that specialize in energy infrastructure, efficiency or renewable technologies.
“The big question is, maybe this is the ultimate opportunity for all of us in North America to upgrade our electricity grid,” Werner Antweiler, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, told Business in Vancouver.
“If you want to have more renewables, if you want to have more electricity trading from north to south, then we need to invest in this infrastructure, and there are many Canadian companies that can benefit from this.”
The Environmental Protection Agency on June 2 announced the plan to cut carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector by 30% by 2030, based on 2005 levels. The plan is expected to push American energy companies to find alternatives to coal-fired power plants, which currently provide 38% of the nation's electricity.
It will be up to the individual states to decide how to achieve their emissions reductions, which may lead to a wide array of different technologies being chosen, Antweiler said.
“Some may favour all renewable energy like wind and solar; others may say, ‘We're going to build a couple of nuclear power plants,'” Antweiler said, adding that improving energy efficiency is another way utilities could cut emissions.
An example of one B.C. company that may benefit from the policy change is Alterra, which specializes in wind farm development, Antweiler said.
Travis Stevenson, president of Vancouver-based JTS Utility Consulting, expects the new rules to open up opportunities for his company. JTS works with traditional utilities companies that want to integrate new technologies, like smart meters, into their infrastructure.
The policy has been attacked by critics who say it will cause electricity prices to rise. Costs will likely rise, Stevenson said, but that increase will happen with or without the strict new emissions rules.
“A lot of the infrastructure was built 30 or 40 years ago,” Stevenson said. “Utilities are having to replace that, and now they're having to take into consideration how the electrons are being generated.”
