Hydro power plant in Quebec, Canada. Approximate location 46.4491, -72.7393.
HydroQuebecCanadarun-of-river
La Gabelle is a 131 MW hydro power station in Quebec, Canada. It is operated by Hydro-Québec. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 131k homes (estimated). It ranks #233 of 1,211 Canada power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1924, it is around 102 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 52.8% of Canada's electricity; the national grid averages 191 gCO₂/kWh (77.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CAN0002172.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000600458); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 131 MW, La Gabelle is well above the median hydro plant in Canada (12 MW). Technically it is described as run-of-river. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Hydro-Québec. All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 46.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 101% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 94/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with thermal cycling the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #102 largest hydro power plant of 556 in Canada by capacity.
Canada has 556 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 81,037 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 46.4491, -72.7393 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
La Gabelle is a 131 MW source-record hydro power plant in Quebec, Canada, commissioned in 1924.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 131,149 homes (estimated).
La Gabelle is operated by Hydro-Québec.
