What is Waterpower?
Waterpower is the energy engine that built the province’s original economic prosperity and has been providing affordable, reliable, sustainable electricity for more than a century.
In addition, waterpower offers countless ancillary benefits. As a form of renewable energy, waterpower generation has minimal impact on the environment, while dams located at waterpower facilities assist in flood mitigation, water level stability for recreation, flow maintenance for dilution or habitat protection, and erosion control.
Embedded in dozens of villages, towns, Indigenous communities and cities across Ontario, and offering benefits for all, waterpower truly is the original community power.
Why Celebrate Waterpower Day?
Waterpower Day was established to recognize the history and importance of waterpower in Ontario as well as the role it continues to play more than 100 years after the first waterpower facility came online.
June 20th was selected for Waterpower Day in recognition of Sir Adam Beck (born June 20, 1857), a Canadian politician and waterpower advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario and promoted “Power at Cost”.
In countless towns and cities across the province, the very identity of the community is inextricably linked with the generation of electricity from falling water. That’s something worth celebrating.
Waterpower Across Ontario
Heart of Ontario Cottage Country is Home to Waterpower
Quinte West: Over 100 Years of Harnessing the Power of Falling Water
Peterborough Waterpower: A Rich History and Solution for the Future