Energy Plan - Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Energy
Warehouse
Newfoundland and Labrador has an abundance of oil, natural gas, hydroelectricity
and wind resources, as well as the potential to supply energy from other sources
such as uranium, biomass, hydrogen, wave and tidal.
Figure 2.1
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Energy Warehouse
This substantial inventory of energy sources makes this province an Energy
Warehouse. We have the ability to meet all of our own energy needs and still
provide significant energy for export to other jurisdictions where energy demand
also continues to grow.
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Some of the resources – oil and gas – are finite and non-renewable: when they are
depleted, they cannot be replaced. Other resources, such as hydroelectricity from
the upper and lower Churchill River and our wind resources, are renewable – they
are elements of our Energy Warehouse that are continuously replenished. The
total of our developed clean, renewable electrical generation plus our identified
additional potential is 18,000 Megawatts (MW). Today, we require only 2,400
MW annually to meet our own electricity needs. In addition, our discovered
and potential oil and gas resources total over eight billion barrels of oil and 70
trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. Untapped potential also exists in other
energy sources, such as wave and tidal energy, wood, peat, methane captured
from landfills and solar energy in some areas.