TL: Wind Power Comes of Age in Quebec SO: Francois Tanguay, Greenpeace Quebec (GP) DT: 1993 WIND POWER COMES OF AGE IN QUEBEC FRANCOIS TANGUAY GREENPEACE QUEBEC 2444 NOTRE DAME OUEST MONTREAL H3J 1N6 TEL;514 933 0021 - FAX 514 933 1017 As late as fall 1992 Hydro-Qu‚bec was still claiming publicly that the cost of a kilowatt-hour of wind power was between nine and ten cents.® Wind power will never be more than a complimentary source of energy ¯ claimed Daniel N. Granger, Director of public relations at Hydro. In June of this year Hydro-Qu‚bec announced that it was on the verge of signing a contract with US Windpower for between 4.8 and 5 cents per kwh for two 50 MW intallations at the Magdalen Islands site. The difference between these two extremes shows clearly where Qu‚bec comes from and where we are going in regards to wind power. The prime reason why Hydro-Qu‚bec has been so resilient to the idea of wind power is obvious. When you have been building dams for 30 years it's hard to imagine something as benign as a wind machine being part of the electricity picture as an adequate way of production. Where is the quest ? A whole multi windmill installation goes up in a matter of months, how can this create jobs compared to pouring millions of cubic feet of concrete over years and years ? Another important factor in this all out hydroelectric approach has to do with social and political reasonning. Hydro power was first nationalized in the 1940's and started taking full stride in the 1960's under a minister of energy named Ren‚ L‚vesque. The national ego in Qu‚bec is linked to Hydro-Qu‚bec ! It has long been considered a crime of ® lŠse majest‚ ¯ to even question Hydro's intentions! In other words political interest has always superseded economical interest when the expansion of Hydro, through the building of new dams, was seen as a necessity for the good of the economy. This political credo is no longer automaticaly so. Yet, the possibility of added electricity output through other sources, be it gas or wind power is still seen by many a qu‚becker as nothing less than treason and the idea of actualy needing less energy, or at least of doing more with the same energy is just beginning to scratch the minds of our most notable political thinkers and economists. Hydro has had a relatively easy ride, so far. The first to question it's role were the Cree of James Bay in the early seventies. It took a Supreme Court decision to force the government and Hydro to actualy sit down and negociate the impacts of their interventions on Qu‚bec's North west premier occupants. These highly political negociations are still ongoing and remain complex and tense. On the other hand Hydro-Qu‚bec and the government are now running into a no small amount of public protest. The immense accumulated debt of both the province and Hydro has people wondering wether the big dams are still the ultimate solution to their economic woes. All told the debt of Hydro is, as of spring 93, at 33 billion $, compared to the 39 billion $ debt of the province. Hydro has announced it plans to invest 55 billion $ in the next seven years, about half of which is slated for new power, almost exclusively hydro of course. The interests alone on this debt accounted for about half of all 6 billion $ in revenues from sales of electricity in 1992 ! In fact these 3 billion $ are equal to the amount of money committed to energy efficiency for the rest of the century ,two thirds of which will be covered by Hydro. Hard to imagine they would go all out for wind power given these hard figures. But, as Bob Dylan once wrote, ® The times they are a'changin'¯. What has changed ? First and foremost it's beginning to be obvious that the true blue long lasting jobs related to energy are less and less linked to pouring cement. The numbers coming out on job creation related to alternatives and energy efficiency are eloquent. Hydro's own numbers show clearly that this path makes more economic sense than going the ® concrete ¯ road. Secondly the heavy surpluses created by over building in the late 70's and early 80's led to a genuine fire sale of those surpluses to energy intensive industries, like aluminum smelters. Hydro, with help from a giant shove by the Bourassa government, signed fourteen 24 year ® risk sharing contracts ¯, in which the price of the electricity sold is linked to the price of the commodity produced. As a result Hydro, and the Qu‚bec people, have already lost nearly a billion dollars in revenues with nearly twenty years left to run out on these contracts. That money is not avaiable for other sectors of an already badly bruised economy. Again we see what a wrong set of priorities can do. What amounts to subsidies via rates reductions has resulted in the jobs created in the aluminum smelters costing an average of 200 000$ each a year! I am taking time to underline these aspects because it is critical that the decision makers get their, and country's priorities right in the first place, otherwise the consequenses could be felt for a number of years, as it is the case in Qu‚bec now. We, at Greenpeace, feel a sense of urgency in these very shaky times. We have trouble finding the right language to get our point across, in regards with energy efficiency and renewables, it's not an easy sell as we all know. Of course our hard nosed approach is sometimes counter productive, but what approach is not at any given moment. We believe, like most of you in this room, that wind power is much more than a secondary energy source. We fully understand the structural effects this energy field has on the economy, we are also impressed by the job potential and the quickness with which wind farms can nowadays be installed. Ironicaly