From water and home heating to cooking and clothes drying, propane provides essential energy solutions to help you save money and lower your carbon footprint.
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Propane is used daily by hundreds of thousands of Canadians from coast to coast to coast, from heating homes, drying crops, powering forklifts to transporting children to school.
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More than 280 communities in Canada–home to about 200,000 people–are not connected to the national electric grid and natural gas distribution pipeline systems that provide heat and light to homes and businesses across the country. The remoteness of these communities ranges from fly-in only to accessible by road–some gravel, some seasonally formed by ice.
Approximately one-third of these off-grid communities, accounting for over 100,000 residents, is in Canada’s northern territories. The remaining two-thirds of communities are located in every other province except the Maritimes provinces.
When energy infrastructure was erected many years ago in remote communities, diesel was the main option because it was the most economical at the time. Now, years later, many of these Indigenous and remote communities must continue to rely on aging diesel infrastructure for heating and power generation.
Diesel represents a variety of environmental, economic, technical, and social challenges, including:
A solar-propane hybrid energy system was installed in the remote First Nations community, Xeni Gwet’in in British Columbia’s Nemiah Valley, helping residents reduce their reliance on diesel-generated power.
There is an immediate opportunity to reduce GHG emissions in Indigenous, northern, and remote communities with solar and wind energy systems supported by lower-emission propane. Implementing a hybrid energy structure provides communities with low-emission energy that is reliable – even when the sun is not shining.
For example, due to its extreme latitude, Resolute Bay experiences polar day (also known as the “midnight sun”) during the summer and polar night during the winter when the sun does not shine. This means that during the summer months, solar would work well but would be useless in the winter months. This significant difference in sunlight levels between the summer and winter months impacts not only the extreme north but also Canada’s lower latitude communities.
Propane is excellent backup energy to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
While other energy options require largescale infrastructure spending or further technological development, propane is ready to go today.
Propane is unique compared to other alterative or low-emission energy sources – it can be delivered anywhere in Canada. Propane is more affordable than diesel and propane infrastructure in Canada is well developed, with tremendous capacity to produce and deliver an abundant supply that is highly portable via truck, rail, and pipeline across Canada. Today, propane is transported to, and used in, every corner of the country.
Combining propane with intermittent solar and wind systems to create a hybrid energy model provides communities with low-emission energy that is reliable. It is a realistic approach for continuous, reliable power supply. Propane is a lower-carbon alternative energy source that produces significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than most other energy sources. And unlike diesel, propane does not contaminate the ground if there is a spill or a leak.
The propane industry understands their customers’ unique needs and the environmental and physical challenges of delivering to remote areas. They understand the uniqueness of the culture, history and associated titles and rights of their customers in Indigenous, northern, and remote communities. Building a rapport and developing relationships with these communities is key to success.
The propane industry also understands the importance of supporting local business development and developing collaborative relationships with local agents. Staff live in and serve local communities to provide engagement at the local level. Capacity-building programs are also implemented to allow more opportunities for people within the communities they serve to gain education, training, and mentoring.
Working in partnership with Indigenous, northern, and remote communities, the propane industry can help to effect real change in reducing GHGs, providing for healthier and more prosperous communities.
There are 170 Aboriginal communities (First Nations, Innu, Inuit, or Metis) with about 126,861 people living in these sites (green dots) and 122 communities are cities, villages, or commercial outposts that are predominately non-Aboriginals (white dots) with about 67,420 people living in them. Source: Natural Resources Canada
Economic development in remote communities and investment that drives a healthy economy is hindered by the lack of infrastructure and the cost of doing business. The sea change will be partnerships between the government, suppliers, and the transportation industry to realize the goal of a cleaner energy future.
Propane is part of the solution – it is a low-emission energy source produced in Canada and ready to go today.
