New wind turbines should soon grow on Quebec territory. Hydro-Québec announced Tuesday that it has selected seven bids that will inject additional power into its network by December 2026. Most of the projects, however, have not yet completed the environmental assessment process in force.
The projects – all of which are wind power except one – total 1,303 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity. They had been submitted as part of two calls for tenders, launched jointly in December 2021, for 480 MW of renewable energy and for 300 MW of wind energy.
Various promoters (EDF Renouvelables, Innergex, Invenergy, Algonquin Power Trust, and Hydro-Québec in its production activities) share the selected projects. Production facilities should see the light of day in Chaudière-Appalaches, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Estrie and Gaspésie.
The state company must conclude contracts with the promoters “in the coming weeks”. The contracts will then be submitted to the Régie de l’énergie for approval. Within the winning bids, the average cost of energy is 6.1¢/kWh, not including transmission or balancing.
Environmental assessments
Of the five winning bids in the call for tenders to acquire 480 MW of power from renewable sources, at least four are related to projects that have not yet completed the environmental assessment process in force in Quebec. These are the Haute-Chaudière, Madawaska, Mesgi’g Ugju’s’n and Pohénégamook-Picard-St-Antonin projects.
In fact, none of these four projects has yet filed an impact study with the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP). Some projects have received their “directive” for the preparation of this study in recent weeks.
The impact study must in particular make it possible to analyze the social but also environmental impacts of the projects, such as the potential impacts on flora and fauna. In the case of wind farms in Quebec, these impacts can affect endangered species, for example bird species. We saw this in particular in the context of the analysis of the impact study of the “Des Neiges” projects in Charlevoix.
The Forêt Domaniale wind farm project, selected in the context of the call for tenders for the acquisition of 300 MW of electricity from wind sources, has also not completed the environmental assessment process provided for by the legislation. In fact, the proponents received their directive for carrying out the impact study on 1er last February.
Once this directive has been transmitted to the promoter of a project, the latter must carry out its impact study by responding to the requests specified in the directive. The study is then submitted to the MELCCFP, then subjected to an analysis by “experts” from different ministries, who submit “opinions”. Several exchanges between government experts and the promoter may follow, before the study is considered complete. Subsequently, the project may be submitted for review by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).
Even if at least five bids retained by the Crown corporation must therefore still complete several stages of the environmental assessment process, the documents published Wednesday by Hydro-Québec specify, for each project, a “guaranteed date for the start of deliveries”. This is the 1er December 2026.
Other projects to come
Among the projects selected, the only one that does not relate to wind energy is that of the “production” branch of Hydro-Québec. It is stated in the documentation that 159 MW of power will be supplied through the public company’s “generation system”.
Twenty-four submissions, totaling 4,205 MW, had been selected for analysis by Hydro-Québec in July 2022. The announcement of the selected projects had been expected since the end of last year.
Wednesday’s announcement is only the first step towards a large wave of wind projects in Quebec. At least, that is the wish of the government and of Hydro-Québec.
New tenders are to be launched by March 31 for 4,000 MW of wind power. A “new mechanism” will be used to select projects located “in favorable areas”.