The Legault government wants to manufacture the “greenest battery components in the world”, but their construction will consume polluting natural gas, in particular because the “current electrical capacity is limited”. A situation denounced by Québec solidaire and which makes an energy expert react.
Énergir is in fact taking steps to expand its gas capacity in the Bécancour industrial park to serve companies in the battery industry that will set up there. “This project will help […] to the development of a Quebec battery industry by ensuring that potential customers can connect to the Énergir network,” argues the gas supplier in a document submitted to the Régie de l’énergie.
It asks for a quick authorization to be able to deliver gas there from the fall, intended for the heating of a factory under construction. Recall that the Legault government announced last Monday that General Motors will produce battery materials in Quebec from 2025 in the Bécancour industrial park, thanks to public assistance of 300 million.
The greenest “in the world”
“While we sell our electricity in the United States, we use natural gas. We are very surprised by the government’s lack of interest in our climate obligations,” denounced Québec solidaire MP Haroun Bouazzi in an interview with The Press.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Quebec Solidarity MNA Haroun Bouazzi
At that time, the Minister of Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, did not mention the use of natural gas. “Thanks to its natural resources, talents and renewable energy, Quebec is attracting giants in electrification. […] This is where we will manufacture the greenest battery components in the world,” he boasted.
Mr. Bouazzi denounces what he considers to be a lack of transparency on the part of the minister. “We cannot in 2023 increase our GHG impact by hiding it from the population”, he denounces.
Énergir estimates that companies in the battery industry will eventually consume 30 million cubic meters of natural gas in the Bécancour industrial park.
It’s not just a zero contribution, it’s a negative contribution with this connection of 50,000 tons of CO2the equivalent of emissions from the population of Chicoutimi.
Haroun Bouazzi, MP for Québec solidaire
And the emissions could be even higher, because Énergir “projects a total volume of 53 million cubic meters” in the longer term.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Énergir’s head office in Montreal
The Ministry of the Economy is aware of the use of natural gas by the battery industry. The Assistant Deputy Minister for the Economy, Dominique Deschênes, even intervened in favor of Énergir with the Régie de l’énergie. In a letter, she supports the project to extend the gas network in Bécancour. “Since current electrical capacity is limited, some industrial processes cannot technically be electrified or require natural gas as an input, and redundancy and reliability are critical to their operations, extending natural gas infrastructure necessary,” she writes.
Pierre Fitzgibbon’s press attaché, Mathieu St-Amand, makes the same point. He claims that it is not wise to heat industrial buildings with hydroelectricity. “Projects like the one announced on Monday will be mostly powered by hydroelectricity,” says Mathieu St-Amand. He believes that one can “easily speculate that producing low-carbon batteries contributes positively to efforts to combat GHGs globally”.
Contradictions
On the contrary, MP Haroun Bouazzi believes that the Legault government and the Ministry of the Economy are acting in complete contradiction with the environmental objectives of Quebec, which aims for carbon neutrality in 2050, and with their own green plan.
The Plan for a Green Economy indeed stipulates that new industrial projects should “establish competitive and green facilities” and that the construction of these factories must “incorporate more energy-efficient equipment and that they favor a supply of energy renewables”.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Premier François Legault, during the announcement of the investments in Bécancour, on May 29. He is joined by POSCO Future M President Chi Gyu Cha and GM Canada President Marissa West.
Energy expert and professor at HEC Montreal Pierre-Olivier Pineau believes that it is “problematic to extend a natural gas network for new installations”. The only way to make this practice acceptable would be to make a “firm commitment to decrease fossil gas consumption” by decreasing natural gas consumption elsewhere. He also believes that the heating of buildings “should not be done with electricity or natural gas”.
New buildings should be passive buildings, with thermal envelopes so efficient that no need for heating is necessary. They exist and are profitable in the long term, but are neither imposed by regulation nor in the current culture.
Pierre-Olivier Pineau, holder of the Energy Sector Management Chair at HEC Montréal
He also criticizes that the components produced by this factory are intended for large electric cars, such as the Hummer. “We may be building and subsidizing completely superfluous and useless installations for the energy transition. Above all, we must invest in sustainable mobility, not in fleets of large electric vehicles,” he laments.
Electric Hummer
This criticism is also made by Haroun Bouazzi, of Quebec solidaire. He believes that the government should instead bet on the electrification of public transport, and that the cost of public aid – nearly 300 million – is not justified by the number of jobs created, i.e. 200, and the production of large heavy and energy-consuming electric cars. “It’s not brilliant,” he blurts out.
Jean-Pierre Finet, analyst for the Grouping of environmental organizations in energy, believes that the facilities of battery component manufacturers could have been 100% electrified. However, they have instead chosen to pollute, he lamented. “It will be green batteries produced with brown gas. »
For its part, Énergir ensures that companies will have the choice to buy, if they wish, renewable natural gas. However, unlike individuals and business class, Énergir’s new industrial customers are under no obligation to buy them.