On 10 November, the Canadian subsidiary of TES (Tree Energy Solutions) announced the Mauricie project. It consists in installing an electrolyser to produce 70,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year from 2028 in Quebec.

Mauricie is a tourist region in the Canadian province of Quebec. It lies between Montreal and Quebec City, north of the St. Lawrence River. And according to TES, it’s the cradle of renewable electricity in Quebec. It is in this green setting that the Belgian group* is going to set up an electrolyser (with an estimated capacity of 500 MW according to the Canadian press) and a renewable energy production park.

A wind and solar farm

To generate these 70,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, the project will be powered mainly by its own wind and solar farm, which will have an installed capacity of 1 GW. “Taking into account Quebec’s energy realities, self-generation will reduce consumption from the Hydro-Québec grid. The wind farm will also offer opportunities for optimisation, in particular by switching off the electrolyser during peak times,” says TES in its press release.

However, setting up wind turbines is a sensitive issue, which is why information sessions are planned for the communities concerned on 21, 27 and 28 November.

This green hydrogen project that will reduce Quebec’s emissions by 3%

With a budget of **4 billion Canadian dollars, this Mauricie project is one of the biggest to decarbonise Quebec. It could reduce the province’s greenhouse gas emissions by 3% by 2030. TES estimates a reduction of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Production will be 100% local. One third of the green hydrogen produced will be dedicated to decarbonising heavy transport, which alone accounts for almost 10% of Quebec’s emissions. The remaining volumes will be used to produce renewable natural gas (e-gas), a renewable fuel used to decarbonise the heavy industrial sector.

The project will also generate 1,000 jobs during construction and 200 on a permanent basis. TES claims that the economic benefits will amount to several billion dollars.

*Tree Energy Solutions is headquartered in Zaventem, a suburb of Brussels in Belgium. It also has offices in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, the USA, Canada and the Emirates.

** about €2.69 billion or USD 2.9 billion

Do you want to learn more about green hydrogen projects in Quebec? Then our latest article on the subject should interest you. You can read it here.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King