Vestas deal sparks restart of Canadian wind turbine tower plant

Marmen Énergie will “relaunch” wind tower manufacturing activities at its Matane plant in the province of Quebec, Canada, after winning a supply contract from Vestas for a 350MW project that will employ V162-6.2MW turbines.

Thanks to the Pohénégamook–Picard–Saint-Antonin–Wolastokuk (PPAW) Wind Energy Centre deal, privately-held Marmen said it will add 100 jobs at the facility to provide tower pieces for the 56 Enventus model turbines.

“The 336 tower sections, to be delivered in 2025 and 2026, justify the resumption of operations at our plant and the hiring of 100 employees,” said Patrick Pellerin, president of Marmen, which is based in Quebec.

The wind farm is being developed in an equal partnership between Invenergy and the Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est and represents a $1bn investment, according to the partners. The project is in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River.

PPAW will be among the three largest wind farms in Quebec and will create 23 permanent jobs. The project trails Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ 466MW Buffalo Plains project in Alberta as the country’s biggest, set to enter commercial operation in the fourth quarter.

In March 2023, Hydro-Quebec selected PPAW along with several other wind projects after a request for proposals. The public utility manages generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in the province, as well as export of power to the northeastern US.

Last November, Hydro-Quebec issued an Action Plan that calls for up to C$185bn ($135.7bn) investment through 2035 to add clean generating capacity and bolster system reliability.

It forecasts that electricity demand in the province forecast will double by then, while the planned expansion will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen dependence on hydro.

Abnormally low rainfall and snow melt in parts of Quebec have forced hydro dams to reduce electricity output for local use and available for export to the US.

The plan’s wind component calls for the utility to integrate more than 8GW of capacity into the grid by 2030 and 2GW more by 2035. There are now about 4GW of wind on its system, although no projects came online in Quebec last year.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), the second largest pension fund in Canada, is an investor in Invenergy Renewables, among the largest clean energy developers in North America not controlled by a European or US utility group.

Alliance de l’énergie de l’Est brings together 209 municipalities and territories, as well as the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation. The goal is to ensure the participation of communities of Eastern Quebec in renewable electricity production projects on their territories, according to the group.