Quebec Buys 2,004 Megawatts of Wind Power, Wants to Export to Ontario and USA
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 05. 6.08
Hydro-Power and Wind-Power: A Good Match
The Canadian province of Quebec is a world leader in hydro-electricity production, and that's not very surprising to anyone who looks at a hydrological map of the region. Maybe things would have been different if they had been sitting on lots of oil or coal, but what they have is rivers, and lots of them.
But in recent years, Quebec has started to realize that it has another resource to tap: Wind. It's a lot less capital-intensive than big hydro dams, it produces clean energy, and it works well in conjunction with hydro (when the wind blows, you can reduce the flow at dams and save that water for later, a bit like charging up a battery).
So Quebec Premier Jean Charest approved 15 bids for 2,004 megawatts by 2015, at a cost of C$5.5-billion. He's calling the project “the largest tender for wind-powered energy ever awarded in a single block in North America.” Once built, the wind farms will generate enough power to heat and light 320,000 Quebec homes.
he projects are the second phase of a program that has already seen 1,000 megawatts of wind-powered energy awarded by the province. Quebec currently generates more than 400 megawatts from about a dozen wind farms, mostly located in the Gaspé region.
Exporting Clean Energy Could Help with Global Warming
Part of the goal is to export more electricity to Ontario and the North-Eastern U.S., something that would probably displace some electricity generated by coal, or at the very least slow down the construction of new power plants.
In May of next year, a transmission line to Ontario with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts will come online.
Winning bids were by REpower Inc. (who will build 2-megawatt turbines for 5 wind farms) and Enercon Inc (we wrote about their impressive E-126 wind turbine recently).
Wind Power
::Enercon E-126: The World’s Largest Wind Turbine (for now)
::Wind Power Produces 123% of Residential Energy Demand in Rock Port, Missouri
::New Wind Power Record in Spain: 40.8% of Total Demand!
::No Recession for Wind Power Industry
More on Wind Power in Quebec
::Quebec spurs rush in wind power
::Enthousiasme, déconvenue et espérances
:: EDF EN consortium wins 954 MW of Canadian wind farm projects
::15 bids accepted for wind farms
I've been trying to find the answer to this, but given the latent energy and emissions in concrete (I've seen 1 metric ton of CO2 to 1 metric ton of concrete or portland cement, not sure which), how long does it take for a new hydro dam to emit less CO2 than an existing coal plant? It's kind of like the ceramic mug vs. paper cup issue, right?
tea, that's a good question, but don't forget that a coal plant is a pretty huge structure too, and likely uses quite a bit of concrete, steel, etc.
I'm surprised that noone else has come to this conclusion already... hydro power makes an excellent backup to other renewables (not to mention filling peak demand over the baseload filled by coal or nuclear plants) due to its on-demand nature.
It really would be nice if British Columbia would start its own wind power program too... BC Hydro has only mucked around with it in a few small experiments that haven't amounted to much yet. Until recently, the hydro power produced here has filled demand and then some, but now it's only producing 90% of our demand. We're currently importing the rest.
has a Québec resident, I'm very happy to use hydro-electricty. Our dams lasts for decades, even more! Never we had problems, even facing arsh winters. Our price to the KwH is arround $0.075 Canadian (not US). Having wind farms will help the demand of others who can't benifit of great renewable energy.
Hydro-Electricity is the best energy has it emits the lowest impact to the planet... more than 25 times less CO2 than solar power, and over 2 times less CO2 than windturbines.
Nuclear is the next leader has it is just 0.5 times more CO2 impact, but has alot of nuclear wasted and could be a disaster on poeple and the environnement if a problem occurses.
Hydro and wind electricity are the way to go!
has a Québec resident, I'm very happy to use hydro-electricty. Our dams lasts for decades, even more! Never we had problems, even facing arsh winters. Our price to the KwH is arround $0.075 Canadian (not US). Having wind farms will help the demand of others who can't benifit of great renewable energy.
Hydro-Electricity is the best energy has it emits the lowest impact to the planet... more than 25 times less CO2 than solar power, and over 2 times less CO2 than windturbines.
Nuclear is the next leader has it is just 0.5 times more CO2 impact, but has alot of nuclear wasted and could be a disaster on poeple and the environnement if a problem occurses.
Hydro and wind electricity are the way to go!
Isn't this the land David Mills came from...?!?
Everyone is going to be following in Canadas footsteps soon!