It’s taken a few years, but the province is moving a step closer to being able to make practical use of its wind and solar energy. The governments of Canada and Ontario announced plans to build the largest battery storage project in in the country at Six Nations. The 250-megawatt (MW) Oneida Energy storage project is being developed in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, Northland Power, NRStor and Aecon Group. The federal government provided $50 million in funding and the Canada Infrastructure Bank is also supporting the project. On hand to announce the Project were Premier Doug Ford and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland
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Ontario has directed the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to enter into a 20-year contract for the Oneida Energy storage project to support the growth of the province’s clean energy supply.
The Oneida Energy storage project will support the operation of Ontario’s clean electricity grid by drawing and storing electricity off-peak when power demand is low, and returning the power to the system at times of higher electricity demand. The project will begin operations in 2025 and provide enough power to meet the peak demand of a city the size of Oshawa. It will more than double the amount of energy storage resources on Ontario’s clean electricity grid from approximately 225 MW today to approximately 475 MW upon its completion in 2025.
Matt Jamieson, President & CEO, Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation talked about the benefits the project will bring to Six Nations.
There are other Green Power initiatives recently announced including:
- The Canada Infrastucture Bank is investing $970 million to build Canada’s first grid-scale Small Modular Reactor (SMR) at OPG’s Darlington site;
- Investing $3.8 billion in Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy, to enable the deployment of renewable energy technologies across Canada; and,
- Procuring 4,000 MW of new electricity generation and storage resources, which includes the largest planned procurement of clean energy storage in Canada’s history.
- Supporting Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) continued safe operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and tasking OPG to update their refurbishment feasibility assessment for the station.
- Building Canada’s first grid-scale small modular reactor (SMR) at OPG’s Darlington site.
The Oneida Energy storage project is expected to reduce emissions by between 2.2 to 4.1 million tonnes, the equivalent to taking up to 40,000 cars off the road.
Ontario’s electricity grid is more than 90 per cent emissions free. Energy storage will allow the storage of baseload generation like nuclear and hydro, while also supporting the integration of intermittent resources like wind and solar.
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