CAQ would search to broaden hydroelectric capability, Legault says

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A re-elected Coalition Avenir Québec authorities would ask Hydro-Québec to undertake research on the development of latest hydroelectric installations, together with further dams, says celebration chief François Legault.

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Chatting with an viewers of businesspeople in Bécancour on Tuesday, Legault mentioned Quebec’s capability to provide electrical energy should be elevated within the coming a long time, and it is going to be as much as Hydro-Québec to find out one of the simplest ways to satisfy the province’s wants.

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He mentioned the utility should launch these research as quickly as attainable, nevertheless, on condition that development of a brand new dam can take as much as 15 years. And any new installations should be constructed in collaboration with native Indigenous communities.

Legault mentioned additionally that he’ll ask Hydro-Québec to proceed with the development of wind energy parks able to offering 3,000 megawatts for short-term wants. He added he’ll triple the variety of stage 2 charging stations and double the variety of fast recharging stations for the house owners of electrical automobiles.

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Legault mentioned he desires to hasten the province’s transition to electrical energy in order that Quebec can obtain carbon-neutral standing by 2050.

The CAQ chief’s feedback come within the wake of a report by the Polytechnique Montréal’s Institut de l’énergie Trottier that concluded Quebec and different provinces in central and japanese Canada are heading towards a big scarcity of electrical energy to reply to the assorted wants of a transition to renewable vitality.

Report co-author Normand Mousseau mentioned that whereas Hydro-Québec largely has the capability to satisfy demand from electrical automobiles, heating and producers, export contracts to the US “threat decreasing its leeway.”

Hydro-Québec will subsequently have to seek out new sources of electrical energy, and Mousseau mentioned the reply isn’t new dams.

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“The reservoirs give an immense flexibility to the community, however we don’t have the capability in the present day to flood territories like we’ve achieved up to now,” mentioned Mousseau, the institute’s scientific director. “From an environmental viewpoint and a social accessibility one, it’s unworkable.”

The answer can be extra wind generators, he mentioned, including development may occur at “very aggressive charges” and if there’s a surplus, “we will promote it with out challenge as a result of different provinces are in a good worse scenario than ours.”