Hydro-Québec will begin building solar generating stations in La Prairie and Varennes in 2020

Montréal, December 4, 2019 - Hydro-Québec will begin building solar generating stations in La Prairie and Varennes in spring 2020. Commissioning is scheduled for fall 2020.

This project will allow us to conduct the necessary tests to determine whether solar energy is well adapted to the Québec climate, to our generating fleet and to our transmission system.

The two generating stations will have a combined annual generating capacity of close to 10 megawatts (MW), enough to supply about 600 residential customers. The generating stations will be located on land belonging to Hydro-Québec.

Québec companies will play a key role in this project. The contractor selected to build the generating stations is Borea Construction, a subsidiary of Pomerleau. In addition, the Québec company Stace of Trois-Rivières will supply close to 4,000 solar panels for the generating station in La Prairie. The engineering firm Hatch is also involved in the projet as owner's engineer for Hydro-Québec. 

Technical data:

Generating station in La Prairie (site of former La Citière thermal generating station)

• Area: 150,000 m2, or the equivalent of 28 football fields

• Installed capacity: 8 MW

• Number of solar panels: 26,000

• Annual output: 13 GWh

Generating station in Varennes (at Hydro-Québec’s research institute, IREQ)

• Area: 56,000 m2, or the equivalent of 10 football fields

• Installed capacity: 1.5 MW

• Number of solar panels: 4,600

• Annual output: 2.6 GWh