Author: Louis Simard
Introduction
The case study concerns a wind farm project by TransAlta in the municipality of St-Valentin, situated south of Montréal near the border with Vermont. The project was to generate 51.8 MW, using 19 turbines of 2 MW each and six turbines of 2.3 MW. Twenty-eight potential sites were under consideration.
Read A Matter of Trust: The role of communities in energy decision-making
Six public organizations were involved in the regulatory process: 1) the Government of Québec initiated the call for proponents (power target and price); 2) HydroQuébec was responsible for selection; 3) the MDDECCL (Quebec’s Environmental Department) was to conduct the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for each proposal; 4) the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) was to lead public hearings; 5) the Québec government was to provide final authorization; and 6) the Québec Energy Board was to approve the contracts between Hydro-Québec (HQ) and the private proponents. In July 2011, the government rejected the project(BAPE, 2011a). The project was off the list of HydroQuébec selected projects for the second call for proponents (2005-2007).