Hydropower Line From Quebec Could Power a Million NYC Homes (nytimes.com) 108
The Champlain Hudson Power Express, a $6 billion, 339-mile buried transmission line, will soon deliver Canadian hydropower from Hydro-Quebec to New York City. The project could supply up to 20% of the city's electricity and power roughly one million homes throughout the year. "This is far and away the largest project I have ever worked on," said Bob Harrison, who has worked in infrastructure for 40 years and is the head of engineering for the Champlain Hudson Power Express. "We like to say it's the largest project you'll never see." The New York Times reports: The massive power project, expected to provide energy to a million New York City customers a year, travels underground and underwater, from the northern plains at the Canadian border to the filled-in marshlands of coastal Queens, much of it loosely following the Hudson River. Its construction included the underwater installation of more than two million feet of cable imported from Sweden. It also required special boats, loaded with equipment that could shoot water jets deep into the sediment, to create trenches for the cable. Then, when it came to placing cable beneath the landscape, more than 700 land-use easements were needed, plus an additional 1.55 million feet of cable.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express has found a way to plug into the city, but it wasn't easy. The work included 10 new manholes and more than three miles of new underground circuitry, according to Con Edison, the city's primary electricity provider. "It was literally a hand weave under the streets of Queens," said Jennifer Laird-White, the head of external affairs for Transmission Developers. The hydropower travels from Canada via two buried cables that are as round as cantaloupes. Those lines snake for hundreds of miles under a lake, several rivers (including the Hudson for about 90 miles) and through buried trenches alongside train tracks and roads. The cables resurface in Astoria, Queens, where a converter station shapes, filters and refines the raw power into a product that New Yorkers can consume.
In two cavernous rooms that could be mistaken for "Star Wars" sets, the electricity flows through 30 hanging structures encased in what look like metallic, dinosaurlike exoskeletons. Each one weighs about as much as a small humpback whale and contains microprocessors, thousands of valves and fiber wires. "I am still wowed when I walk into that facility," said Mr. Harrison, the engineer. "I mean, it is just mind-boggling."
The Champlain Hudson Power Express has found a way to plug into the city, but it wasn't easy. The work included 10 new manholes and more than three miles of new underground circuitry, according to Con Edison, the city's primary electricity provider. "It was literally a hand weave under the streets of Queens," said Jennifer Laird-White, the head of external affairs for Transmission Developers. The hydropower travels from Canada via two buried cables that are as round as cantaloupes. Those lines snake for hundreds of miles under a lake, several rivers (including the Hudson for about 90 miles) and through buried trenches alongside train tracks and roads. The cables resurface in Astoria, Queens, where a converter station shapes, filters and refines the raw power into a product that New Yorkers can consume.
In two cavernous rooms that could be mistaken for "Star Wars" sets, the electricity flows through 30 hanging structures encased in what look like metallic, dinosaurlike exoskeletons. Each one weighs about as much as a small humpback whale and contains microprocessors, thousands of valves and fiber wires. "I am still wowed when I walk into that facility," said Mr. Harrison, the engineer. "I mean, it is just mind-boggling."
In normal times, this would be true (Score:5, Insightful)
That's assuming Trump doesn't do the usual Trump-y thing and suddenly complain about how much it's ripping off Americans, didn't use enough American steel, doesn't give America enough ownership, etc. etc.
I personally wouldn't count on it until the electricity is actually flowing to those million homes... and, even then, I'd still probably be holding my breath.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
You forgot the lack of "Fairness and Respect" [truthsocial.com].
Re: In normal times, this would be true (Score:2, Insightful)
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Like a poisoned and poisonous LLM trained on complete bullshit.
That raises a question: Was that post composed by an LLM or has it subsequently been used as input to something like Grok?
As to "lack of respect", respect can be earned but so can its lack.
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"The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup." Beyond delusional, just completely batshit insane current USA president. Like a poisoned and poisonous LLM trained on complete bullshit.
Projection. Just telling his own plans.
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That's assuming Trump doesn't do the usual Trump-y thing
Is there a Trump equivalent to "windmills" for water power? Can we expect statements about "water wheels don't work" or has he gone completely "Mad King George"?
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Tranmission lines will face lawsuits too (Score:1)
That's assuming Trump doesn't do the usual Trump-y thing ...
