I was commenting on @cynicaloldgit holding his breath to 2030! 
As for your reply, it all depends on who does the math. Nevertheless, its still a material point, its always by a certain date in the future, never in close time. But why will Alberta be unhappy, its such a joyous wilderness. Thats where Iād live BTW if I could get over there.
I reckon heās started already.
Alberta is Canadaās Saudi Arabia. No sales tax, low provincial income tax, and social spending funded with oil royalties funded by production that is underwater at about $70/bbl on average. Their economy is therefore a complete mess now, with the price of oil about $20 below that, revenue has dried up. A shift in demand away from oil in Canada presents structural challenges.
Agree about the country though. Friend of mine has a family ranch, 96 square miles near Magrath (south of Lethbridge if that means anything to you) just north of the US border. I got to spend time there when I was involved with the wind farm project at Pincher Creek to the west about 60km. It is supposedly the largest expanse of original prairie never to have been plowed. Just oceans of waving tall grass. His family raises organic beef and pasture their herds, wondering if they might see a bison hybrid here and there. Incredible place, I had no real idea what those grasslands were really like until I rode in them. I had pictured endless grass fields, just tall grass on soil. It isnāt like that at all. The different species create different layers of density, different habitats over perhaps 1.5 meters with a phenomenal number of birds in particular. I had no idea how much life there was in those grasslands - which is what was lost to the plow through most of the rest of the North American prairie.
The one downside is that biologists have identified 96 different grass and similar species on their ranch - I must have been allergic to at least 94.
Iām quite envious. Iād read Calgary vies for the worlds top 3 cities to live in, and with the mountains near by, it seems quite enticing. I think I also read it can be the coldest part of southern Cananda, because of the prairie wind, but whats not to like with a major conurbation named Medicine Hat. And the grass, funny youād mention that in Canada, not the weed, but yeah I used to suffer heavy grass hay fever. I will get there one day, loratadine and all.
Calgary is a nice place, though the politics can be weird. The mountains are wonderful - it actually gets colder further to the east, Saskatchewan is colder. But the cold in the West is so dry it doesnāt cut the same way, -30 C in Calgary is surprisingly bearable, feels like death in Ontario. You just donāt transfer heat out as efficiently out there. Plus, they have the Chinook, a warm wind that comes down out of the Rockies and can raise the temperature in Calgary by as much as 40 deg C in a matter of hours, melting all the snow in the area. Di Caprio mistakenly attributed that to climate changeā¦
My favourite place to ski is in that part of the world, just over the border in BC, place called Fernie. Proper mountain town, you donāt go there for the aprĆØs-ski, there are a couple of good restaurants and the like, but nothing on a European center or the polished Intrawest resorts. People go there because of the absurd dumps of champagne powder, no lift lines and a huge mountain. Some of my favourite vacations ever - one of those indulgences I wonder about the morality of now.
Added to the bucket list!!!
Saw this today. Sounds quite a positive move on the face of it.
Regarding eating meat, points 1-6 are irrelevant if you eat British beef. Point 7 I can live with:
British beef is a better option, of course, but still far from perfect. We still need to clear land for pasture and cattle still produce huge amounts of methane. And then thereās the transportation, etc.
But if that land is already clear itās not an issue. Plus think about all the happy frolicing cows who get a happy life in green fields before getting bolt gunned and served with mustard and Yorkshire puddings. As for transport, thatās true for all foodstuffs. Iām sure something can be added to their diet to reduce the methane. Certainly works with me, ermā¦ Granted Iām not a ruminant but the chemistry is similar.
I have a simple issue with things being restricted / banned. They never come back. The trick is responsible usage. Governments will just add tax to restrict use (and my word will they be doing a lot of that in the coming years). The EV argument maddens me as thereās this idea that electric cars (subsidised by the government) emit no harmful polutants. Glad that the electricity grown on treees.
Said it before, ring the equator in solar panels. A massive job requiring millions of people and trillions of pounds. Worth it though on many levels. Needs worldwide co-operation but once complete, energy problem is done.
Has anybody ever come across any potential problems to the environment with regard wind power and solar? Surely on mass they must affect the planet somehow?
The problem is that the vast majority of people are not responsible.
Cows fart mate
Stop taking them out for curries.
PV seems fairly benign so far.
Wind is a little more problematic. Siting has to be very careful with respect to migratory bird paths, and no matter where they are, there will be significant bird kill - once the blades get up to rotation speeds where we cannot see them, birds cannot either. They are at least as bad as large glass buildings for bird kill. Wind turbines are also hard on bat populations, which do not have a problem with glass buildings. At the Pincher Creek project I noted above, it was discovered that the resonant frequency of the turbines at a wind speed of approximately 11 m/s was incredibly destructive for bats, causing internal organ failure even at a distance, rather than from collision.
Would have been nice if they had announced that this would be diverted to renewable enery and enery storage projets.
Btw it looks like this has been in the pipeline for a while, a massive increase is resgistered in 2017 indicating that projets were sped up. So something seriouly envisaged since 2016. I believe it was a TAX relief scheme.
I am sure āourā government already is āaidingā renewable energy projets a boost of ācashā wouldnāt hurt though.
Am I right in saying that the turbines are built using large quantities of aluminum.
From my old secondary school days aluminum production is not exactly that environmentally friendly, requiring large quantities of electricity for the electrolysis process.
I donāt know how it balances or if productions methods have moved on though.
No, because itās aluminium. 
Actually, most blades these days are composites of one form or another, mixes of carbon fiber, epoxy, polyester and glass fibre. Aluminium is really only used in older technology, too much mass for the blades. The towers are usually largely steel.
That said, aluminium production using electricity doesnāt make it environmentally unfriendly - Canadaās industry is centered on Quebec, which has a 97%+ hydroelectric grid. That is actually down from a decade ago, because they wanted to add PV and wind to what was close to 100% hydroelectric. The only fossil fuel usage is for remote communities (diesel) and some CCGT assets for peaking and shaping. One of those is actually dedicated to the main Rio Tinto Alcan plant, but runs just a few hours per year. Most of the CCGT is essentially for export purposes, to maintain power quality in the lines that export hydroelectric power to New England and New York. Hydroelectric is the standard - to the point that consumers refer to the āhydro billā rather than the electricity bill, and utilities are generally named āXXX Hydroā.
That post covers quite a bit.
The methane could be used as fuel however the best beef comes from cattle that has been out to pasture so collecting it could be a problem. As for reducing farting that would be some fantastic feat sort of completely changing the bacterial flore in their stomachs and at the same time killing off the bacteria responsible. Getting the nutrients from grass just isnāt easy. Of course we could go down intensive farming routes seen in the USA and control what they eat (would be interesting to see studies on this between different farming methods) oh and of course in the USA they add anti-biotics to much of the feed stuff (also can increase muscle production).
Yes responsible farming has been a big campaign here in France, hasnāt got very far though the big land owners just are not interested. Then thereās the transportation where theoretically things can be transported 3 times across France before even getting on a supermarket shelf. Short circuit is promoted but hasnāt caught on either.
What amazes me is that new houses donāt come with solar panels intalled surely thatās the way forward.
Both wind farms and solar panels take up an incredible amount of space. Solar panels are placed in fields and is a better resource to small holders than actually growing food yet we have acres of roofs, how difficult can it be?
Solar panel production has a number of very toxic stages as we know from other industries this can become a massive problem in the long term and by the time itās really regulated properly itās often too late.
My major concern over wind power is locating them in inappropriate areas where there return is poor yet they take up and blight what could be a very nice big park.