{"id":27162,"date":"2021-10-02T13:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/?p=27162"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T17:33:00","slug":"barrages-et-mirage-hydroelectrique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/barrages-et-mirage-hydroelectrique\/","title":{"rendered":"Building dams to export? The hydroelectric mirage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quebec will have to increase its electricity production capacity by 65% by 2050, the equivalent of 17 hydroelectric complexes similar to that of Romaine, in order to achieve carbon neutrality, we learned. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/societe\/consommation\/635526\/climat-le-quebec-doit-produire-65-plus-d-electricite-pour-atteindre-ses-objectifs-climatiques\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The duty<\/em><\/a>. Even if Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec is banking on wind and solar power, it has not ruled out building new dams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worrying, this opening to new dam projects... Although no major project is in sight for the moment, the repercussions are still to be feared, especially with regard to projects to protect our waterways . It is imperative to temper the enthusiasm for increasing hydroelectricity production without taking into account the impacts on natural environments.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u00ab\u00a0La solution pour respecter les engagements face aux changements climatiques ne passe assur\u00e9ment pas par l\u2019am\u00e9nagement de toutes les rivi\u00e8res et de tous les ruisseaux du Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0\u00bb <\/p><cite><a href=\"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/member\/alain-saladzius\/\">Alain Saladzius<\/a>, president of Fondation Rivi\u00e8res<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A risky electricity export contract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/economie\/633861\/l-etat-de-new-york-a-choisi-hydro-quebec-comme-fournisseur\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/economie\/633861\/l-etat-de-new-york-a-choisi-hydro-quebec-comme-fournisseur\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contract to export surplus electricity to New York City<\/a> also appears interesting from an environmental point of view if it makes it possible to eliminate production from coal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But won&#039;t this coal-fired generation be moved or simply resold elsewhere in the United States? What will be the final economic profit once the selling price is known, minus current sales on the short-term market? Indeed, it is unlikely that this contract will bring the expected $20 billion to Quebec, since we are already exporting this electricity on the free market. In addition, the low price of Quebec hydroelectricity is greatly influenced by that of the dam <a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Centrale_de_Churchill_Falls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">at Churchill Falls<\/a>, which is purchased at 0.5 cents\/kilowatt hour from Newfoundland and Labrador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So will it be necessary to build new expensive dams in Quebec soon? Let us be wary of the mirage of building hydroelectric dams as the solution to climate change, since it is only a drop in the bucket among many others such as wind or solar energy. Any new production has its environmental consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-text-color\">Photo credit: Marcus Ganahl<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:5px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5c98ca7fe7d2b174981fe1d8085c63dd97d719fe6ff13021c58af5b2ef7d08be?s=48&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5c98ca7fe7d2b174981fe1d8085c63dd97d719fe6ff13021c58af5b2ef7d08be?s=96&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-48 photo' height='48' width='48' \/><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">Andr\u00e9 B\u00e9langer<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:3px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Viviane was visiting Fondation Rivi\u00e8res as communications and mobilization manager. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Le Qu\u00e9bec devra augmenter sa capacit\u00e9 de production \u00e9lectrique de 65% d&rsquo;ici 2050, soit l&rsquo;\u00e9quivalent de 17 complexes hydro\u00e9lectriques similaires \u00e0 celui de la Romaine, afin d&rsquo;atteindre la carboneutralit\u00e9, nous apprenait Le Devoir. M\u00eame si Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec mise sur l&rsquo;\u00e9olien et le solaire, elle exclut pas de r\u00e9aliser de nouveaux barrages. Inqui\u00e9tante, cette ouverture \u00e0 de [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":39750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[47,56,57,83],"class_list":["post-27162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chroniques","tag-energie","tag-hydro-quebec","tag-hydroelectricite","tag-qualite-de-leau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}