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
Live updates: What star witness in Trump hush money case has said on the stand so far
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Canucks' Soucy suspended 1 game, Zadorov fined $5,000 for post-game crosschecks on McDavid
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sues for defamation over National Enquirer, InTouch Weekly stories
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.