Energy Resources in Saskatchewan: Dealing with a Changing Climate
Why should we be concerned about the effects of a changing climate on energy resources?
Human and economic activities require a reliable supply of energy. Energy sectors that are sensitive to climate include oil and gas exploration, production, refinery, transportation, and storage, as well as the generation and management of hydropower, wind, solar, biomass and other renewable sources of energy.
Both energy demand and supply are affected by climate. Demand for energy is partly driven by temperatures that affect space heating and cooling for residential and commercial buildings and vehicles as well as agricultural applications (e.g. irrigation and grain drying).
What are some climate change impacts that are expected for energy resources?
Decreasing contributions from glaciers and snow-cover to stream-flows are expected and would exacerbate water shortages for hydroelectric generation. Glacial flows are especially important in drought years.
More frequent and severe heat waves in summer would increase the demand for electricity for air-conditioning.
Warmer and shorter winters mean less demand for space heating.
Warming of surface waters of cooling reservoirs for thermal electric generation will tend to decrease their quality and quantity, and increase the need monitoring and treatment.
Changes in the wind and cloud regimes will affect renewable sources such as the production of wind, solar, and biomass energy.
Electricity transmission lines are susceptible to extreme weather events such as high temperatures and ice-storms. Such events could decrease the reliability of the electricity service and have ripple effects on other industries and activities dependent on electricity.
Longer and warmer summers mean reduced exploration, drilling, and construction costs. Heat waves, however, bring increased health risks for field operators and increased risks of air pollution.
Exploration, maintenance and other activities that require frozen surfaces for operation would be constrained by shorter and milder winters.
Infrastructure developed by the energy sector (e.g. dams, reservoirs, generating units) has long lifetimes. These infrastructure would be vulnerable to considerable climate change during their lifetimes.
Environmental remediation activities may be negatively affected by increasing droughts
Infrastructure for supporting pipelines to transport oil and gas will be affected by changing climatic conditions, especially the varied temperature and increased extreme events.
Infrastructure for supporting oil and gas storage facilities will be affected by changing climatic conditions.
How can energy resource managers and energy users adapt to decrease the negative effects of climate change and increase the positive effects? Types of adaptation include institutional, structural, behavioral, and research. Ideas for adaptation include:
Find out what climate changes are occurring now and estimate the effects
Find out more about future climate change trends (link with the climate change section) and their possible effects
Estimate how sensitive your operations or systems are to climate-induced changes in energy demands as well as water availability and supplies (timing, amounts, and quality)
Test and evaluate your options to determine which management practices work the best in a changing climate
Use improved safety procedures to deal with effects of extreme weather events such as destructive wind storms, heat waves, intense rain storms and floods
Improved communication between energy and climate/environmental researchers to enhance the knowledge of possible impacts of climate change and ways to facilitate adaptation
Factors to promote adaptation include cooperation among industries, system component interactions and policy adjustments.
Conduct effective long-term planning of various human activities under the changing climatic conditions, where multiple economic, environmental and resources objectives need to be addressed.
Work towards building a flexible and resilient energy management system that will be able to cope with change and surprise.
Government of Canada's Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program provides funding for research and activities to improve our knowledge of Canada’s vulnerability to climate change, to better assess the risks and benefits posed by climate change and to build the foundation upon which appropriate decisions on adaptation can be made.
