Hydroelectric
Today, hydropower provides over 20% of Ontario’s electricity.
Ontario has already developed most of its commercially viable hydroelectric potential.
Developing remaining sites will make a modest but worthwhile contribution to expanding our low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply. Large scale projects in remote locations will have higher costs due to environmental and land use issues and for the long transmission lines.
Up until the 1950s, waterpower resources underpinned Ontario’s electricity supply.
- Annual production is affected by variations in precipitation year to year.
- Ontario has already developed most of its commercially viable hydroelectric potential.
- Ontario is not blessed with vast hydropower potential like Quebec and Manitoba.
- Most of our province’s large waterpower sites were developed by the 1950s.
- Hydroelectric imports from Quebec can’t compete with the cost of Ontario’s low-carbon nuclear generation. Such imports also put Ontario’s energy security at risk.
