Two-thirds of electricity in Canada now comes from renewable energy

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The National Energy Board says two-thirds of Canada’s electricity supply now comes from renewable sources such as hydro, wind power and solar energy.

The board says renewable energy production jumped 17 per cent between 2005 and 2015 and now provides 66 per cent of the country`s electricity, compared with 60 per cent a decade earlier.

Hydro accounts for the majority of renewable power, with 60 per cent of all electricity in Canada coming from hydro.

Wind power makes up 4.4 per cent of the total, with biomass power producing 1.9 per cent and solar power 0.5 per cent.

Windmills saw the biggest growth in the decade, with output increasing to more than 28,500 gigawatt hours in 2015 from less than 2,000 gigawatt hours in 2005.

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Canada was one of the leaders in terms of new installations of solar power, but that source still lags behind most other renewables largely because of the price.

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