Today, it'll probably never get that far. "Environmentalist" lawsuits will probably halt construction, some "protected habitat/species" will be "harmed". Solar and wind projects are increasingly getting stalled by such things. This project will likely face many lawsuits, being a transmission line rather than an oil pipeline won't prevent this.
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Today, it'll probably never get that far
They started building it 2022, and expect it to be operational in May. In other words: its already pretty much finished.
You are a bit late to the party to shit on its prospects of getting off the ground.
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"Master Blaster runs Bartertown!"
"Lift embargo."
Re: In normal times, this would be true (Score:1)
What, you think he'll pull a Biden and cancel approval of a Canadian energy project, like the Keystone XL pipeline?
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in Quebec more like "pardon hein"
Hello, comrade. (Score:1)
Nice try commie, but we only accept power from polluting sources down here.
Quebec use 99% hydro & from renewable electric (Score:5, Informative)
Just in case some don't know, Quebec use 99% hydro and from renewable electricity and still has quite a bit leftover to export:
https://www.hydroquebec.com/ab... [hydroquebec.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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ooo an on topic thread ...
Apparently it is a DC connection and this is why it needs "thousands of valves". The valves are not valves they are individual power semiconductors in serial to manage the massive voltage and the "fiber wires" are fiber
Re:Quebec use 99% hydro & from renewable elect (Score:4, Informative)
The Thyristor was originally called a "valve" (it still is, just in Greek now). Obviously, somebody messed up in the writing of the article.
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To further muddy the waters valves are vacuum tubes to Britain.
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Indeed. Probably reason they moved to "Thyristor". Vacuum tubes and semiconductors are very different beasts.
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Also "filtered and refined", because we do not want the customer to experience any bad spoiled or expired electrons.
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Hey Canada, here's a hint (Score:5, Funny)
Keep your energy to provide it to Canadians for cheaper. The US has plenty of oil and coal I've been told.
Re:Hey Canada, here's a hint (Score:5, Informative)
As I posted above, Quebec uses 99% hydro and renewable and still has plenty to export. They sell some to Ontario and the maritime provinces but it's more a matter of transmission lines. Selling it to British Columbia or Alberta would be harder at the moment due to the lack of transmission lines as well as transmission losses if there were any. So, there is still some available to sell to the near states in United States at market price there or a bit lower.
By the way, Hydro-Quebec is owned by the government and all the profits go to the government and helps paying the cost of running the government like education, roads and social programs etc. Citizens in Quebec pay around 7 cents a KWh at that's Canadian money where 1 $CAN == 0.70 $US
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Hydro-Quebec is owned by the government and all the profits go to the government and helps paying the cost of running the government like education, roads and social programs etc.
Just like every other tax collected by the government. You didn't mention the cost overruns of SAAQClick, nor the disaster that is the road network that is falling apart or the construction of a hospital parking lot instead of fixing a hospital that is crumbling with water cascading from years of negligence.
Yes Quebec has an abundance of hydro electric power due to the appropriation of land and assets. You make it sound like a utopia when reality is more middle ground.
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BC has lots of its own hydro. It sells excess to Washington and Alberta.
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BC has lots of its own hydro. It sells excess to Washington and Alberta.
And California, and not much to Alberta due to lack of stable interconnects. Unluckily, due to drought, lately BC has been a net importer. Still profitable as we import cheap power and export expensive power, based on the time.
Alberta is finally talking about fixing the interconnects, which would be good. We have lots of hydro, they have lots of renewables, so complement each other.
Canada really needs east to west interconnects, as well as some to the NWT and the Yukon. Lots of planned mines up there that n
Re:Hey Canada, here's a hint (Score:5, Insightful)
Choosing it to sell to someone whose administration is actively trying to undermine you, would be self-defeating.
This isn't about business. The US is burning its bridges, well, let's burn this one too. Trade is for people you can trust and rely on.
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Choosing it to sell to someone whose administration is actively trying to undermine you, would be self-defeating.
This isn't about business. The US is burning its bridges, well, let's burn this one too. Trade is for people you can trust and rely on.
The advantage of selling power to the U.S. is that if they try to invade all that infrastructure gets destroyed and their own people lose access to the electricity, oil and St Lawrence Seaway. Attacking Canada becomes effectively attacking themselves. Let Quebec power New York City and as soon as an invasion begins the lights go out.
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The advantage of selling power to the U.S. is that ... attacking Canada becomes effectively attacking themselves.
