Why cheap wind power is making Quebec’s big, old dams more valuable as a ‘battery,’ say experts

You might think that what with having Canada’s largest hydroelectric capacity, providing almost 100 per cent of its electricity, including exports, a new $600-million wind power project is the last thing Quebec would need.

That was exactly what experts were saying when Premier François Legault cancelled Apuiat, a private but government-supported wind project in Northern Quebec in 2018.

But now as the province relaunches the project, power experts say an investment in wind will actually increase the value of Hydro-Québec’s existing hydroelectric infrastructure.

Beyond providing clean electricity amid growing demand, they can act like enormous grid-scale batteries, addressing the Achilles heel of intermittent, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar: what do you do when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?

There is a lot of politics in Legault’s change of heart, but a contributing factor is the election of U.S. President Biden and his new green agenda, said Pierre-Olivier Pineau, chair in energy sector management at Montreal’s Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC).

As recently as last summer, the Quebec premier downplayed the chances of restarting the Apuiat wind project because of the province’s continuing glut of electric power.

“I want to be very clear,” Legault told Radio-Canada last July, “We still have a [power] surplus at Hydro-Québec, so we’re not yet ready to launch.”

However, there is the prospect of a growing need for low-carbon electricity — for export to the U.S. and elsewhere, and for use at home to power electric vehicles and other efforts to decarbonize.

Add to that, the price of wind power plunging and the price of building new hydroelectric dams on the rise, and last week the outlook changed.

“After many months of work with our Indigenous partners, I am proud to present a win-win project for the Innu communities, for Québec and for the planet,” said Legault in announcing the relaunch. “This is excellent news for the entire wind energy sector, in which costs have come down considerably.”

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