Hydro-Québec is now launching a first call for tenders to acquire 300 solar energy megawatts and announces that it will financially help its residential and business customers to acquire solar panels.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
Updated at 12:17 p.m.
Hydro-Québec’s financial aid will be announced this summer, but it will not be available before 2026, said the CEO of Hydro-Québec, Michael Sabia.
“You have to go step by step to be able to build an ecosystem of suppliers and installers in Quebec,” he said.
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Hydro-Québec believes that 125,000 households could take advantage of subsidies to install solar panels within ten years. There are currently a thousand who has already done so at their expense.
The strategy made public today aims to increase the contribution of solar energy in the Quebec electricity network, where it is practically nonexistent. “Hydro-Québec saw a very limited role for solar energy, but we have changed our perspective,” said Sabia.
Solar source electricity has a cost cost of 8 to 11 cents per kilowatt hour in Quebec, estimates the state -owned company, which is more expensive than wind. The sun is not very useful either for peak periods of Hydro-Québec, which occur in the mornings and winter evenings, when it is dark.
-But solar energy has other advantages, according to Hydro-Québec. Solar installations can be set up within a short time and be located closer to consumption centers. The solar panels are increasingly efficient and their cost has dropped by 90 % in the past ten years and it could drop again, estimates the state -owned company.
According to Michael Sabia, solar will allow Hydro-Québec to increase its options and “derisk” the expansion plan which provides investments of more than 150 billion by 2035 to increase electricity production.
Objective 3000 megawatts
Hydro-Québec is now launching a first call for tenders reserved exclusively for solar production, for small projects not exceeding 25 megawatts each. Promoters will have to avoid agricultural areas and maximize economic benefits in Quebec. As is the case in other tenders in Hydro-Québec, American or foreign investors will be disadvantaged in the assessment of the submissions, said David Rhéaume, executive vice-president of Hydro-Québec.
This is a first step that will gradually integrate this production into the electricity network.
If the experience is conclusive, larger projects will be launched and Hydro-Québec will resume project management, as it did with wind. By 2025, 3000 solar energy megawatts could be developed in Quebec.
This new avenue does not change the plans of Hydro-Québec, which always puts on hydroelectric development with Newfoundland, on the increase in the efficiency of existing power stations and on wind power to meet the future needs of Quebec.
Crown corporation has also announced financial assistance to better consume electricity, which notably provides for free smart thermostats for its residential and commercial customers. The objective is to reduce the total electricity consumption of Quebecers by 10 %.
