Quebec is immersed in summer, and the weather, an old tradition with us, feeds the discussions, makes the headlines. But, this time, not just to find out if the weather will be nice to welcome family and friends: the media daily report heat records broken here and there, putting the issue of climate change at the heart of the news.
Meanwhile, a vast industrial transformation is unfolding. For example, the major car producers, for electric batteries whose manufacture requires a lot of minerals, are joining forces with mining companies. Unsurprisingly, the mining industry is in turmoil: it has placed itself at the heart of the energy transition.
As proof, the International Energy Agency has just published, for the very first time, a review of investments not in energy, but in mining in the world.1. The report tells us that the market for minerals needed for batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other clean technologies has doubled in just five years.
We will indeed need cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel to continue the race to manufacture this equipment linked to the transition, an industry in which China has taken a considerable lead over the past 10 years.
In the United States, this coming August will mark the first year of the adoption of theInflation Reduction Act (IRA), this beefy proclimate law of some 400 billion dollars: analyzes will be produced, and they will probably indicate a considerable increase in investments linked to the energy transition in our neighbour.
Interestingly, these investments are often in more rural, Republican states with larger spaces to accommodate wind turbines, solar farms, large battery factories2. An asset that should allow the IRA to continue, even if there is a change of the guard in Washington with the next presidential election in 2024.
Canada, as we know, has followed the movement in favor of clean energies, it could not do otherwise: tax credits were adopted during the last federal budget, in the spring, including for hydroelectricity, a precedent.
A disruptive strategic plan
And Quebec in all this? The former management of Hydro-Québec, under Sophie Brochu, delivered a strategic plan in 2022 which marked a break, taking up the cause of the transition.
This document remains an excellent roadmap, identifying with precision the major challenges of the necessary evolution of the electricity network: energy efficiency, resilience, development of production, hydroelectricity and wind power in particular, and interactivity, bidirectionality in the customer relationship.
Interactivity, because citizens will now be able, and will have to, to play a much more active role in managing their consumption, which will be very useful during peak periods.
Quebec is currently holding a consultation on clean energy, and reports must be submitted no later than 1er August: the very day a new CEO at Hydro-Québec takes office, Michael Sabia, a man who will be impressive if we are to believe his exceptional career path.
We will therefore witness the culmination of this consultation in the fall. With legislative and other measures promoting the adoption of technologies to optimize our electricity consumption and the development of new sources of production: they will ultimately ensure our energy security.
A new world is opening up, a new geopolitics of energy is being put in place, a large-scale economic upheaval is taking shape.
From what we saw from the exchanges held last May during the face-to-face consultation organized by the government, and from the discussions since, most players in the energy sector in Quebec are ready.
They are sure of being able to do well and contribute to making Quebec a global beacon of energy transition. In the fall, with its measures, the government is expected to give the big starting signal to firmly anchor Quebec in this green industrial revolution that has become unavoidable.
* The author is currently acting as a consultant to an organization that is submitting a report to this consultation on clean energy. This opinion is independent and commits only himself.