enough the best sites in this country happen to be where all the major dams in Qu‚bec are either built or projected. In one case, at Lac Robertson, on Qu‚bec's lower North Shore, the electricity produced by a new dam will come in at no less than 30 cents a kwh ! Hydro has failed to come up with a conclusive answer on why it ignored the undeniable wind potential of the site. The cost of electrifying the homes at Lac Robertson is at no less than 15 000$ each. Again in this case we see where the political hobnail boot has overstepped logical economical decision making. Wind power was in this case, the best route to take, it was another occasion to evaluate the technology in our climatic zone, and most important, compare it to hydro power in remote areas. Furthermore, Hydro-Qu‚bec is known to have established the best technology in coupling wind turbines with diesel backup generators. In other words there was no reason whatsoever to take the hydroelectric route, except, of course if you're and eager beaver and you like to chew concrete after breakfast,and, of course, you have enough friends in parliament! The cost of wind power has always been used as an argument against it's use in an hydroelectric intense region like Qu‚bec. This is no longer valid of course, and for a number of reasons. The actual cost of the electricity produced by wind turbines has fallen below the five cents per kwh barrier. In the mean time the real costs of hydro power are yet unknown since externalities have never been included in HQ's calculations because, as it claimed, they were impossible to measure. We will be faced in the near future with these costs, and then we will get a much clearer picture of what a kwh of hydro power realy costs. Hydro also benefits, as a government owned utility of all sorts of tax advantages and loan guaranties. As a matter of fact, Roger Dunn, one of Hydro's numerous vice presidents admitted recently that a Great Whale kilowatt-hour would wind up costing between six and seven cents, once delivered in Montr‚al ! Speaking of Great Whale...the estimated costs of this project have already more than doubled and work has not even begun yet! The 3060 Mw or so ( the numbers keep changing) projected for Great Whale will cost no less than l6 billion$ compared the 10 282 Mw of James Bay phase one, and the 5 500 Mw of Phase two that are estimated at a little over 21 billion $ naer completion. Little wonder it's hard for Hydro to think small ! Actualy the cost of wind power continues to fall as the price of hydro power continues to rise. How much longer will these costs have to spread before HQ realises that it can no longer let wind power take a back seat in the energy bandwagon ! To Greenpeace Qu‚bec the only obstacles to a growing wind industry are political. Once political will is exerted anything can happen. This is why we at Greenpeace are waging the moral equivalent of war in favor of renewables and energy efficiency. Unless enough social and political pressure is exerted on both the government and Hydro we will have to wait for the obvious economic signals to point the way. Unfortunatly, as we all know, politicians are the last to react to such signals, and by the time they do it's often too late. How is it that Qu‚bec, which has double the wind potential of California, and doesn't even have a single turbine on the grid ? The answer, I am afraid, lies in two words: ROBERT BOURASSA ! He has made his political life on mega dams, and like the dams, his future is bleak. His refusal to induce Qu‚beckers into widening their energy vision is now costing us billions of dollars, and worse, it has led us too far down the wrong road. Qu‚bec is like a one company town, we are too vulnerable to the whims of the shop's patron. It is of extreme importance to us that the wind industry people understand the political bind Qu‚bec is in. Do not be blinded by the fact that the technology has become mature, or that the costs are competitive with any other potential source of energy. The bottom line is political. I am aware that such a discourse in a reunion like this, where the essence of the discussions lies in technical matters, may seem out of line. Yet I would like to think that it may serve a purpose, and a practical one at that. Unless you keep lobbying for wind power, unless you state your point publicly, and as often as you can, you will remain dependant on the political climate rather than on the real climate. Political storms are not the kind of wind you'd want your wind turbines to be confronted with. You can be assured that Greenpeace Qu‚bec will keep on fighting the alternate energies war. It remains a major part of our energy policy. We have been asking for a long time for a full scale debate on our energy future and an energy policy that is centered on Demand Side Management with the obvious emphasis on energy efficiency and alternative sources of energy. We think that a variety of sources remains our best insurance policy for the future. But at the hub of our demands and proposals is the absolute need for a depolitisation of the decision process. That is why we consider that, even tough the technical advances of the last few years in wind powered energy are obvious, the political ground has to be cleared for the good of the industry and the citizens of Qu‚bec. May the wind blow through your turbines and, may this wind be a wind of change. I thank with all my heart the devoted staff at CANWEA for their support and their open mind towards Greenpeace. WE fully appreciate the occasion you have given us here to state our position, and, I hope to be of some help to you in understanding the political climate in Qu‚bec. Francois Tanguay Greenpeace Qu‚bec