Alberta used to rely on coal for the majority of its electricity generation but, for the first time in decades, its power grid has gone without any input from the two remaining coal plants in the province.
For several brief periods in 2024, those plants contributed zero electricity to the province’s grid, according to data from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).
The first coal-free period came on Feb. 2.
For 11 hours that day, the grid drew no power from the Genesee 1 or Genesee 2 coal plants west of Edmonton.
It happened again in early March, says Blake Shaffer, an economist with the University
