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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

> Because of that, the country has an abundance of geothermal renewable sources that account for much of the necessary energy to make the country successfully function.

>Also, Costa Rica can get a lot of rain. With consistent rainfall, their hydroelectric plants can produce a plethora of energy.

While wind and solar get most of the headlines, it seems that geothermal and hydroelectric are actually more useful in going completely carbon-free because they can produce a consistent base load. Win

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Practically everywhere that it's possible to put a hydro dam, there's already a hydro dam.

Traditionally it's been one of the most cost effective and technologically simple sources of electricity, only in more recent years have other sources such as PV solar started to edge it out.

Quebec gets most of its eletric power from hydroelectric sources (95%), while Ontario gets >60% from nuclear and 26% from hydroelectric. It's wild to compare the breakdown compared to western, oil-rich provinces which are basically 50-50 natural gas and coal-powered.

It's also depressing to see how electricity is a distant third to gas and other petroleum products in terms of energy demand - even though the eletric supply is almost 100% renewabe, all those transport trucks and cars far outweigh it.

https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-markets/pr...

Based on this page, Quebec is 99.8% renewable.

I can confirm that we have no brown-outs. Also - We have a mix of very cold and warm weather, so are consuming lots of energy for heating in winter. - Hydro-Quebec, state-owned utility has a stellar record for maintenance, coverage and capacity management. It also send money back to the gov to support social programs. - Even with all that our electriciyy cost for consumers,,entre rpsies, and industrial is one of the lowest in the world.

https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-commoditie...

> "We have a mix of very cold and warm weather, so are consuming lots of energy for heating in winter"

Are heat pumps / electric heating widely used in Quebec yet? When I lived in Ontario, despite having a very clean grid (nuclear, hydro, wind) and relatively low electricity prices, pretty much every house/building had oil or gas heating. Seems like Scandinavia and Northern Europe are a bit further along in electrification of heating.

Oil heating's days are essentially over.

Still lots of natural gas heating though.

There is a lot of room for greening at the point of service through geothermal and the like, lots of room for efficiency improvements too. The economic incentives are aligned as well, every ounce of savings in-province means export dollars in on green energy exports.

>While wind and solar get most of the headlines, it seems that geothermal and hydroelectric are actually more useful

They've been around for longer.

Solar and wind are crazy cheap but they haven't been cheap for that long.

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