Thunder Bay Generating Station is a defunct

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

-fired

thermal power station A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat ...

owned by

Ontario Power Generation Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation and "government business enterprise" that is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is w ...

("OPG"). It is located on Mission Island in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

, on the shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. Thunder Bay GS was in operation from 1963 to 2018. It was the last coal fired station in Ontario. The plant was initially shut down in April 2014 as part of

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

's phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation, before being converted to run on advanced biomass (wood pellets) and recommissioned on February 9, 2015.

Historic operations

Thunder Bay GS began operation in 1963, with one 100 MW coal-fuelled generating unit. Two additional coal-fuelled units were added in the early 1980s, and in 1984 the original 100 MW unit was removed from service. This plant is connected to the

power grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...

via 115 kV and 230 kV

transmission lines In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

. The station occupies on Mission Island, at the mouth of the

Kaministiquia River The Kaministiquia River () is a river which flows into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. ''Kaministiquia'' () is an Ojibwe word meaning "where a stream flows in island" due to two large islands (McKellar and Mission) at ...

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

on Thunder Bay. The plant's main

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

was tall. The stack was demolished on September 9, 2021. The two coal-fuelled boilers provided a peak output of 326 MW fuelled by low-sulfur

lignite coal Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

from the

Ravenscrag Formation The Ravenscrag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of early Paleocene Geochronology, age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It was named for the settlement of Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan, and was first describ ...

in Southern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and low-sulfur

sub-bituminous coal Sub-bituminous coal is a lower grade of coal that contains 35–45% carbon. The properties of this type are between those of lignite, the lowest grade of coal, and those of bituminous coal, the second-highest grade of coal. Sub-bituminous coal ...

from the

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. While operating as a coal plant, annual production was approximately 1.5 billion

kilowatt-hours A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

(kWh), enough energy to supply over 100,000 households for one year.

Conversion from coal

There were multiple announcements on the future of Thunder Bay GS over 10 years. The Ontario government initially proposed conversion to

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

in 2004 but subsequently canceled that plan in 2006. Then, as part of the 2010 Long-Term Energy Plan, Ontario's Ministry of Energy announced that Thunder Bay GS would be converted from coal to natural gas by the end of 2014. This was part of the Ontario government's commitment to phase out all of its coal-burning power generation. On 1st November 2012, OPG announced that the

Ontario Power Authority The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) was an independent, non-profit corporation established through the Electricity Restructuring Act, 2004 (Bill 100). Licensed by the Ontario Energy Board, it reported to the Ontario legislature through the Ministry ...

requested that the conversion to natural gas be suspended until the Ontario Power Authority could assess generating needs in northwestern Ontario. The next announcement on the generating station's fate was made in November 2013 when the Ministry of Energy announced that Thunder Bay GS would be converted to advanced biomass. Ontario's Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli outlined the broad terms of the conversion in a directive to the Ontario Power Authority dated 16th December 2013. Chiarelli noted that the station will have only one unit operating as a peaking plant and that OPG is only permitted to purchase 15,000 tonnes of fuel annually. It was estimated that the 15,000 tonnes of fuel would permit the single unit to operate at 2% of capacity. A five-year contract was in place for the generating station to produce electricity beginning in January 2015. , the plant burns steam-treated wood pellets ( biocoal) from Arbaflame in Norway. On July 27, 2018, OPG and IESO announced the closure of Thunder Bay Generating Station due to a leak in the boiler causing the station to be shut down since May 2017. Estimated repair costs would be about $5 million and the contract expiration in 2020 was not intended to be renewed. In 2021 demolition began on the generation station by the Hamilton-based company, Budget Demolition. The work was expected to take two to three years and the majority of the materials was recycled. The 650-foot chimney came down in a controlled demolition on 9 September 2021 and was captured on video on YouTube.

Emissions

The Thunder Bay Generating Station ranked within the top 200 facility emitters, according to

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the Ministry (government department), department ...

. *Calculated figures for CO₂e are rounded to the nearest tonne.

References

Thunder Bay Generating Station Information Brochure

External links

Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station

Archived version of "Ontario Power Generation: Thunder Bay Generating Station" (saved 30 March 2019)
{{Fossil fuel power ON Ontario Power Generation Buildings and structures in Thunder Bay Energy infrastructure completed in 1963 Energy infrastructure completed in 2015 Ontario electricity policy Former coal-fired power stations in Canada 1963 establishments in Ontario Biomass power stations in Ontario 2018 disestablishments in Ontario Demolished buildings and structures in Ontario Buildings and structures demolished in 2021

Historic operations

Conversion from coal

Emissions

See also

References

External links