TES Canada Assures Success of Hydrogen ‘Megaproject’
The CEO of TES Canada assures us that the green hydrogen megaproject in Mauricie will help decarbonize two sectors that are challenging to electrify: industry and heavy transportation.
Nearly a year after its announcement, the $4 billion green hydrogen project is progressing rapidly: TES Canada is signing contracts to install wind turbines, launching calls for tenders for its electrolyzers, and building a collaboration with Hydro-Québec. Consultations by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) are scheduled for next year.
The promise: to produce 70,000 tons of green hydrogen annually, starting in 2028, to replace fossil fuels. To generate this clean gas, water molecules are split with electricity. The Shawinigan plant must be powered by self-production of wind (800 megawatts) and solar (200 MW) energy, and 150 MW from Hydro-Québec.
Two weeks ago, Hydro-Québec CEO Michael Sabia suggested to parliamentarians that more effort—and megawatts—were needed to decarbonize Quebec businesses.
Éric Gauthier, the head of TES Canada, in an interview with THE Duty, says: “Well, that’s exactly what we want to do,”
The project, which is expected to consume as much electricity as Longueuil, is taking off as everyone is competing for Quebec energy. Producing green hydrogen involves considerable energy losses: from 25% to 40% of the electricity used, depending on the situation. Experts therefore advise that it be used in a finely targeted manner.
Mr. Gauthier confirms: “People will say: if we use this to heat a house in Westmount, it makes no sense from an energy perspective, it’s an abomination. Yes, we agree, that’s for sure!”
He acknowledges: “Our solution is not a solution to decarbonize everything, TES targets two clientele: heavy trucking and the industrial sector. It aims to reduce its emissions by 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
To allocate megawatts to green hydrogen projects, the Quebec Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy requires that the molecule be used in a “priority sector”: heavy transport, industry (metallurgy, refining, green chemistry) or energy storage. “The injection of hydrogen into the gas network is not a priority sector,” the ministry states on its website.
To supply industrial customers, TES Canada had to find a way to get its clean gas to them. Zigzagging tanker trucks from one end of the province to the other would have hurt its profits. So the company opted for a 20-year partnership with Énergir. Two-thirds of its production will be injected into the gas distributor’s network — despite the ministry’s instructions to the contrary.
Before being injected into the pipeline, TES’s hydrogen will be transformed into methane to facilitate its adoption by plants. It will then become “renewable gas”, chemically identical to natural gas. However, this transformation wastes 20% of the energy. TES plans to recover a good part of these losses by recovering the heat from the process.
With this contract, Énergir will approach the regulatory target of 10% renewable gas in its network by 2030. It already injects methane from organic waste and slurry. Its customers who buy renewable gas can claim a better carbon footprint, but in practice, they receive the same gas mixture as the others.
There is no guarantee that all of TES’s renewable gas will be sold to plants that are difficult to electrify. “We have no guarantee,” admits Mr. Gauthier. The sale of the gas will be Énergir’s responsibility. The company director believes that the high price of renewable gas will push residential customers to electrify rather than consume it.
