The canadian association for renewable energies has analyzed government data to show the energy consumption for any sector and any energy end use, in any region of Canada. The association goal is to highlight that 89% of energy used in the residential sector is for temperature energy.

The city of Ottawa consumes 50 billion kWh of energy each year, at a cost of $5 billion. Of this, about 1% comes from solar, wind or other emerging renewable energy.

The Office of Energy Efficiency provides data on energy consumption for all sectors and for all end uses. The canadian association for renewable energies (we c.a.r.e.) has analyzed these data to show that 30% of all energy in Ontario is used for space heating, water heating and space cooling in residential and commercial buildings.

Ottawa has 6.7% of the provinces population, and this ratio is used to calculate the annual cost to import energy. There are no variances made for temperature difference or lower industrial energy use, and the calculation assumes that the price for an average kWh of electricity is similar to the cost for each kWh-e from natural gas, oil, etc. New buildings are expected to become increasingly energy efficient, so the analysis underscores the need for climate action and energy reduction on existing buildings.

The data indicate that 89% of residential energy consumption (72% of commercial) is used for low-grade thermal applications of space conditioning and water heating. For Ottawa, this represents a combined consumption of 14.6 billion kWh, compared with 16.3 billion for all transportation.

Later this month, Ottawa will update its ‘Energy Evolution process to quantify the energy consumption and GHG emissions across the city. The process used to be called '100% Renewable' but the city has no wind turbines and limited solar PV, and it is estimated that emerging renewables contribute 1% to the city's energy needs. This does not include the large number of biomass heaters in rural areas nor the contribution from NetZeroPlus heat pumps.

The data are posted at http://Ottawa.cf and the methodology is provided to encourage people to download the source data and run other energy analyses for the city or for the province.