It will cost $695 million a year to produce wind power that Quebec doesn't need

It will cost $695 million a year to produce wind power that Quebec doesn't need - WSJ.com:

MONTREAL, June 17, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Invoking "obvious economic reasons," i.e., annual savings of $24 million, the Quebec government cancelled six small hydroelectric power projects this past February. In April, however, it announced new supply contracts for wind power, a sector that is already guaranteed to receive an implicit subsidy of $695 million a year until 2020. For Youri Chassin, economist at the MEI and the author of the Economic Note released today, we have an urgent need for rational decisions based on our actual energy requirements and not on artificial support of various energy sectors.
"Quebecers pay literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year to produce electricity from wind turbines that they don't need. This energy is 2.5 times more expensive than hydroelectricity. Even if they account for only a small proportion of the electricity produced here, Hydro-Québec has indicated that the most recent rate hike was due almost entirely to these new projects," explains Mr. Chassin.

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