Saint-Joachim is a town close to Quebec City best known for its outdoor activities which include the Mont St-Anne ski resort, several golf courses and hiking trails along the picturesque Sainte-Anne River.  Therefore one may imagine the decision to build a small power generating dam in a canyon of that river was met with some trepidation.  Careful design resulted in a 23 Megawatt power plant set low in a canyon to protect sightlines and eliminate the need for a large surface water accumulating area.

After thorough environmental and financial evaluations the community owned project was built in only 18 months on a tight budget.  Since this city had no experience with hydro power generation they relied heavily on engineering firms that worked with the state owned utility Hydro-Quebec for guidance which played well for galvanizing since these entities knew well of the impressive performance and history of hot-dip galvanizing protecting steel for over 100 years in electrical utility installations and distribution throughout Quebec.

All 150 tons of steel used in the powerhouse and related structures was protected by hot-dip galvanizing which contributed to the speedy erection of the project and will assure all the tax-payers of St. Joachim a power plant with the lowest possible life-cycle cost maximizing benefit to the community while protecting the beautiful scenery and providing low cost green energy!