The James Bay Project (French: projet de la Baie-James) refers to the construction by state-owned utility Hydro-Québec of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada, and the diversion of neighbouring rivers into the La Grande watershed. It is located between James Bay to the west and Labrador to the east and its waters flow from the Laurentian Plateau of the Canadian Shield. The project covers an area of the size of the State of New York and is one of the largest hydroelectric systems in the world. It has cost upwards of US$20 billion to build and has an installed generating capacity of 16,527 megawatts. If fully expanded to include all of the original planned dams, as well as the additional James Bay II projects, the system would generate a total of 27,000 MW, making it the largest hydroelectric system in the world.
The James Bay Project is a series of hydroelectric developments with a combined installed capacity of over 16,000 megawatts built since 1974 for Hydro-Québec by the Société d'énergie de la Baie James (SEBJ) on the La Grande and other rivers of Northern Quebec.
Located in a region inhabited by Cree and Inuit 1,000 km (620 mi) north of Montreal, the La Grande River watershed stretches over 177,000 km2 (68,000 sq mi) or approximately 11% of the total area of Quebec, an area larger than the state of Florida or twice the size of Scotland.
Construction costs of the project's first phase in ≈ 1971 amounted to $13.7 billion (1987 Canadian dollars). The eight power stations of the La Grande Complex generate an average of 83 terawatt-hours (TWh) a year, enough to meet the total demand of a small industrialized economy such as Belgium.
The James Bay power stations represent almost half of Hydro-Québec's total output and capacity.
The development of the James Bay Project led to an acrimonious conflict with the 5,000 Crees and 4,000 Inuit of Northern Quebec over land rights, lifestyle and environmental issues. A ruling against the Quebec government in 1973 forced the Robert Bourassa government to negotiate a far-reaching agreement, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, involving the Cree, the Naskapi First Nations, the Quebec and Canadian governments, Hydro-Québec and the SEBJ. In the 1990s, forceful opposition by the Crees and their environmental allies caused the cancellation of the Great Whale Project, a proposed 3,000 MW complex north of La Grande River.
In February 2002, the Bernard Landry government and the Grand Council of the Crees signed the Peace of the Braves (French: Paix des Braves) and the Boumhounan Agreement, establishing a new relationship between Quebec and the Crees and agreeing on environmental rules for the construction of three new power stations built between 2003 and 2011 — the Eastmain-1, Eastmain-1-A and Sarcelle generating stations — and the diversion of the Rupert River.