Hydro-Québec announces new wind farm generating up to 1,000 MW in eastern Quebec

Hydro-Québec and L’Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est have their eyes set on the Lower St. Lawrence region for a new wind farm project that could generate up to 1,000 megawatts.

The 50/50 partnership, resulting in a $3 billion investment in the region, was announced and signed Wednesday morning. It’s the second large-scale wind project announced by the Crown corporation since it became the main contractor of wind projects over 1,000 megawatts in May.

The wind farm will span over 700 square kilometres of public land in an area dubbed the “Wocawson zone,” using the Wolastoqiyik word for wind. It will fall on part of the Kamouraska municipal region, the unorganized territories of Petit-Lac-Sainte-Anne and Picard, the municipality of Mont-Carmel and Saint-Athanase in the Témiscouata municipal region.

L’Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est represents 209 collectives and territories in eastern Quebec that invest in energy projects in the region.

The Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation, which is part of the Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est, is among the project’s partners.

The Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est and Hydro-Québec are entering into a 50/50 partnership for the new wind farm project. Pictured from left to right: president of the alliance’s administrative council Michel Lagacé, Hydro-Québec vice-president for wind power development Mathieu Johnson and Grand Chief of the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation Jacques Tremblay. (Véronique Duval/Radio-Canada)

“It’s an interesting development project for our nation, for our members, so this is good news,” Grand Chief Jacques Tremblay of the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation told Radio-Canada. “This will help bring us toward economic reconciliation.”

The project is part of Hydro-Québec’s effort to partner with Indigenous communities as outlined in its 2035 strategic plan.

“Historically, Hydro-Québec elaborated its projects and then consulted. Today, we’re approaching communities first and then developing in partnership with them,” Mathieu Johnson, Hydro-Québec’s vice-president of wind power development, said during the project’s unveiling in Saint-Pascal in the Kamouraska region on Wednesday.

The project represents 10 per cent of Hydro-Québec’s goal of adding 10,000 megawatts of wind energy to its network by 2035.

The general manager and secretary for the energy alliance, Jean-François Thériault, told CBC News that transmission infrastructure will have to go hand-in-hand with this project, and is part of the “first phase.”

He said no fixed timeline has been established yet for the completion of the wind farm.

Written by Cassandra Yanez-Leyton with files from Radio-Canada’s Véronique Duval and CBC’s Sarah-Kate Dallaire