Here comes the sun: Hydro-Quebec inaugurates its first solar power plants
Hydro-Quebec will now produce a new form of energy. The provincially run corporation inaugurated its first solar power plants on Monday, in La Prairie and Varennes, on Montreal's South Shore.
The two small-scale facilities are intended to determine whether the technology is well suited to "Quebec's climate, its generating fleet and its transmission system," the utility company said in a news release.
The two plants will have a combined installed capacity of 9.5 MW and will produce approximately 16 GWh of energy per year, equivalent to the consumption of 1,000 homes.
By comparison, Hydro-Quebec produces 37.2 GW per year, or 37,200 MW. The new plants will therefore represent about 0.025 per cent of production.
The two plants were originally scheduled to be commissioned last fall, but the power producer decided to postpone them because of the pandemic and because it was November, when there is less sunshine.
An Ottawa-funded study last month argued that Quebec and Canada would have "everything to gain" by focusing on solar energy, a potential that is currently untapped.
Quebec has similar sunshine conditions to Japan and Germany, which are world leaders in solar energy, Nergica researchers said.
PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE PIONEERS
The facility in La Prairie was named the "Gabrielle-Bodis plant" in honour of the first female engineer to graduate from Polytechnique Montreal and work for Hydro-Quebec for over 35 years.
It is also the first Hydro-Quebec power station that bears the name of a woman, said its president and CEO, Sophie Brochu.
The Gabrielle-Bodis generating station is located on the site of a former thermal power plant. It has an area of 150,000 square metres, the equivalent of 28 soccer fields, 26,000 solar panels and an installed capacity of 8 MW.
The Varennes power plant is named after Robert A. Boyd, the first French-speaking engineer at Hydro-Quebec and the organization's sixth boss.
Quebec owes "the success of the James Bay development and the francization of our engineering" to him, said Brochu.
The Robert A. Boyd Generating Station is adjacent to Hydro-Quebec's research institute. It has a surface area of 56,000 square metres, 4,600 solar panels and an installed capacity of 1.5 MW.
The solar plants join Hydro-Quebec's fleet of 61 hydroelectric plants and 24 thermal plants.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 21, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.