Quebec announces funding of $162 million to recover thermal discharges from large industrial facilities.
The government thus wishes to encourage the implementation of projects that will reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the heating of large buildings.
The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charrette, took advantage of his visit to Americana, a forum on the environment in Montreal, to make the announcement.
Many industrial facilities produce large thermal releases to the environment. This heat is neither recovered nor reused and “the program will offer financial assistance aimed at supporting the establishment of projects allowing the capture of thermal discharges from industrial companies in order to recover and distribute them so that the energy that emanates from it can be used to heat various large buildings,” reads the government’s press release.
Minister Benoit Charette explained that the organization that emits heat can sell it to another, thus reaping financial benefits from its emissions.
“Then, the organization that receives this heat can achieve substantial energy savings by heating its facilities with energy without GHG emissions”, specifies the press release published by the government.
Quebec wants to decarbonize the heating of the residential, commercial and institutional sector, which, according to the government, was the source of 9.6% of Quebec’s GHG emissions in 2020.
In Quebec, “the potential for recovering thermal waste is colossal”, according to the Minister of the Environment.
“Industrial facilities, wastewater treatment plants and other types of emitting establishments represent annual thermal discharges estimated at 300 petajoules (PJ), or the equivalent of 83.3 thermal terawatt hours (TWh). »
For example, the annual electricity production of the Romaine complex is 8 TWh, indicated Benoit Charette.