Getting energy another way

As Manitoba’s Public Utilities Board analyzes Manitoba Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan, three points are apparent.

The province of Manitoba is a weather-based fiscal operating entity. The province is $40 billion in debt, with over $25 billion being Manitoba Hydro’s debt.

For fiscal year 2025-26, Manitoba Hydro projected a $214 million profit. It will likely result in a loss close to $600 million, owing to drought and excessive imports. This year, there is plenty of water for hydroelectricity, which will likely result in a positive fiscal year.

What will the weather be like in the upcoming years? This is a complete unknown, which is not good for fiscal planning.

Manitoba Hydro can be far less dependent on the weather.

Transmission lines are expensive to deploy and maintain. Recent examples include the $5 billion-plus for Bipole III and a $7 billion transmission line upgrade announced in July 2025.

More importantly, severe and extreme damage occurred at Pimicikamak Cree Nation when the transmission line was damaged this past winter.

Manitoba Hydro can be far less dependent on transmission lines.

Manitoba Hydro has agreements to import and export electricity from the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO) grid in the U.S.A. The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) has rated MISO as the most unreliable electricity grid in North America.

MISO is also one of the most fossil fuel-intensive grids in North America.

Manitoba Hydro can be far less dependent on imports.

In the last 25 years, $11 trillion has been spent on weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels globally.

In 2025, wind and solar accounted for 3.3 per cent of global energy production.

Grid-scale batteries are growing all over the world. California and Texas have made large investments in these batteries. In 2025, batteries provided 0.07 per cent of electricity consumption in Texas. In California, batteries provided well under one per cent of electricity consumption.

Wind, solar and batteries are required globally to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Global fossil fuel production needs to be permanently displaced.

Micro molten salt nuclear reactors are close to production readiness. Virtually corrosion-free salt is available and its demand is growing rapidly. Shipping-container-sized reactors will be available that will produce 12 megawatts of electricity (or as little as one megawatt). They will be factory produced, require no water and could be installed in groups of up to 100, requiring three hectares of land.

They could be deployed almost anywhere, run at maximum power 24/7 365 days of the year for six years in any weather conditions and produce no nuclear waste. There are many pre-orders for these reactors.

Manitoba can manufacture these, assist with the pre-order backlog and deploy them locally.

A saltwater-to-fuels reactor is looking promising.

It requires saltwater and electricity and extracts carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce carbon-negative methane, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel as well as potable water.

There are several billion people with insufficient access to energy, who suffer from malnutrition and may not have access to potable water. If everyone in the world lived, for example, like the average Japanese citizen, four times as much energy would be consumed globally compared to today.

How people consume beef, pork, chicken, seafood, etc. is completely unsustainable, especially when also considering the billions of people suffering from malnutrition.

Much more emphasis is required on plant-based and cultivated meat and meat produced via precision fermentation. Read Bruce Friedrich’s book Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future. He is the CEO of The Good Food Institute.

Manitoba can manufacture, deploy and export these technologies (rather than liquefied natural gas) to produce locally carbon-free (or carbon-negative) energy sources and meat that requires far less land, water and energy, is free of antibiotics and involves no killing of animals.

Manitoba can be a global leader, setting an example for the rest of the world on how to achieve energy independence and obtain food security and helping the rest of the world to do the same.

Todd De Ryck writes in Winnipeg at toddderyck.substack.com