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Two days ago, a smiling Jean Charest got behind the wheel of a bulldozer and broke the ceremonial ground for the construction of La Romaine project, the “biggest construction project in Canada”. The $8 billion project will generate at the height of its construction period (2012-2016) about 2000 jobs and will be competed by 2020.

It might be true for Quebec that hydro is the most economical option than all other renewables because this province is stuck in the 70s and can’t see the forest for its trees. Globally, the total installed capacity of green energies (excluding hydro) has increased by 75% in just a year: wind has increased by 250% and photovoltaic by 70%, while big hydro only 3.2%. Two days ago California announced 1320MW of solar to be installed in 09-10’ which is almost as much as the La Romaine project will generate 10 years down the road. Germany generates 31% of its energy through wind, Portugal 32%, Spain 40% and Denmark 45%. Hydro-Quebec still argues that Quebec can only do 10%, while its wind potential is the second largest in the world. Even China has doubled its wind installed capacity for the 5th consecutive year with 12,210MW installed to date. Estonia, a country with 1.5 million people has installed six times more geothermal pumps, Manitoba 20 times and Sweden, a country with a 10 million population installs 35,000 to 40,000 geothermal pumps a year. In Quebec we have installed 360 pumps in 2007. Austria has installed more MW of solar thermal collectors than the Rupert and La Romaine projects combined, some 2500MW. See more stats here.

Quebec citizens also need to reassess their consumption levels. In 2003, without Quebec’s contribution (a 29% increase), total consumption of primary electricity in Canada would have decreased. Vermont has decreased their energy consumption by 5% in 8 years while ours has increased by 13% on average. Moreover the Quebec government is planning to create another 8000 MW of hydro by 2035. As is there are 5500 dams and dikes in Quebec and 80% of all rivers have been already used for hydro. We consume the most water in Canada, with 20% more residential consumption than the average Canadian and twice as much as EU. Canada has the 2nd largest water consumption with double the rate of a survey of 16 developed countries. Canada’s per capita water consumption was nine times greater than that of UK. At this rate we will start buying bulk water form elsewhere.

Even though the cap-and-trade regime in the US drives the costs of fossil-fuel generation, the country will be investing $150 billion over 10 years to promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency and support local manufacturers. With that kind of investment and the slight protectionist stance during the economic downturn Quebec hydro has much lower chances to figure as a principal import target. If Quebec continues to remain a laggard in renewable energies it will have accept the consequences in the future.