The Islands would like to double their wind power production
The new Iles-de-la-Madeleine wind farm is asking the government for a green light to double or triple its electricity production and thus reduce the islanders' dependence on polluting fuel oil.
Published Oct 18, 2021
Gabriel BélandThe Press
The managers of the Dune-du-Nord wind farm recently registered in the Registry of Lobbyists. Their goal ? See if Quebec would be ready to buy energy produced by two, three or four additional wind turbines in the small park recently inaugurated which has only two.
The Madelinots depended until recently exclusively on the Cap-aux-Meules thermal power plant for their electricity. They lived in a kind of "petrodependency", noted the Bureau of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) in its report on the Dune-du-Nord wind farm.
All that changed last December, when the two wind turbines came into operation.
Hydro-Québec estimates that next December, after one year of operation, they will have saved 7 million liters of fuel oil, the equivalent of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of half of the Islands' car fleet.
“The wind power experience to date has been a success. On the strength of this experience, we are convinced that there is potential to supply more electricity to Hydro-Québec and to install more wind turbines, "explained in an interview the mayor of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Jonathan Lapierre.
Obviously, we live in a small, fragile area. Space is limited. The area that hosts the two wind turbines could potentially accommodate between two and four others.
Jonathan Lapierre, Mayor of the Magdalen Islands
The wind farm is the result of a public-private partnership. The Régie intermunicipale de l’énergie de la Gaspésie et des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, made up of elected officials, is associated with the companies Valeco Énergie Québec and Plan A Infrastructure.
The Régie says it redistributes 4 million of its revenues each year to the MRCs.
His talks with Hydro-Québec are aimed at obtaining a contract by which the state-owned company would buy a good part of the electricity produced by the new wind turbines. Hydro-Québec has already committed to buying 6.4 megawatts produced by the first two wind turbines.
We will not invest municipal money without a Hydro-Québec electricity purchase contract over a good period.
Simon Deschênes, Mayor of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and President of the Intermunicipal Energy Board of Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands
The two wind turbines currently provide 10% of the installed capacity of the thermal power plant, which is 67 MW. But the median consumption in the Islands, far from the winter peaks, is more around 22 MW, indicates the president of the Régie.
“Here we have a contract for 6.4 MW. If we added two or three wind turbines, we could get closer to the median and significantly reduce the consumption of heavy fuel oil on the Islands,” notes Simon Deschênes.
Waiting for the cable
The extension request arises in a particular context. Hydro-Québec announced last September its intention to connect the Islands to its network by an undersea cable.
The 225 km cable must cost more than 700 million and will reach Percé, in Gaspésie. Eventually, this will allow the Madelinots to abandon the thermal power station.
The Hydro-Québec project must be studied by the Régie de l’énergie. The state-owned company hopes to enter service in 2027.
But the arrival of the cable does not call into question the relevance of increasing wind power production, argues Mayor Jonathan Lapierre.
Hydro-Québec does not plan to complete its cable project before 2027, which leaves us more than five years before the cable is put into operation. By that time, that's a lot of fuel that could be saved, that's a lot less GHGs.
Jonathan Lapierre, Mayor of the Magdalen Islands
Mr. Lapierre adds that the cable will be bi-directional, which would redistribute wind energy in the Hydro-Quebec network.
The Crown corporation did not want to comment on the addition of wind turbines to Dune-du-Nord Park. “It is currently being evaluated,” said Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.
“We are aware of the desire to expand the wind farm. We are analyzing all of this. If there were new initiatives in this file, it should be done in line with our connection project,” he said.
He notes, however, that the first year of wind power experience on the Islands has been conclusive.
From an environmental point of view, we conclude [after] almost a year of operation that it works very well. Over one year, we will have saved 7 million liters of fuel oil thanks to these wind turbines, out of a consumption for the plant of 40 million. So it's really very interesting.
Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec
The addition of new wind turbines to the Islands will certainly interest environmental groups. In its brief to the BAPE, the Société de conservation des Îles-de-la-Madeleine was concerned in 2017 "about the protection of the protected plant habitat chosen, that of the Dune-du-Nord".
The promoters of the wind farm have also moved 35 plants of Conrad's corem, a small shrub considered threatened and present only in the archipelago.
La Presse tried to contact the Conservation Society, without success.
