Friday Facts
September 4, 2009
Devices used to clean and inspect the inside of pipelines are called ”pigs” because the early models reportedly squealed like a piglet as they moved through the pipe. Pigs originally were just cleaning devices, with scrapers to remove wax buildup, but electronic devices were later added to create “smart pigs” for pipeline inspection.
Source: OPC7, Canadian Centre for Energy Information, August 2009
Friday Facts
August 28, 2009
Canada is home to one of three tidal power plants in the world and the only one in the Western Hemisphere. Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Tidal Generating Station in the Bay of Fundy has an installed capacity of 20 megawatts and annually produces about 50 gigawatt-hours of electricity.
Source: Nova Scotia Power 2008
Friday Facts
August 21, 2009
In Canada’s many remote regions, solar photovoltaic cells are increasingly used as stand-alone units to generate electricity to power homes, cottages, telecommunications equipment, oil and pipeline monitoring stations, and navigational devices.
Source: The Canadian Centre for Energy Information, 2009
Friday Facts
August 14, 2009
Four Canadian teams competed in the North American Solar Challenge in 2008, which is the longest solar car race in the world at 4,015 km. Three Canadian teams placed in the top ten – University of Waterloo (4), University of Calgary (6) and Red River College (9).
Source: North American Solar Challenge, 2008
Friday Facts
August 7, 2009
Manitoba now has between 25 and 30 per cent of all earth energy system installations in the country.
Source: Manitoba Department of Science, Technology, Energy and Mines, 2009
Friday Facts
July 31, 2009
Compressed at up to 100 times the pressure of the atmosphere, natural gas moves up to 40 kilometres per hour, which is approximately the speed of an Olympic runner. Natural gas travels from Alberta to Southern Ontario in about six days.
Source: CEPA Pipelines 101
Friday Facts
July 24, 2009
Approximately 500,000 people in Canada are directly and indirectly employed in the oil and gas sector and 151,800 people are employed in the utility sector, for a total of 651,800 people working in energy-related fields. That is roughly 3.5 per cent of the total labour force.
Source: Statistics Canada 2009 and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 2009
Friday Facts
July 17, 2009
Oil travels through a pipeline at four to eight kilometres per hour, which is roughly walking speed. It may take a month or more to carry crude oil to different customers across the country. Approximately 2.65 million barrels of crude oil and equivalent per day travel through Canada’s crude oil pipeline network.
Source: CEPA Pipelines 101
Friday Facts
July 10, 2009
There are 580,000 kilometres of pipeline in Canada, transferring oil and natural gas to various locations within the country, North America, and to ports, where products can then be shipped globally. Pipelines in Canada have the best track record for safety than other modes of transportation used to move energy products, such as marine shipping, railway, aircraft and truck transport.
Source: CEPA Pipelines 101
Friday Facts
July 3, 2009
Canada’s coal reserves in 2008 totalled 3.47 billion tonnes of anthracite and bituminous coal and 3.11 billion tonnes of sub-bituminous coal and lignite, for an overall total of 6.58 billion tonnes. Canada’s coal production in 2008 totalled 68.3 million tonnes. Coal is mined in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2009