Absolutely. Consider that a major driver for the creation of the EU was to *promote*, not burn down, the economic interdependence between nations that had spent centuries killing each other in ever-intensifying conflicts.
Rather the opposite of
burn this one too. Trade is for people you can trust and rely on.
Of course you can take it too far, to the point where someone else has so much economic power over you they can force an agenda. Current examples: EU dependence on Russian energy and US defense. The more Canada can provide the US with products it relies on, the mor
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Are you kidding me... Hydro Quebec is the worst example of a government owned monopoly.
The fictional goal:
"helps paying the cost of running the government like education, roads and social programs etc. Citizens in Quebec pay around 7 cents a KWh at that's Canadian money where 1 $CAN == 0.70 $US"
The reality:
That money is being wasted by our politicians at the moment, that vote themselve 30% salary increase, wasted around 800M~ in public funds on various prone-to-fail projects, increase the public system inst
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Do you really think that private would do better? Yes, they would extract more profits, shareholders would be happy and there wouldn't be any of that expensive maintenance creating even more short term profit. They could also increase prices easier then the government as their only responsibility is to their shareholders, no pesky voters to worry about.
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Yes they would do better in the private sector, and competition would rise, the same than the energy section for cars... do you see your governement sell gaz ? No they fucking tax it lol...
How can that be more obvious than that, it the same for the health sector... claiming we have a free healthcare system... please let me laugh for 16 hours while someone wait aorund 12-18 month for a MRI to change their life and get themself a diagnostic and the follow-ups, while you can have that done in 24 hours for a me
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> We lost the control ... lurk back to Ontario and the USA and cry for energy that we need to buy back at crazy rate.
Do you have references?
From the following link, Quebec has only recently (~2024 / 2025) started to buy more power from outside than it's sold, and it looks like it's done so at a good profit:
"Hydro-Québec is now buying more power from outside the province than it’s exporting, a significant reversal from years past caused by a drop in its northern water reservoirs at a time of su
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Sure:
Canada’s electricity imports (driven largely by hydro provinces like Québec) reached: 23.2 TWh in 2024 (+8% YoY)
Source : Canada Energy Regulator
Imports have been increasing every year since 2020
Source : Canada Energy Regulator
In 2024, Québec recorded the biggest year-over-year increase in imports in Canada: +3.9 TWh imported from the U.S.
Source : Statistics Canada
In 2024, Hydro-Québec bought: ~6 TWh (2024) ~10 TWh (2025) -> That’s a ~66% increase in one year
Source : Hydr
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> The problem is that as this happen and progress, we will be bind by legal agreement to supply this province or that state
In other words, for now there isn't as you said a need to "lurk back to Ontario and the USA and cry for energy that we need to buy back at crazy rate" and currently HQ is still making a large profit overall from it's sales and purchases of power from outside the province.
> and we will be fucked
That doesn't seem to be the case. The current reduction of power exports is because of b
Re: Hey Canada, here's a hint (Score:1)
Selling it to British Columbia or Alberta would be harder at the moment due to the lack of transmission lines as well as transmission losses if there were any.
I'm confused, they can build transmission lines to NY State, but they can't/won't build transmission lines to British Columbia or Alberta?
Your uncertainty about line losses undermines your argument - confusion/ignorance on that basic concept is troubling.
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Alberta is sorta like Texas, but stupider. They traditionally don't believe in interconnects and have mostly banned new renewable builds as it blocks the view of all the abandoned oil wells. BC of course has lots of its own hydro and wants to interconnect to Alberta, who has already built a lot of renewables. Hydro + wind + solar works well together.
We also need interconnects north, BC to the Yukon and Alberta to the NWT, lots of mines planned up there that need cheap power.
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I'm confused, they can build transmission lines to NY State, but they can't/won't build transmission lines to British Columbia or Alberta?
Is the economics of this confusing to you? Montréal to NYC is about 600 km. Montréal to Calgary is maybe 6 times that. NYC metro area has about 20 million people, which is nearly half the population of all of Canada.
It'll be used for AI ... (Score:1)
Keep your energy to provide it to Canadians for cheaper.
Doubtful, it'll go to international conglomerates who put an AI data center in Canada.
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It comes down to this: politics, finer: diplomatic soft power. Once the northern States become dependant of Canadian electricity... how about some count
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Trump sure freaked out when cutting power to the States was brought up by Ontario. Unluckily with America close to a magnitude larger population wise, we're a lot more dependent on them then they are on us. As good as full economic war sounds, we're outnumbered.
