In the fall of 2008, the Réseau des ingénieurs du Québec hired the ÉcoRessources consulting firm specialized in environment and energy to conduct a major study on energy development in Québec in the context of sustainable development. After several months of work supervised by the RéseauIQ’s Committee to Support the Social-economic Interests of Engineers, the study is now available.

Download the synopsis of the study. (In French only)

Download the complete study. (In French only)

First of all, the study paints a portrait of the energy sector in Québec through an energy consumption and production report. It reveals that: 

• Québec society must find possible solutions for developing different energy systems that meet its needs and are consistent with its means as concerns sustainable development. 
• Industries remain the largest energy consumers (40%), followed by the transportation sector (27%), while the residential, commercial and agricultural sectors divide up the rest (33%). In 2006, the total final energy consumed in Québec was 1,774 petajoules (PJ). 
• Growth in the demand for energy will cause this total to rise above 2,000 PJ in 2016, according to the various estimations of the Québec and Canadian governments. That means an increase in demand of more than 62 terawatthours (TW/h). This increase is higher than the rate of anticipated economic growth.

It then determines the needs and targets to be met in order to reduce consumption and improve the energy efficiency of our activities: 

• Energy consumption per capita largely exceeded that in Japan and the countries of the European Union in 2002, reaching 4.99 ton oil equivalents (toe) per year. Energy inefficiency deprives Québec of major economic benefits because the wasted electricity could generate interesting export revenues. 
• Reducing the toe per capita by 0.5 within 5 years and by 1 toe per capita within 10 years would make it possible to achieve energy savings of 88 TWh (based on a population of 7.6 millions inhabitants in 2006), thereby reducing the energy dependency of Québec by a proportion equal to approximately two power plants the size of La Grande-2. 
• When taking just the 2007-2010 horizon into consideration, barely 9.8% of the 2015 energy consumption reduction targets set in the Québec government’s action plan have been achieved. 
• The potential for energy efficiency in the industrial sector is estimated at 30% of the volumes of oil products consumed, if the incentives allow businesses in this sector to carry out all the initiatives, whose payback period is up to 4 years. 
• More than 99% of energy consumption in the transportation sector comes from fossil fuel combustion and more than 99% of these fuels are imported. If you add the cost of importing cars, that represents a deficit of nearly $20 billion per year for Québec. For that reason, the transportation sector contributes to more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from energy combustion in Québec. Therefore, new policies must be proposed to promote public transportation and active transportation, while the development and use of hybrid and electric vehicles must be supported in Québec.

Finally, as particularly concerns engineering, the study stresses the necessity of increasing and diversifying clean and renewable energy production. 

• Energy production in Québec is mainly limited to the producing electricity and refining oil products. Of the electricity capacity recorded in 2005, 92.2% was supplied by hydroelectricity. The thermal power plants supplied 5.3%, nuclear power plants 1.5% and wind power plants 0.9%. 
• Out of Hydro-Québec’s $2.9 billion in profits in 2007, $733 million came from sales outside Québec. Net exports, which resulted from 10.7 TWh in net outflows from reservoirs, represented only 5.6% of Hydro-Québec’s total electricity sales volume, but 25% of the total net profit. 
• Hydroelectric production has the advantage of presenting an almost fully clean record when it comes to pollutant emissions, although it requires major physical transformations of the areas where it is developed. 
• Despite the efforts required to create better energy efficiency, it is clear that the growth in domestic demand and the economic objectives of exporting require greater production of electricity in the future (especially if transportation is widely electrified). Current hydroelectric development projects must therefore be supported. 
• The wind power industry is growing rapidly in Québec: a wind capacity of 3,500 MW is expected for 2017, which would represent around 8% of the total capacity in Québec. However, we must succeed in integrating even greater production and distribution capacity in the network, along the lines of the intention announced in the last provincial budget. 
• An increase in passive and photovoltaic solar energy production, as well as geothermal power, is also desirable. To do so, the development of micro-generation units may be of great benefit to communities in Québec: diversify sources of energy and promote energy security, support rural development and increase revenues by reselling electricity. 
• Finally, the biofuel market in Québec offers an interesting opportunity, thanks to the introduction of new requirements by the federal government as concerns the proportion of renewable fuels in all fuels (5% in fuel by 2010 and 2% in diesel by 2012). However, to avoid monopolizing a large portion of agricultural production, it is necessary to develop particularly 2nd and 3rd generation biofuel industries, such as cellulosic ethanol for example.

Beyond these recommendations, the study questions engineers themselves. Through the RéseauIQ, they must participate in implementing the recommendations adopted in the study. That is why we are organizing a major tour of every region of Québec to present the study to members and talk to them about what can be done to support the implementation of the adopted recommendations.