The battery that can supercharge Canada’s economic future

Energy storage already ticks every box for national interest: job creation, economic security, emissions reductions, and grid resilience. But so far, it has been left off the priority list. That needs to change.

By MERRAN SMITH, JUSTIN RANGOONI

(as published in The Hill Times, Oct. 9, 2025)

Canada’s first wave of nation-building projects will give our economy a meaningful boost. But if we want to maximize jobs, investment, and productivity over the long term, we need integrated strategies, not just one-off projects. A national electrification strategy backed by energy storage fits that bill. 

Canada’s electricity grid is a competitive advantage. Investors and businesses are drawn here by reliable, clean, and affordable power. But to maintain that edge as demand surges, we need to prioritize energy storage alongside generation projects like small modular reactors and large-scale wind, and transmission infrastructure. 

As PwC recently put it, “electricity isn’t just a convenience anymore—it’s a strategic asset able to shape economic growth.” It will take immense amounts of electricity to build the very infrastructure Canada’s growth depends on: AI data centres, new low-carbon homes, high-speed rail, electrified manufacturing and mining, and more. By some estimates, electricity demand in 2050 will be double today’s levels. 

So how do we meet rising demand without sacrificing affordability or reliability? It’s not enough to only ramp up generation (although we need to do that too). We also need to build out energy storage at scale. Storage allows us to save electricity when supply is high and demand is low, and deploy it when we need it most. It makes all generation types more efficient and cost-effective, and it strengthens the reliability and resilience of our grid, which is especially critical as extreme weather associated with climate change increases the risk of disruptive, heat-driven brownouts. 

The global energy storage business is booming, it’s the fastest growing of all energy technologies. In Canada, we had 552MW of installed capacity at the end of 2024, with 12 projects under construction and another 27 approved. If all are built, our storage capacity could rise five-fold by 2030 to 2.8GW. But that’s not nearly enough. Energy Storage Canada estimates our grid will require 10 GW of storage capacity by 2035 and 35 GW by 2050, creating a billion-dollar industry by mid-century. 

To bridge that gap, Canada needs a co-ordinated, nation-building energy storage strategy.

The recently completed Oneida Energy Storage Project gives us a model to build on. As Canada’s largest energy storage facility—and one of the largest in the world—it can store 250MW of electricity. Built in partnership between industry and Indigenous development corporations, Oneida created over 180 construction jobs and will provide long-term revenue to Indigenous equity stakeholders. Importantly, it was delivered ahead of schedule and under budget.  

Of course, given the eight-gigawatt gap between what’s proposed and what we need, we can’t stop at one or two flagship projects. We need dozens of them across the country. And the potential benefits are massive: billions of dollars in savings for electricity customers, tens of thousands of direct construction jobs, and millions of dollars for Indigenous or municipal equity stakeholders. The proposed Ontario Pumped Hydro Storage Project alone would contribute nearly $7-billion to the Canadian economy, $4-billion of which would be wages.    

Ontario gets this; 80 per cent of Canada’s proposed storage projects are based in that province. Now we need to make this a national effort to keep up with Europe and China, who have embraced energy storage as a key economic priority.

Canada can do the same. A National Energy Storage Network—modelled on the build out of Canada’s SMR capabilities—could pool investment, support storage deployment across provinces, and build out domestic battery supply chains. More immediately, the federal government could also use Budget 2025 to expand investment tax credits and unlock additional private capital. Achieving this will require creativity and coordination from public and private actors, but it’s well within our grasp. 

Energy storage already ticks every box for national interest: job creation, economic security, emissions reductions, and grid resilience. But so far, it has been left off the priority list. 

That needs to change. We need to embrace the opportunity of energy storage—it’s the battery pack that can supercharge Canada’s economic future. 

Merran Smith is president of New Economy Canada. Justin Rangooni is president and CEO of Energy Storage Canada.