TC Energy executives celebrate ‘ground game’ for Ontario pumped storage project – The Narwhal

July 30, 2024

On March 26, the Owen Sound city council meeting was packed with residents as elected officials discussed whether to support one of TC Energy’s biggest clean energy projects.

The Calgary-based energy giant has proposed a pumped storage project in Meaford, Ont., on the shores of Georgian Bay — a man-made reservoir built on the Niagara Escarpment that would draw (or pump) nearly 7,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water in and out of the bay to generate and store electricity. TC Energy is awaiting approvals from Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as well as the provincial and federal governments, which are all expected this year pending environmental reviews.

In March, Owen Sound — the largest community in the region — became the second town to offer conditional support to the project, after Meaford. Municipalities can’t greenlight an energy project of this scale, but such approvals often help companies convince federal and provincial governments that local residents support their plans.