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I don't know where you got your information from about the rivers in Canada accounting for 10% of global freshwater but it isn't true. I think you need to do some more indepth research about the current facts.
You want to know where that 10% of global freshwater is in Canada? It isn't in the rivers or lakes and it isn't in the Arctic tundra which is just a desert of scraped down rock and crushed gravel. The water is in the saturated peat sponge called muskeg that covers more than half to two-thirds of Canada. And the muskeg is not easily accessible by any means except in the 6 months of winter when the saturated sponge is completely frozen solid and that's including frozen through the 15 feet of frozen ground to the solid rock beneath the muskeg so it's safe to use in winter as ice roads. When the muskeg thaws in late spring it reverts back to being a soupy peat sponge that is rather like quicksand that sucks you under the peat and smothers or drowns you. You can't walk on it without sinking through it let alone take any kind of vehicles or equipment onto it. It can't be filtered and it can't be pumped because it is like a soup of muck.
The freshwater that is in the rivers and lakes in Canada is not much and it comes from snow melt after each winter and then gradually drains and runs dry through the dry months. Now the snow precipitation that provides annual snow melt is becoming less and less each year because of increasingly worse hot, dry climate changes, and the glaciers in the Rocky Mountains are all disappearing, many are already gone now. Every summer now Canada experiences extreme drought on the prairies and Canada's forests become conflagrations of wildfires every year, the wildfires are so much bigger and worse that what happens in California it's unimaginable.
Don't look to Canada for spare freshwater, there is no longer any to spare.
If you want freshwater, pipe it or ship it down from Alaska and then pump it into reservoirs. You can transport it just the same way that all that oil from Canada gets transported to America. There is no other alternative except desalination of sea water. Alaska has a population of only 732 thousand people and it has a far greater abundance of more snow and ice and freshwater than all of Canada could ever have provided in the past when it used to have lots of fresh running water. If everyone in America uses your energy and your water wisely and rationed very, very, very conservatively without any extravagances allowed you will all manage to survive.
Thanks, that is, or at least was, accurate information at the time it was posted. The only problem I have with it is that it is now so very out of date (it's from 2013) with regard to water flow and how much water is actually available now. That has all changed in the past 9 years, nothing is the same now as it used to be, particularly with regard to the extreme climate changes that have happened in Canada in the past 7 years and the severe droughts, fires, abnormal flash floods and temperatures that have now impacted all of the western half of Canada and many parts of eastern Canada. My own province (B.C.) especially has been most severely impacted by the climate changes. This to the extent that all agriculture and livestock farming as well as infrastructures throughout the province have been damaged and remain at very high risk with no end of it in sight. That goes for the Columbia river too, which is sourced out of Canada and which parts of western USA have taken for granted and become so reliant on.
My whole point is that everything has changed in Canada, water availability has changed because it isn't there as it once was. More to the point regarding your comment about America buying bulk water from Canada for America's energy purposes, it cannot and will not happen. In 2010 the Canadian provincial and federal governments signed a water protection and conservation accord that states that no Canadian bulk water can be sold or exported out of the country. Not to anybody anywhere, not for any reason.
So America needs to learn to conserve, protect and use its own water and energy resources more wisely and responsibly and not count on being entitled to buy or appropriate it from Canada. Trade agreements between Canada and USA cover a lot but do not extend to Canadian water under any circumstances. If America wants freshwater to put towards energy production and won't take water from Alaska you still have the options of piping the water from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, cleaning it up and using that instead of letting all of it dump out into the Gulf of Mexico as run-off effluent that causes dead zones in the Gulf. And of course there is desalination of sea water. America already has over 1,400 desalination plants installed and up and running with many more constructions of desalination plants and pumping stations and pipelines in the works for right across the country.
Just one more comment: Why import water to make electricity when it is far easier and less expensive to simply import the ready-made electricity itself?
I didn't see it addressed here so I don't know if you are aware that Canada is already a net exporter of a lot of electricity to USA and has been for many years. There is plenty of electricity to purchase from Canada. USA and Canada have been working together for years at integrating the imports and exports of electricity to and from each other.
The following report is from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, published in 2017 it goes into some comprehensive details and with graphs showing the relationship between the two countries with regard to their respective amounts of import/export trade in electricity. You can also likely find more up-to-date details about Canada's current exports of electricity to USA if you do a search online.
It's going to take many many years to transition from fossils to renewable. Might not even be possible to completely transition. At least not in this century
Take for example, wind power. It's probably the biggest farce that's been perpetuated. A home owner can get a wind power generator, and that's pretty decent, but these large wind farms that we have all over Texas, New Mexico, etc... this is a waste.
