Quebec bets on wind power
"Think big." The motto might also sum up Hydro-Quebec's stance on wind power.
When the utility first experimented with wind turbines decades ago, it built them so large -- more than twice the size of the current industry average -- that the wind blew one away.
In 10 days, Hydro is to mark another mammoth milestone. Sept. 18 is the deadline for the utility's second and largest call for tenders for wind power. It wants to purchase 2,000 megawatts of wind power from private developers with selected wind-farm projects that are to be put into operation between 2010 and 2015.
Hydro-Quebec plans to purchase 2,000 megawatts of wind power from private developers.
Herald Archive, Reuters
"That's huge," said Jean-Thomas Bernard, a University Laval economist specializing in energy analysis. "Last year, in the entire United States, less than 2,600 megawatts of wind power was developed, and here there is a (single) request for 2,000 megawatts."
Almost all the numbers associated with the tender are substantial, if not staggering. Hydro-Quebec says supply contracts for the new wind farms will generate about $4 billion in investments.
About 1,500 new full-time jobs in the wind industry in Quebec will be created between now and 2015 and there will be 43,000 person-years of employment during the construction phase, according to a study commissioned by the Canadian Wind Energy Association.
Calculations by Quebec economist Gabriel Saint-Marie and U.S. energy analyst Joshua Magee point to the potential for handsome revenues for the firms that will operate those new wind farms.
Should Hydro-Quebec end up paying an average of nine cents per kilowatt-hour for the new power, each turbine would generate about $414,000 or, cumulatively, about $538 million a year in gross annual revenues over a span of up to 25 years.
Little wonder then that about 200 interested parties attended Hydro-Quebec's pre-bid technical conferences, ready to parlay the cost of preparing into a chance at the bonanza.
Magee, a senior analyst with Massachusetts-based Emerging Energy Research, shares the consensus view that competition will be fierce, particularly among would-be wind-farm developers. Most observers expect Hydro-Quebec will receive proposals for 8,000 megawatts of wind power.
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