Bottomless supply? Concerns of limited Canadian hydropower as U.S. seeks to decarbonize grid
HARTFORD, Conn. –
Policymakers looking for to make the U.S. electrical grid much less reliant on fossil fuels have lengthy seemed north to Canada and its plentiful surplus of hydropower, advocating for brand new transmission strains to deliver extra of that low cost, clear electrical energy south.
But with demand for inexperienced power rising north of the border, too, there are new considerations that Canada’s hydro provide is not as bottomless because it as soon as appeared.
A examine printed in May by the Montreal Economic Institute predicted that Quebec, now house to one of many world’s largest hydroelectric methods, will over the following decade fall in need of the producing capability wanted to fulfill rising demand for energy within the province.
Some New England lawmakers are questioning the knowledge of plans to assemble new transmission strains throughout their states, regardless of Canadian power large Hydro-Quebec’s insistence it may well nonetheless meet its power obligations.
“They have their own energy needs,” Maine state Sen. Nicole Grohoski mentioned of the Canadians. The Democrat mentioned it’s “overly optimistic” for policymakers to depend on Canadian hydropower. “There are industrial users up there that are already having issues and they’re not interested in investing in Quebec because they’re worried about power supply.”
Over a long time, Hydro-Quebec, which is owned by the Province of Quebec, has constructed a collection of hydro-electric amenities, most within the northern reaches of the province. The dams’ building and the next flooding of areas behind them has drawn protests from Indigenous teams and environmentalists on each side of the border.
But within the course of Hydro-Quebec has grow to be the biggest producer of renewable power in North America. It produces almost half of all Canadian hydropower in addition to a smaller variety of wind and different renewable initiatives.
The capability to generate electrical energy left the utility with further energy to promote within the energy-hungry U.S. There are already various transmission strains that carry energy from Canada to the United States and extra on the drafting board.
A line from the border down Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to New York City is beneath building. Authorities in Maine simply gave approval to renew building of a separate line from the border to Massachusetts.
There are additionally pending proposals for strains to achieve southern New England by way of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has been rallying his fellow New England governors to hunt federal funding for transmission line initiatives. The push comes as billions of {dollars} can be found for electrical transmission line initiatives beneath U.S. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure regulation.
“We’ve got to speed things up when it comes to reliability and reserves and more carbon-free power,” Lamont mentioned.
But Quebec is by itself quest to cut back use of planet-warming fuels. The province is hoping to realize carbon neutrality by 2050, whereas demand for hydropower is predicted to develop 14% over the following decade.
“No province now is in a position where they see huge surpluses of electricity that would be available for exports,” mentioned Pierre-Oliver Pineau, an skilled on Canadian power coverage and professor at HEC Montreal, the University of Montreal business college.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Maine who oppose the proposed 145-mile (233-kilometre) New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line lately requested the governor of Massachusetts to overview whether or not Hydro-Quebec can nonetheless meet its power obligations.
They additionally despatched a letter to Quebec Premier Francois Legault questioning whether or not there shall be sufficient electrical energy to energy each that line and the Champlain-Hudson Power Express line, which is at present beneath building. That line is meant to offer New York City with 20% of its energy wants.
The Maine lawmakers mentioned they fear new dams may have to be constructed, a course of that might take years.
“Many people in New England have lived with a myth that Quebec has so much power that it doesn’t know what to do with it all,” the legislators mentioned in a joint assertion.
Local news has reported Jean-Hugues Lafleur, Hydro-Quebec’s monetary officer, mentioned throughout an analyst name final month that the corporate might meet the power demand when it signed the contract in 2018 and that “we still have enough energy to supply the New England region.”
Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes mentioned hydropower is only one piece of the puzzle and that the New England states are additionally working collectively to decarbonize the electrical system by way of different means, together with offshore wind.
Hydro-Quebec, in the meantime, has additionally expressed curiosity in transmission strains able to transferring energy in each instructions. Developers of the proposed 1,000-megawatt transmission line often called New England Clean Power Link, which might run from Quebec to southern New England by way of Vermont, are working to switch its approval to show it right into a bidirectional line.
“This modification would allow the line to be used as originally intended to move hydropower from Canada to New England, while also allowing the line to move loads such as off-shore wind generation from New England to Canada for storage and later use, which could materially help winter reliability in the region,” mentioned June Tierney, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service.
Last month, the state of New Hampshire highlighted a brand new entrant into the northeast transmission combine by asserting plans for a 211-mile, 1,200-megawatt energy line that may enter the United States at Canaan, Vermont, and comply with a buried route south. If constructed, the US$2 billion proposal would even be a bidirectional line.
“This project is also not dependent solely on hydropower — it would have the ability to deliver other forms of clean energy being generated in Canada — such as wind and solar power — to New England,” mentioned a press release from the utility National Grid, which is proposing the road.
Kerrick Johnson, chief innovation and communication officer for the Vermont Electric Power Cooperative, which manages the state’s electrical transmission system, mentioned there is a transformation underway of the electrical manufacturing and distribution system internationally and together with the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada.
“This is a new chapter in the shared-energy history of North America,” he mentioned.
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Ring reported from Stowe, Vt.
