Meeting the surging renewable energy demand in the densely populated, power-hungry cities of the US Northeast could in some large part be solved by a single company — and it won’t have to even set foot inside the lower 48.

With a 100TWh annual surplus from a 37GW fleet of hydroelectric plants spread across the vast wilderness of Canada’s largest province, utility Hydro-Québec has plenty of power to ratchet-up export of electricity to its neighbour to the south.