Alternative forms of energy can be used for many different purposes. You will learn about some of these in this activity.   

This is a wind farm in Alberta.

Choosing a form of energy is often based on determining the most practical method. Some of the factors that are considered when choosing a form of energy include these:

• Cost — How expensive is the energy source? Does it require a lot of money to get the material or energy into a usable form?

• Efficiency — How much energy does the source provide in relation to how much energy it takes to transform it to a useful form?

• Availability — How much of the source is available? Is it renewable or nonrenewable? Is it easy to access?

   

This is the Arrow Lakes Dam, part of a series of dams just outside Castlegar, British Columbia.

 Look closely at the graph below.

In Canada, as you can see in the graph above from Statistics Canada, most electricity is generated through hydro power. The next most common sources of electricity are nuclear energy followed by coal. Natural gas, crude oil, and other sources (mainly the other alternative sources you learned about in Activity 1) are also used but to a much lesser extent than hydro, nuclear energy, or coal.

       

 Now look closely at this graph below.

You can see that hydroelectricity is used much more in some provinces than in others.

Why is there such large differences?

Let's think about the landforms of the provinces. Quebec (QC) and British Columbia (BC) are the largest producers of hydroelectricity. Those provinces have large bodies of water (especially rivers) that have been harnessed to provide hydroelectricity, and they also have industries.

 One main company is Alcan, an aluminum production company with hydroelectric facilities in Quebec and British Columbia that invest in hydroelectricity to enable the production of their materials. In the same way, you know that Alberta is more likely to use coal than hydroelectricity because coal is more abundant here than large rivers that could be dammed.