Quebec wants to quadruple the province's wind capacity by 2040
Nearly 200 additional wind turbines could be built each year in Quebec by 2040, says Gabriel Durany of AQPER. (File photo)
Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said the call for tenders to increase the province's wind capacity “will be launched very soon”. The Quebec Association for the Production of Renewable Energy (AQPER) estimates that to add 1000 MWh annually, it would be necessary to build approximately 200 new wind turbines each year.
At the AQPER symposium, which ended on Wednesday in Quebec, the minister said that with the anticipated increase in demand, megawatts and terawatt hours will be rarer.
“In Quebec, the surplus is over. »
— Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy
Pierre Fitzgibbon took part in the AQPER colloquium this week. (File photo)
According to the President and CEO of AQPER, Gabriel Durany, we must increase our renewable energy production capacities considerably. We will try to eliminate oil and gas from our lives. It's 60% of our energy supplies.
Even if the challenge is enormous, Quebec is in a position of leadership, notes Mr. Durany. However, to preserve this leadership, it is absolutely necessary to talk about interconnection and congestion on our energy transmission network, he adds.
Gabriel Durany at the AQPER annual conference which took place this week in Quebec.
This is the main challenge for Eastern Quebec: to develop infrastructure for the transport of electrons. Everyone knows that Eastern Quebec is the region to develop because the potential for wind deposits is there, says Simon Deschênes of the Eastern Energy Alliance. However, without adequate transmission lines, without interconnections, there can be no projects in Gaspésie or very few, underlines Mr. Deschênes.
The mayor of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Simon Deschênes, thinks big for the future of the Eastern Alliance. (File photo)
Eastern Quebec wants to take advantage of Hydro-Quebec's interest in wind power
The industry in general is very enthusiastic about what is happening in terms of the energy transition in Quebec. But the next few months and years will be decisive, says Simon Deschênes.
The attention of industry players is now focused on the calls for tenders that Hydro -Quebec should announce by the end of March. The Crown corporation has postponed this announcement three times since mid-December 2022.
The repeated postponement of calls for tenders delays the realization of projects, with all that this implies in terms of supply chains, construction times and costs, recalls Simon Deschênes, vice-president of the Alliance Eastern Energy Alliance.
Eastern Energy Alliance President Michel Lagacé, who also sits on the board of the AQPER is delighted with the number of participants in the annual conference, which it describes as exceptional this year. 350 community players, elected officials and private promoters met for three days in Quebec City, compared to 200 last year, he says.
However, he underlines the x27;Importance of quickly involving communities in the renewable energy development project. What the AQPER echoes: There is not a single actor around the table who has the human resources and the money necessary to accomplish everything, no one, neither the government, nor Hydro-Québec , nor Énergir, nor private producers, nor municipalities, nor Aboriginal groups. Unity is strength, insists Gabriel Durany, its President and CEO.
