Meeting Ontario’s Capacity Needs

Ontario will require a massive amount of new electricity capacity by the early 2030s (an additional 12–15 GW) to address growing demand, electrification, expiring contracts, and retirements of aging resources. With demand peaks expected to reach 35 GW by 2050, this represents an unprecedented challenge for the Ontario grid.

The Quinte ESC provides a scalable, reliable, non-emitting energy source capable of addressing these shortfalls over its 50+ year lifespan. Unlike traditional short-duration storage technologies like lithium-ion battery parks, our technology ensures reliable power delivery over extended periods, making it critical for maintaining electric system stability.

Driving Decarbonization

The Quinte ESC will play a vital role in Ontario’s decarbonization strategy by integrating with and balancing the province’s non-emitting energy mix, including nuclear, hydro, and renewables.

Its storage capacity supports the grid by capturing excess baseload energy, such as surplus nuclear generation, and dispatching it during peak demand. This flexibility is essential for reducing reliance on fossil fuels and achieving Ontario’s emissions reduction targets in the long-term.

Strategic Locational Benefits

Located near Ontario’s nuclear facilities in Durham, the Quinte ESC leverages surplus baseload generation while facilitating efficient energy transfer to load centres throughout the province.

This location also helps alleviate capacity challenges resulting from the planned retirements and the onboarding of new nuclear projects, which will leave a significant gap in Eastern Ontario’s power supply.

By absorbing energy during low-demand periods and dispatching it during peak times, the project reduces dependence on nearby fossil fuel plants, supports regional grid stability, and eliminates the need for costly transmission line upgrades.

Supports Net-Zero Targets

The Project can charge from clean energy resources such as nuclear, hydro, and wind when supply from these resources could otherwise be lost or curtailed and discharge this energy during periods of high demand for a long duration (8+ hours), when the Ontario grid would otherwise need to rely on fossil fuel-fired resources to maintain reliability.

Technology Differentiation

A-CAES can be constructed in places where other forms of large-scale energy infrastructure cannot (such as pumped hydro) and provides grid benefits that other forms of energy storage, like batteries, cannot.

A-CAES can support direct emissions reductions that are in line with those of 8-hour lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydro projects when operating, but with a lower lifecycle environmental impact than pumped hydro, with a compact footprint, less water requirements, and greater location flexibility; and lower lifecycle environmental impacts compared to lithium-ion batteries, when taking into account supply-chain impacts and raw material extraction.