Wouldn't it be easier ... (Score:2)
and a lot cheaper to just move the data centres to northern NY State, and run fiber optics down to the city?
Re: Wouldn't it be easier ... (Score:1)
That's so cute, you think the issue is building massive datacenters on expensive Manhattan real estate. It's the homes, apartments, electric trains, HVAC, lights, etc in NYC.
Datacenters get built where land, power, wages are cheap...
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Thats so condescending. And stupid. You think there are not many data centres in or near NYC?
Moving them frees up power for homes. And it is actually happening, just not enough.
The other reason, it turns out, is greenwashing. More hydro-power in NYC improves their paper renewables targets in a way that moving heavy power users does not.
The NY Times ain't what it used to be (Score:5, Informative)
Bizarre journalism. The NY Times really isn't what it used to be. Cables as "round as cantaloupes"? We assume they meant to describe the thickness. A structure as heavy as a "small humpback whale"? I have no idea how big (or small) that might be. Some actual, useful facts would be nice. Voltage? Watts? It's probably a fascinating engineering project, but someone needs to go back to journalism school.
For anyone curious, the CHPE site (the first link) does have some better info: 1250MW, 339 miles of cable.
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I wonder if the newspaper website has a switch for people to choose between "Basic maths" vs "weird analogies".
Re: The NY Times ain't what it used to be (Score:2)
There is a meme for this American tendency:
https://imgflip.com/i/8g6qg7 [imgflip.com]
Word analogies need something known (Score:1)
I wonder if the newspaper website has a switch for people to choose between "Basic maths" vs "weird analogies".
Word analogies don't work when you don't know what is referred to. OK, cantalope sized might be OK, but being a humpback whale weight? That latter is not really an improvement over "it weight a lot".
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The writers have been sacked and replaced with a cheaper AI that was asked to write for American audiences. The AI realized most of the country operates on a 6th grade level.
Re:The NY Times ain't what it used to be (Score:5, Interesting)
You are not wrong. I asked Claude:
The average American adult reads at roughly a 7th to 8th grade level, so that's the target for accessible news writing.
Most major news organizations aim for 6th to 8th grade. The Associated Press and USA Today tend to land around 6th to 7th grade. The New York Times sits a bit higher, closer to 8th to 9th grade, which reflects a somewhat more educated readership.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula is the standard tool for measuring this. Short sentences, common words, and one idea per paragraph drive the score down, which is what you want for broad accessibility.
So if you asked me to write a news story for the average American adult, I'd target 7th grade as the sweet spot.
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"I asked Claude:"
He says with no sense of irony at all....
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If you want to know what AI is going to do, you prompt AI. If you want to speculate you just make up what shit you want.
I don't see how asking AI how it would solve a problem is the wrong way to find out how AI will solve a problem.
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I didn't say it's wrong.
I simply find it ironic.
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I feel like an actual measurement would help even illiterate americans more than "small humpback whale"
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I feel like an actual measurement would help even illiterate americans more than "small humpback whale"
I doubt Europeans are any better, except in those European countries that sill hunt whales.
Outside of commercial whaling communities, its probably just Trekkies (ST IV) and marine biologists, USA or EU.
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They should have used more relatable units, like "as heavy as 12 Teslas" (bonus for name checking actual somewhat-related yet totally inappropriate unit of measurement!) or "a whopping 1/18th of the International Space Station." Really, who goes around weighing humpback whales these days?
As for the cables, clearly "the thickness of a standard woodchuck" would be far better, or perhaps for the Florida audience, "Burmese-Python sized". Unless of course they've developed some technology where they just pour
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The NYT isn't about journalism any more, its job is to advocate for the Administrative State.
Re: The NY Times ain't what it used to be (Score:1)
Are you saying the NYT is right-leaning/conservative? Really?
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Bizarre journalism. The NY Times really isn't what it used to be.
It's not the newspaper or the journalists. They're just tailoring the writing style to appeal to the subscribers.
Fans of science fiction might recall "The Marching Morons", by C.M. Kornbluth (1951 short story) and "The Space Merchants" (1952 novel) by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. Both feature news stories written for idiots. That second one was an inspiration for the movie "Idiocracy". And "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper" (1932) by H.G. Wells describes a future newspaper that presents complex
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Does our President speak the way he does because that's the only way he can express himself, or is he using language his base understands?
