• Sir_Osis_of_Liver@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    New Brunswick had a program in the 1970s/80s to get people to switch to electric home heating due to the oil shocks. That was far more ambitious than what is being proposed here.

    Edit. I was curious, so I looked up recent numbers for home heating in NB, as it’s the area I’m most familiar with.

    From 2000-2020, the number of residences increased by 46,000 (285,000 to 331,000). Overall, 72% of which are detached houses. The market share of electric heating went from 57% overall to 79% in those 22 years.

    New generation was limited to ~400MW nameplate of wind and one 250MW combined cycle natural gas plant, while several older coal/heavy oil units were mothballed, so overall output hardly changed.

    There are a lot of places that grew a lot faster. Yet, the power stayed on.