While all eyes are on Northvolt, another titanic project has been granted a colossal block of electricity by the Legault government: that of Hy2Gen, on the North Shore. A look at the megawatts (and mega-stakes) of this mega-factory.
Published at 1:50 a.m.
Updated at 9:00 a.m.
307 megawatts
According to -, this is the size of the block of electricity that the Baie-Comeau plant of the German company Hy2Gen will obtain. Only Northvolt, with its 354 megawatts (MW), got more. Hy2Gen published a press release last June to announce that it had obtained a block of electricity from Quebec. It did not reveal the scale, but estimated its needs at 300 MW. The company still claims today that it has not received official confirmation of the quantity of electricity it will benefit from and says it wants to wait for this confirmation before making comments.
307 MW is…
0.65% of all electricity production in Quebec;
More than the production of the Romaine-1 dam (270 MW) or that of the Romaine-4 dam (245 MW), two of the four dams forming the Romaine complex;
The production of 219 wind turbines1 or five times the production of the Cap-Chat wind farm, in Gaspésie (56 MW);
2.3 times the power needed to power all electric vehicles in Quebec during the winter peak (132 MW);
Almost half of what the Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant (685 MW) produced;
Nearly all of the electricity demand reductions generated by all Hilo program participants, on average, during winter peaks (352 MW).
1. Using 4 MW wind turbines, with an efficiency of 35%
Sources: Canada Energy Regulator, Hydro-Québec
Consult the energy profiles of the provinces and territories on the Canada Energy Regulator website
The project
What will all this electricity be used for? Hy2Gen is presented as a green hydrogen and ammonia plant.
“The final destination of our products is for mining companies on the North Shore. If we have a surplus, it will go to Ontario mining companies,” the president of Hy2Gen, Cyril Dufau-Sansot, explained to me briefly by email, promising to be more talkative once the scale of the electricity block is confirmed. by Quebec.
From what we can understand of the project, Hy2Gen will first make green hydrogen by passing an electric current through water (a process called electrolysis). This hydrogen will then be combined with nitrogen to form ammonia. According to what Mr. Dufau-Sansot explained to -2the ammonia will then be sent to the EPC group in Fermont, which will make ammonium nitrate – a substance used as an explosive in mines.
Contrary to certain rumors circulating, Mr. Dufau-Sansot assures that no green ammonia will be exported to Germany.
“The project will not export ammonia since this is prohibited by the MEIE project evaluation criteria [ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie] and, if we were selected, it is because we respect these criteria,” he writes.
Reduced GHGs
According to Hy2Gen, the project will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the explosives currently used in Quebec mines are formed from ammonia produced with natural gas.
“The exact amount will be assessed during our environmental impact studies (and depends on the number of megawatts) but is well beyond 500,000 tonnes per year,” writes Mr. Dufau-Sansot.
Johanne Whitmore, principal researcher in the Chair of Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, emphasizes that it will be necessary to know what proportion of these reductions is made in Quebec and which is made outside.
It also encourages us to distinguish real reductions from “avoided” emissions – the latter represent GHGs which would have been added by an increase in production and which will not be. Avoided emissions do not improve our balance sheet, they only prevent it from deteriorating.
Critics
The allocation of this power bloc was made directly by former minister Pierre Fitzgibbon. In addition to Johanne Whitmore, many experts, including Jean-Pierre Finet, from the Regroupement des organisms Environnemental en Énergie, wonder how we can grant such quantities of electrical power without having demonstrated that it is the best use of energy. our electricity.
“We need transparency and independence in the award process,” says Johanne Whitmore, from the Chair of Energy Sector Management.
I completely agree. Our electricity is rare and coveted. Before offering it with hundreds of megawatts, we must ensure that we are making the right choice. I have written several times that Quebec needs an arbiter, an independent body capable of telling us which use of electricity generates the best environmental, economic and social gains.
Otherwise, from TES Canada to Northvolt via Hy2Gen, we will tear our shirts every time a block of electricity is granted to an industrialist, unable to know if it is really a good decision.
2. Read the - text
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