Toronto Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

[Bibi L]

1970s Hearn Power Station running at full power is best generating station! They need to start it up again. And finish the Spadina Expressway.

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Nature must be conquered!

I’ve seen that photo! Wow, imagine breathing that…
How about we also build the massive proposed smokestack at Pearl Street Energy Centre from the 1960s?
Yup, that’s right. They wanted to build a smokestack DOWNTOWN almost as TALL as the TD Centre.

Original Toronto Star caption: Soaring Smokestack superimposed here shows how the proposed 700-foot chimney Toronto Hydro wants to build at a cost of $1;000;000 at its Pearl St. steam generating plant would compare with Toronto's tallest building-Toronto-Dominion Tower. It is only 40 feet shorter.

Luckily that was not built. Instead, there is a shorter stack currently standing there. It’s a 4 megawatt plant, which is mostly used for heating downtown office buildings.

This is how it would have looked like. Credit, TPL Digital Archive (Toronto Star Archives)

 

[rdaner]

Though I can see it might be good to re-use this building, the note in the DRP March document is not quite so definitive about closure. https://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/sit...trict-Precinct-Plan-Issues-Identification.pdf says

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Yes. As always a work in progress but there is further discussion deep in the volumous documents that mention the attributes of the structure for conversion. No mention of replacement plans for waste management so probably aspirational. This has been done before with the Incinerator in the West End.

 

[DSC]

Yes. As always a work in progress but there is further discussion deep in the volumous documents that mention the attributes of the structure for conversion. No mention of replacement plans for waste management so probably aspirational. This has been done before with the Incinerator in the West End.

Of course it COULD be done (and maybe SHOULD be done) but your post stated "...This building is being decommissioned in 2 years..." This is clearly NOT happening in 2026.

 

[hawc]

How about we also build the massive proposed smokestack at Pearl Street Energy Centre from the 1960s? Yup, that’s right. They wanted to build a smokestack DOWNTOWN almost as TALL as the TD Centre.

A tall enough smokestack solves any pollution problem. Just got to get it into the troposphere and the wind carries it away!

 

[DSC]

A tall enough smokestack solves any pollution problem. Just got to get it into the troposphere and the wind carries it away!

"Out of sight: out of mind" was certainly the way things were - but it's really not true :->

 

[hawc]

Wow the old colours on the top of the smokestack are some serious nightmare fuel. Feels evil.

 

[Bibi L]

Wow the old colours on the top of the smokestack are some serious nightmare fuel. Feels evil.

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Yeah, that’s what I was referring to here,

The top of the smokestack was originally black with red in the middle, instead of the all white now.

Photo is from City of Toronto. “An Infectious Idea: Environmental Health”.

 

[3Dementia]

ICBM ^

Link

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

Wow the old colours on the top of the smokestack are some serious nightmare fuel. Feels evil.

Never knew your drone could travel back in time. Hope it doesn't clip a butterfly wing...

 

[reinventingthewheel]

Lots of interesting history shared here this weekend.

Another fun fact: the new Portlands Energy Centre does not have any energy storage. When all turbines are off, power from the grid is needed to start up. Adding storage to the facility was a project under consideration but some complications add expenses. I’m unsure if it’s on the back burner or completely cancelled.

 

[hawc]

Dumb question....

My stove burns natural gas inside. It doesn't pollute the house. So why would Portlands Energy Centre which runs on natural gas be a polluter?

(And if you're going to say, "Actually your stove is polluting your house you just don't realize it...." You're missing my point. I mean it's not polluting my house the way running my car in my kitchen would kill me in minutes or the way a coal fire in the kitchen with no chimney would suffocated everyone.)

 

[AHK]

Natural gas has just over half the amount of CO2 content as coal per unit of energy produced - it is not pollution / greenhouse gas free. The amount of CO2 produced by a gas stove is minimal, due to the small amount of natural gas being used.

From the United States Energy Information Administration table at: https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/co2_vol_mass.php

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Coefficients by Fuel

	Pounds CO2	Kilograms CO2	Pounds CO2	Kilograms CO2
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Factors:	Per Unit of Volume or Mass	Per Unit of Volume or Mass	Per Million Btu	Per Million Btu
For homes and businesses
Propane	12.68 gallon	5.75 gallon	138.63	62.88
Diesel and Home Heating Fuel (Distillate Fuel Oil)	22.45 gallon	10.19 gallon	163.45	74.14
Kerosene	21.78 gallon	9.88 gallon	161.35	73.19
Coal (All types)	3,890.78 short ton	1,764.83 short ton	211.47	95.92
Natural Gas	120.96 thousand cubic feet	54.87 thousand cubic feet	116.65	52.91

 

[rbt]

My stove burns natural gas inside. It doesn't pollute the house.

Unrelated to the Portlands issues, natural gas stoves produce more in-home pollution than you might expect, even when they're not in use.

Have a gas stove? How to reduce pollution that may harm health - Harvard Health

Cooking with gas stoves releases nitrogen dioxide and gas appliances introduce other toxic chemicals into homes, but people can take steps to protect their household and help improve outdoor...

www.health.harvard.edu

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/gas-stoves-air-pollution-1.6394514

An exhaust that was built below the burner surface and always on could fix this.

 

[PL1]

Dumb question....

My stove burns natural gas inside. It doesn't pollute the house. So why would Portlands Energy Centre which runs on natural gas be a polluter?

(And if you're going to say, "Actually your stove is polluting your house you just don't realize it...." You're missing my point. I mean it's not polluting my house the way running my car in my kitchen would kill me in minutes or the way a coal fire in the kitchen with no chimney would suffocated everyone.)

Natural gas combustion doesn't produce as much carbon monoxide (CO) as does burning (e.g.) coal. A quick search shows that gas stoves do produce some CO. The bigger issues are nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates. Gas stoves should always be operated with a running externally vented exhaust hood.

CO is so dangerous as it binds irreversibly to hemoglobin in your red blood cells so your blood can't carry oxygen.

 

[afransen]

I was at the Portlands Energy Centre for Doors Open this year. If I recall correctly, there are also plans to double the number of generators in the offing.

While it is currently, and the expansion is planned to start as, a natural gas plant, I was heartened to learn it is all convertible to running on hydrogen

It probably will take quite some time to convert to hydrogen, if they do at all. It's actually kind of pointless to burn hydrogen in a central plant, especially if you aren't utilizing the waste heat. Better to have battery storage to serve peaking requirements, and big institutions can have hydrogen fuel cells for backup power and cogen for heat.