Starting your dishwasher at night and turning down the heating at home could soon be part of your daily life. Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon is considering all avenues for Quebec to save energy and is even considering installing wind turbines in the Far North.
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A power shortage is looming. To face up to this challenge, the Minister of Energy is betting first and foremost on “energy sobriety”. A bill to this effect will be tabled in 2023, he revealed on Friday.
“We are not sober in our consumption, he pleaded. We, as consumers, may also need to change our habits”.
According to Mr. Fitgibbon, we must “absolutely” analyze dynamic pricing, which provides that electricity costs more during peak periods.
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The same goes for lower heating in homes. “I lived in China, and I can tell you that we arrived in the houses in the evening and it was cold, he insisted, at a press conference. We have to consider it and we are working with Hydro-Québec on that, they are the experts all the same”.
And before building new dams, Quebec must rely on wind power to increase its energy production. “We can do a lot more, it boasts a lot in certain places in Quebec,” he argued.
The Minister takes Denmark as an example, which draws half of its energy from wind power. “Everything is in the North (of the country) and the world is in the South. They have a big pipe that goes and connects that. You’ll have to start watching it. Can we do massive wind projects in places where it will be socially acceptable?
Pierre Fitzgibbon even suggests that we might not ultimately need new dams if we rely more on the wind. “Wind power, if we put (for example) 10 MegaWatts in the North, we don’t need dams”.
Not to mention that our current hydroelectric installations are old and can be improved. The Minister maintained that there are now new, more efficient turbines.