Canada Waterpower Generating Facilities

From Coast-to-Coast, Canada Runs on Water

Waterpower has been vital to Canada since the commissioning of the first hydropower facility in our nation’s capital in 1891. Now with over 500 facilities generating more than 63% of our nation’s electricity, Canada truly Runs on Water. As our most abundant clean energy source with ultra-low GHG emissions, it produces no air pollutants and offers flexible baseload electricity generation with long duration energy storage from reservoirs and pumped storage—making it a clean, reliable, and renewable energy choice.

How to use the map

Click on any pin to view the facility name, owner, generation method, province, city, capacity, and federal riding.

Canada is and will be powered by water

Sustaining Canada with Clean Energy Solutions

Canada is the fourth-largest hydroelectricity generator in the world and our hydropower facilities will be instrumental in realizing our national goals of economy wide GHG reduction targets and a net-zero electricity sector. Hydro generating facilities are long-lived assets, with a number of facilities having been in operation for more than 100 years. Through refurbishments, the performance of existing stations can be increased and their lifetime extended indefinitely.

 

Transformative developments are underway at hydro facilities which include leveraging the battery-like potential of water storage, integrating hydroelectricity with emerging energy opportunities, and meeting the needs of remote and off-grid communities. Additionally, numerous new projects of widely varying sizes are currently under development, reflecting the vast and unharnessed waterpower potential in Canada.