Both, it's the secret to his success.
Bought by a billionaire (Score:2)
Look up the New York times pitch bot. It does parody headlines based on New York times articles and at least once a month it accidentally does a real headline. Also the creator of the bot every now and then has to stop the bot and post a real headline because it's indistinguishable from what the bot does anyway.
90% of our media is billionaire owned. Donald
Unit of Measure: Guinea Pig (Score:1)
My preferred measure of units is Guinea Pigs. The weight of a Guniea pig does not vary as much as a humpback whale so its more accurate.
You can also use this a s measure of distance instead of football field. For example: "How many Guneau pigs to the moon" = 1.9 billion.
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Aren't the Guinea Pigs bred for food quite a bit larger then the pets?
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NY times target audience:
Over 12.8 million total subscribers, 11+ million American, predominantly targeting a 55+ demographic, Gen Z is a large and growing component (33%) of their audience, often in professional, managerial, and business roles.
Write for your readership.
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Cables as "round as cantaloupes"?
Are these European cantaloupes? Or African cantaloupes?
How dumbed down can you get? (Score:3)
Cantaloups, Dinosaurs, small humpback whales, Star Wars.. even the guy running it (who is that guy anyway?) says it is "mind boggling". This is a site for nerds. Is there a non-paywalled place to see this amazing room they are talking about? That's all I want to see! And how about using metric units for things? It's a thing! I am really worried that things being impossible to understand, mind boggling and far beyond human capabilities, is even a thing these days. Also for people running CUDA they might like to know if rates will drop toward what Canadians pay, ever.
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Okay maybe they are talking about the DC Converter Hall mentioned on ..
https://chpexpress.com/ [chpexpress.com] ? Seriously Google gemini overview is giving more interesting info.
The DC Hall is a key component of the Main Converter Building at the TDI CHPExpress Astoria HVDC Converter Station. Part of the 31-45 20th Avenue facility in Queens, it houses equipment for converting high-voltage direct current (HVDC) to high-voltage alternating current (HVAC). The station, including the DC Hall, is designed with GridLink Intercon
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Okay enough searching.. way to get us excited. Apparently it is not done yet or at least no photos are shown of the finished building just a crane outside (off a LInkedIn page) and something being set up in the DC Hall (on the Astoria progress site) which is otherwise empty. The Interconnect site shows a cool photo of the European project so I guess we can imagine, it looks like a big substation..
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I also was sent on a goose chase looking for pics. These are not of the project in the FTA but maybe gives some ideas.
https://imgur.com/a/dc-convert... [imgur.com]
Seeing things scaled up for these big projects is pretty cool
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We are on the way to idiocracy. Of course, everything has to be written as spectacular as possible, while being low on actual information.
small humpback whale (Score:2)
It's been a while since that unit of measure was commonly used.
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Was that a lamp oil unit?
Kind of, in the context of how much whale oil can we get from one humpback.
New England line just connected (Score:4, Informative)
Hey, Canada! (Score:2)
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You have it backwards - switch it on, get NYC completely 'hooked' so that they can't manage without it, and then use it as a bargaining chip with the orange idiot whenever he starts spouting off.
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Exactly this, although Trump probably doesn't care about New York because it's a blue state anyway. So might not be too great of a bargaining chip.
Also, didn't Chump say that the US "doesn't need anything" from Canada?
Con Edison shut down Indian Point nuclear station (Score:1)
Well, Con Edison shut down the Indian Point Energy Center for politically-inspired "reasons" so they need to get power from somewhere.
Most of the electrified NY-area trains (Subway, et. al) were powered by clean energy from the Indian Point nuclear reactors since 1962(!!) and have been looking for a more affordable, sustainable, and reliable source of energy since the nuclear station stopped generating electricity in 2021.
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The Shoreham nuclear plant was completed to the point of doing reactor tests until it was shut down due to fear mongering. The cost is still being paid off. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I don't think we're considering to downsides (Score:2)
Look I'm American I don't know a lot about exotic foreign Nations like Canada so give me a break.
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If you hook up to electricity from Quebec then your coffee pot is going to make poutine and your TV will only ever play hockey.
I fail to see the problem here.
Underground (Score:2)
It's nice to see a project like this go completely underground. IMHO, no "advanced economy" should be slinging cables across pylons unless there's really, absolutely definitely no other way - it should all be underground, and here we have one project doing exactly that. Good on 'em.
