The project has several benefits:
Environmental:
The project responds to a long-standing need to diversify the energy supply source of the Magdalen Islands, which comes exclusively from the production of the Cap-aux-Meules thermal power plant, and is part of the energy strategy of the Magdalen Islands adopted by the municipality in 2017;
The wind farm will reduce GHG emissions from the Cap-aux-Meules thermal power plant by approximately 13% per year, or 17,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. In addition, the wind farm will generate fuel savings of $26.6 million, according to an estimate by Hydro-Québec;
Financial:
The Wind Farm is owned by a Limited Partnership formed by three partners. Plan A Infrastructure, Valeco Énergie Québec, each holding 25% of the company’s capital, and the Gaspésie-Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine Intermunicipal Energy Board, holding 50%. As such, the revenues generated by the operation of the wind farm are distributed in proportion to the capital held by each of the partners. The revenues (profits) received by the Intermunicipal Energy Board will be distributed among all member communities, as are the revenues from the board’s other investments in wind farms in Gaspésie and the Lower St. Lawrence. In 2018, the Board distributed $4.5 million to member MRCs, 18% of which was distributed to the Communauté maritime des Îles-de-la-Madeleine ($800,000 in 2018).
Specifically, the Dune-du-Nord wind farm will generate revenue for the authority in the order of $300,000 per year over twenty years, or approximately $55,000 for the maritime community.
In addition, the municipality of the Magdalen Islands will receive $5,000 per year per MW of production, or $32,000 per year for a period of twenty years. In addition, thanks to the public land management agreement signed by the Maritime Community with the MERN, it will receive approximately $55,000 per year, which will be deposited into a public land development fund.
In total, the Dune-du-Nord project will generate additional revenue for the Maritime Community and the Municipality of the Magdalen Islands in the order of $145,000 per year over 20 years, which will be added to the revenue collected from the other wind farms of the intermunicipal authority.
The park has had spin-offs in terms of direct and indirect jobs, during the construction and now during the operation of the wind farm.