quebec doesn’t have enough electricity to satisfy all the companies wanting to carry out industrial projects in the province, energy minister pierre fitzgibbon says — and the situation could drag on for a decade.
energy availability has emerged as a major issue for companies in recent months after quebec tightened approval criteria for new projects in 2023 amid soaring industrial demand. under the new rules, any project requiring at least five megawatts of power must be approved by the provincial government. until last year, the threshold was 50 megawatts.
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demand for power in quebec has set new highs in recent years, hitting 43,000 megawatts in march 2023, the minister said. that’s higher than hydro-québec’s installed capacity , which totalled about 38,000 megawatts at the end of 2023.
hydro-québec is months into a 12-year, $185-billion plan to boost capacity by up to 9,000 megawatts and significantly reduce power outages. about 99 per cent of the energy that the utility produces is classified as clean.
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fitzgibbon also said he’s weeks away from unveiling a bill on the framework and development of clean energies. the new law comes as quebec works to develop an electric battery industry following the announcement last fall that sweden’s northvolt ab would build a multi-billion-dollar plant on montreal’s south shore.
hydro-québec’s 2035 action plan “is adding about 10,000 megawatts of power,” fitzgibbon said. “we’re going to need to change our practices, otherwise it won’t happen. we’re going to need to find ways of going faster while remaining rigorous.”