Canada Had Designs on Being a Hydro Superpower. Now Its Rivers and Lakes Are Drying Up
The Canadian province of Quebec had big plans of becoming the “battery of the U.S. northeast" by feeding power generated from its dams and other hydro plants to millions of people in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York state. Now, dry conditions that have affected energy output worldwide are forcing one of the world’s largest hydropower producers to cut exports.
“There wasn’t enough snow or rain in the regions where we needed it," said Michael Sabia, chief executive of Hydro‑Québec, the provincial utility. “We can’t make it rain, as much as we’d like to." Elsewhere, China, India and the U.S. in 2023 all recorded decreases in their hydro production for the same reason, contributing to a record global decline in hydropower generation, according to the International Energy Agency.
Many countries resorted to fossil-fuel electricity generation to make up for the hydro shortfall, which drove up carbon-dioxide emissions by 170 megatonnes in 2023, roughly equal to the annual emissions from 40 million gas-powered cars. “Drought is a big concern," said Lei Xie, a researcher with the International Hydropower Association, a London-based nonprofit group. She said it is becoming more difficult for forecasters to model the extremes of climate change, and predict from year-to-year how much electricity local hydroelectric systems will generate.
Canada bet heavily on hydro as a means of cleaning up its carbon footprint; it is the third-largest hydroelectricity producer in the world. But with the climate becoming markedly drier in recent years, Canada’s utilities are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars to diversify their grids, in some cases leaning on power plants fueled by gas or coal to meet mushrooming demand. Hydro power
. Read more on livemint.com
