6 March 2014

Three partners from the region—Rackam, the Université de Sherbrooke, and Cascades—are undertaking a major demonstration project on solar thermal power stations. At an estimated cost of almost $2.9 million, the project has obtained $400 000 in financial aid from the Government of Québec.

The project plans include the development of three thermal power plants and the creation of two combined solutions, which will be potentially marketable within the next two years.

Vincent Aimez, Serge Cardin, Alain Webster, and Mathieu Chagnon

The Sherbrooke company “Rackam is already producing solar energy systems to generate process heat. The Université de Sherbrooke will be adding technology using photovoltaic cells that will transform sunlight into electricity. Thus, the new product will produce both electricity and heat,” explained Professor Vincent Aimez, Director of Scientific Partnerships at the MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre (C2MI).

The Université de Sherbrooke will be the site of the first two installations, and Cascades the third.

This project is part of the Créneau d’excellence de l’Industrie des systèmes électroniques du Québec (Quebec’s cluster of excellence in the electronic system industry – CISEQ) – previously known as MicroTeQ-10.

The announcement of government funding was made by Serge Cardin, MNA for Sherbrooke  and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Public Administration, on behalf of the Minister for Industrial Policy and the Banque de développement économique du Québec, Élaine Zakaïb.

Sources: Government of Québec and La Tribune
Photo credit: Michel Caron