At the edge of a small Ontario town, a steep-sided turquoise lake occupies the footprint of a long-defunct iron mine. The water is still, the cliffs sharp, the surrounding land shaped by decades of excavation. From above, the site appears dormant, untouched since the last blast echoed through the valley nearly fifty years ago.
Yet this disused pit, formed in the middle of the last century and abandoned before environmental rehabilitation became law, is being reconsidered. Not for its mineral wealth or tourism potential, though both have been discussed. Instead, the focus has shifted to energy. More precisely, to energy storage, a sector becoming increasingly central to national electricity strategies as grids absorb more renewable power.
The Marmora Clean Energy Hub, led by Northland Power in partnership with Ontario Power Generation, would convert the flooded mine pit into the lower reservoir of a closed-loop hydroelectric system. A second, upper reservoir would be constructed nearby using surrounding waste rock. Electricity generated during low-demand periods would pump water to the upper level. When demand rises, the water would return via turbines, generating up to 400 megawatts for a duration of approximately five hours.
Northland has stated that the facility could supply power to an estimated 400,000 homes, equivalent to the combined population of Mississauga and Brampton. The project also includes a small solar generation component, adding roughly 30 megawatts of on-site capacity.
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