Now, did they put the cable in a tube so they could pull a replacement through when needed? ;-)
No capacity for this (Score:3)
Hydro-Quebec is facing future capacity shortages due to past underinvestment in new infrastructure. They're facing losing a significant chunk of their installed capacity due to the Churchill Falls deal being at risk of falling apart. That deal would also have included a bunch of new construction, which may not happen any more. They're making big plans about future investments to increase capacity, but are still returning billions to the government in dividends instead of re-investing in capacity expansion.
Do we really have the capacity to export so much more power to the US?
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Why aren't they building data centers in Quebec? Cooling wouldn't be as much of an expense if they put them all in the town of Shivering Moose.
NYC wouldn't need it... (Score:1)
... if they hadn't let the environmentalists shut down Indian Point.
Will Quebec taxpayers benefit? (Score:2)
Will Quebec taxpayers benefit? It only seems like electricity prices are getting higher, they have raised the rates and raised how much people are getting charged during peak hours.
And despite using less oil we are taxed more than other provinces for gas and PST.
New York should pay for it from day one (Score:2)
not Hydro Quebec
elbows up vs. hold my beer (Score:2)
Maybe it would be stupid of us in the US to make an enemy of Canada.
Color me dubious (Score:1)
The project could supply up to 20% of the city's electricity and power roughly one million homes throughout the year.
"supply up to 20% of the city's electricity and power roughly one million homes throughout the year."
AND? I really think they mean "or", as in "...could supply up to 20% of the city's electricity OR power roughly one million homes throughout the year."
10 new manholes! (Score:1)
10 new manholes! Wow, that must have nearly tripled the number of manholes in NYC.
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Well, it is not liver either.
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>>Hydroelectricity is not considered a renewable resource. They require a lot of maintenance by machinery run by fossil fuels
Last time I checked, rain was still refilling the reservoirs so yes, it is renewable. It requires maintenance and will eventually need replacement just like everything else including wind turbines and solar panels.
Re: renewable (Score:1)
But rain is not a guarantee. The city of Calgary has called a water conservation order for the second year in a row. It depends where.
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Hydroelectricity is not considered a renewable resource. They require a lot of maintenance
Last time I checked, rain was still refilling the reservoirs so yes, it is renewable
But rain is not a guarantee. The city of Calgary has called a water conservation order
Yes, obviously you need to build your dams where there is adequate water, and the efficiency of some sites is changing as the climate changes. Alberta doesn't produce anywhere near as much hydro power as BC or Quebec, and most of Alberta's production comes from the north not from the Calgary area. Not surprising.
Yes dams require construction and maintenance which implies some pollution will occur, and the creation of reservoirs has an environmental impact..
None of this makes hydro power "not a renewable r
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I used the wrong term. I should have said that they aren't considered environmentally friendly. And no it is impossible to build where there is enough water for a dam already, because a dam only works to generate electricity if it holds back more water than wants to stay there. This causes decay which leads to methane.
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[dams] aren't considered environmentally friendly.
That's an improvement over "hydroelectricity is not renewable." Vague though. Considered by whom? Environmentally friendly relative to what alternative?
A bit exaggerated isn't it? It comes across like you're claiming that knowledgeable people have reached some kind of consensus that it's not environmentally helpful to build dams.
I think there's more of a general consensus around your other statement
[hydroelectricity is] better than most sources of power but no [panacea]
That's why there are people looking at methane recapture at dam sites, and why we'll keep building dams.
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As if solar and wind plants are substantially easier/cheaper/longer lived than hydro.
Ignoring the cost/kWH of construction, wind generation requires more than a lot of maintenance, and solar similarly. The relatively massive upfront cost of hydro is offset (or amortized, I forget) by the longevity of most dams, associated infrastructure, and generators. Mind you, the hidden costs of hydro power include displacement of the people who lived in the impoundment, the other life such as wildlife, forests etc.
No e
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"They require a lot of maintenance by machinery run by fossil fuels"
So do wind turbines. That's not a viable argument.
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Everything requires maintenance. Hopefully the repair equipment can be migrated to hybrid and then fully electric in the coming years. It’s going to take years, given the investment, but when oil is politically risky and environmentally risky, then there are incentives to move beyond it.
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Oh, come *on*, troll. Surely you can do better than that.