Small homeowner wind turbines are not particularly efficient at producing actual power.
The formula for the electric power generated by a wind turbine is P = π/2 * r² * v³ * ρ * η
where
π = pi
r = radius of the swept area
v = velocity
p = air density
η = efficiency factor
Note that power generated is a function of the square of the radius of the turbine (r²) and the cube of the velocity of the wind (v³). That's why (a) you want a very large radius wind turbine, and (b) you want high wind speeds which means up high (not close to the ground). But you still want air density (p) so putting them on top of a mountain at 10,000 feet elevation works against you and putting them at close to sea level works in your favor.
...but no raptors....We won't mention that the "2 billion" figure is as gross lie.....If everyone in the country owned an outdoor cat (350 million), each of them would have to kill 6 birds/yr to reach 2 bill...I have 4 barn cats who like to stalk around my dozen shepard crook bird feeders which are visited 100s of times per day, every day of the year...Maybe they kill 3 birds a yr among them...and thatjust serves to thin the herd of bad genes.
Around 45.3 million households include at least one cat according to a survey by the American Pet Products Association. That is still far below the number of households that own dogs, estimated at around 69 million by the APPA.
Small homeowner wind turbines are not particularly efficient at producing actual power.
The formula for the electric power generated by a wind turbine is P = π/2 * r² * v³ * ρ * η
where
π = pi
r = radius of the swept area
v = velocity
p = air density
η = efficiency factor
Note that power generated is a function of the square of the radius of the turbine (r²) and the cube of the velocity of the wind (v³). That's why (a) you want a very large radius wind turbine, and (b) you want high wind speeds which means up high (not close to the ground). But you still want air density (p) so putting them on top of a mountain at 10,000 feet elevation works against you and putting them at close to sea level works in your favor.
One of the resons to go with residential wind or solar is to guarantee energy security. (People used to think I was crazy for worrying about that...I don't look so stupid over the last few months now, do I?)
A full house system that will consistently provide the total energy needs of the average household (~30kW/d) can be pretty pricey, but smaller systems to provide energy for specific applications is quite affordable-- Eg-- I use solar to supply juice for my well pump and am planning on a wind mill for the circulation pumps for my heating system....Lives depend on water & winter heating. You can survive without big screen TV .
A problem with wind generators is that they need a minimum wind speed to work at all, and usually (should) have a protective braking system for excessive wind speeds-- not much higher than their rated generating capacity.
As you point out-- production falls greatly with fallihg wind speed. A small unit may produce 400W at wind speed of 30 mph, but only 50W at 15mph.
Just one more comment: Why import water to make electricity when it is far easier and less expensive to simply import the ready-made electricity itself?
I didn't see it addressed here so I don't know if you are aware that Canada is already a net exporter of a lot of electricity to USA and has been for many years. There is plenty of electricity to purchase from Canada. USA and Canada have been working together for years at integrating the imports and exports of electricity to and from each other.
The following report is from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, published in 2017 it goes into some comprehensive details and with graphs showing the relationship between the two countries with regard to their respective amounts of import/export trade in electricity. You can also likely find more up-to-date details about Canada's current exports of electricity to USA if you do a search online.
It's going to take many many years to transition from fossils to renewable. Might not even be possible to completely transition. At least not in this century
Change often happens slowly at first, then all of a sudden. Look at the collapse in the price of coal stocks, they lost 90% of their value in a short period. While a 100% transition would be best, many would settle for less.
As the owner of a solar house for 25 years......good luck with your dreams of green energy succeeding...BIG TIME.
BUT, the best way to understand solar and wind, it to actually USE IT.
So if your a fan of green energy, but don't have a clue.....
Go buy a 100 watt solar panel, and a battery that the panel will charge. Now plug in a light and maybe your computer into the battery.
USE IT. See how often your battery runs out of energy. Keep track of the energy you generate and the energy you use. Think about the 100 watt solar panel and how much of your roof it will cover, and then check your electrical bill and and see how that ALL ELECTRIC HOUSE WITH TWO EV's will work out for you.
Now expand that out to the entire country!!! Yep, not gonna work.
Solar is great for my off-grid house. BUT I USE MORE FOSSIL FUELS there than my on-grid house!!! Granted my on-grid house runs totally on hydro.
Anyway, it is a great learning experience. There is NOTHING like the real world for a true learning experience.
You can do it for well under 1,000 bucks, unlike the 50,000 I have spent for my solar set up over the past 25 years.
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