Drinking Water And Hydroelectric Power – Binding The Common Future Of Canada And USA 

Hydroelectric power produced in Canada – generally known there as simply “hydro” – is another water-created, and shared resource of increasing importance to Canada and the US Northeast. DailyTech reports that much of 8 Terawatt-hours (1550 MW) of new Canadian “hydro” could soon be on its way to New England and to New York State, specifically. (1550 MW of hydroelectric capacity is roughly the equivalent of what a thousand new top-of-the-line wind turbines would be rated at, cumulatively.

Notably, export of the new green, hydroelectric power to the USA, from Canada, will be encouraged by renewable energy targets, as included in the present energy bill being considered in the US Congress.

Much of the water flowing through the turbines at Niagara Falls originates from Canadian watersheds. That water-driven source has, historically, supplied a great deal of green power to the US, and will continue to do so.

Should the various offshore wind farms being proposed for Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan be completed, their power output will be created by the wide open spaces (wind fetch) offered by the shared water resource

Contrast the above, with how water is shared – or rather how it is not shared – between Mexico and the USA. What the US Southwest and Mexico have in common for optimal green power generation performance is the sun, not water: the opposite of Canada and the US Northeast. One big difference between these two regions is that the southwest’s common solar resources need no international contracts or treaties to manage them, whereas in the other instance, for shared water and power, both are needed. The other difference between the regions, relative to green power and economic development, is that it is extremely unlikely that investors would build a concentrated solar power plant in Mexico to export electricity to the USA.