Ontario plans more nuclear power to meet rising electricity demand
Ontario plans to build three new small modular reactors (SMRs) to help meet rising electricity demand, the provincial government said on Friday
The Ontario government is working with utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to start planning and licensing the reactors at the Darlington nuclear site, where Canada’s first grid-scale SMR is already under construction.
“A fleet of SMRs at the Darlington New Nuclear Site is key to meeting growing electricity demands and net zero goals,” OPG CEO Ken Hartwick said in a statement.
Nuclear reactor construction requires provincial and federal regulatory approvals, and the three additional SMRs could come online between 2034 and 2036, according to the statement.
Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and home to finance capital Toronto.
The expansion “will ensure we have the reliable, affordable and clean electricity we need to power the next major international investment, the new homes we are building and industries,” Ontario’s Energy Minister Todd Smith said in the statement.
An energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war as well as a global push toward lowering emissions has renewed interest in nuclear power.
Next-generation SMRs are seen as an efficient, quickly-built way to accelerate the shift away from ‘fossil fuels’ as G7 nations target ‘net-zero’ emissions by 2050.
Canada has already backed SMR technology with a C$970 million ($730.04 million) financing pledge for OPG’s first reactor at Darlington.
Nuclear power currently provides about 50 percent of Ontario’s electricity supply and the four SMR units are expected to produce a total 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power 1.2 million homes.
OPG’s first SMR unit, being constructed in partnership with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, SNC-Lavalin, and Aecon, is expected to be completed by 2028.
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Tom
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The global warmers are going to blow a gasket.
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JaKo
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Kudos to OPG;
However, the problem with nuclear is time and money — it takes more than 12-years to build 4 SMRs; which would represent about 7.5% of today’s consumption! Anybody can see that building power generation at 100MW per year at the cost as mentioned is not sustainable — that has to change very dramatically or we’re gonna get stuck with gas or wind and what-not…
BTW, the 2022 IESO Report states that nuclear portion was ~32%, not 50% as stated in this article, as with anything — perhaps due to build capacity is never utilized 100%
Cheers, JaKo
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Francisco d'Anconia
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From the IESO Report, the 2022 electricity nuclear capacity is 34% – this is capacity not actual energy output. Scroll down in the report to
Demand, Supply and Pricesection to see that in 2022 nuclear supplied 53.7% of Ontario electricity output (consumption was a little less because of net exports), 58.2% in 2021, wind 9.4% in 2022, 8.4% in 2021, solar less than 1% in 2022 and 2021. The amounts are for electricity generation only, electricity accounts for about 25 to 30% of all energy used in Ontario, so say about 3% of all energy used in Ontario is supplied by wind and solar, similarly wind and solar supply about 3% of world energy consumption after more than 2 decades of significant subsidies and promotion.Reply
VOWG
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100 years from now coal will once again be king as the masses will refuse to freeze and will go to war against all those that think we should freeze. The same will apply to oil and gas. Terminally stupid ideas are terminal.
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