Public welcomed to upgraded Chaudière Falls power station
Green Energy Open Doors event allows visitors to view innovations at facility
For the first time in 100 years, Hydro Ottawa welcomed the public Saturday to view its brand-new generating station at Chaudière Falls as part of the weekend-long Green Energy Open Doors event.
The utility boasts that the expanded Chaudière Falls generating station will have “minimal to zero impact on the visual, natural and aquatic environments.”
The state-of-the-art facility also includes a number of heritage elements celebrating Canada’s First Nations and Ottawa’s industrialist past.
Hydro Ottawa has installed several measures at the site to help two endangered fish species: the American eel and the lake sturgeon.
The utility has improved eel spawning grounds above the falls and built two “tubes” to enable the fish to bypass the dam turbines. The tubes will be monitored for fish activity with underwater cameras.
They have also built new spawning territories for the sturgeon below the falls.
Visitors will be able to get close to the falls on a viewing platform near two existing heritage buildings.
The design also includes several other outlooks that will allow the public to better observe the falls and the Ottawa River.
The utility spent more than $150 million since 2015 to build a new 29-megawatt hydroelectric generating facility at the site.
It features a number of viewing platforms atop the generating station and a new bridge for pedestrians and cyclists across the intake channel.
Chaudière was once known as the “second Niagara” and was a major tourist attraction in lumber-town Ottawa.
The new generating station will produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes for a year. Early estimates were that the production could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 115,000 tonnes a year.
Postmedia News