The Richard L. Hearn Generating Station (named after
Richard Lankaster Hearn) is a decommissioned electrical generating station in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Ontario, Canada. The plant was originally fired by
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
, but later converted to burn natural gas. The plant has been described as "Pharaonic in scale", and encompasses cubic metres of space—large enough to fit 12
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
s inside.
![Hearn circa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Hearn_circa._1960-70s.jpg)
The plant is located at 440 Unwin Avenue in
Toronto's Port Lands area, directly south of the foot of Carlaw Avenue, across the shipping channel and next to the recently opened
Portlands Energy Centre
The Portlands Energy Centre is a 550-megawatt natural gas electrical generating station in Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Port Lands area of the Toronto waterfront at 470 Unwin Avenue, adjacent to the site of the decommissioned Hearn Gen ...
. The Richard L. Hearn Generating Station, together with the nearby
Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant is the city of Toronto's main sewage treatment facility, and the second largest such plant in Canada after Montreal's Jean-R. Marcotte facility. One of four plants that service the city of Toronto, it t ...
sewage sludge incinerator stack and the Commissioners Street waste incinerator stack, stand as towering landmarks of a bygone industrial era in the Portlands area of Toronto (all three facilities are no longer in operation, but their towering smokestacks still stand). The property has been leased to Studios of America since 2002.
History
The R. L. Hearn Generating Station was the site of Canada's first steam turbo-generator set. The station sits in what was once
Ashbridge's Bay
Ashbridges Bay is a bay and park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located along Lake Shore Boulevard next to Woodbine Beach in the Beaches. The Martin Goodman Trail and boardwalk run through the park along the bay. The boardwalk runs from ...
, a shallow marsh that was filled in with rubble from downtown construction sites from 1911 to 1950s. The station was officially opened on October 26, 1951 by
Leslie Frost
Leslie Miscampbell Frost (September 20, 1895 – May 4, 1973) was a politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as the province's 16th premier from May 4, 1949, to November 8, 1961. Due to his lengthy tenure, he gained the nickname "Old Man O ...
, Premier of Ontario, with the first two units in service. Four units were in operation by 1953. The plant originally burned
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
which was transported on ships through the
Saint Lawrence Seaway
The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Americ ...
. The station was designed by
Stone & Webster
Stone & Webster was an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It was founded as an electrical testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster in 1889. In the early ...
. The
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
generators were built by Parsons in England and the boilers were made in Canada by
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
(Cambridge, Ontario) and
Combustion Engineering
Combustion Engineering (C-E) was a multi-national American-based engineering firm that developed nuclear steam supply power systems in the United States. Originally headquartered in New York City, C-E moved its corporate offices to Stamford, Connec ...
(Montreal, Quebec).
Construction on the station was not even finished in the 1950s when Hydro officials and the government began to talk about phasing out the plant with nuclear power and closing it. The early years were marked by difficult labour relations and several near strikes. Several unions were involved in conflicts with management and each other during the life of the station. The R. L. Hearn station was one of the founding locals of the
Canadian Union of Operating Engineers and General Workers (CUOE Local 100) in 1960.
Operation as a coal-fired plant
The Richard L. Hearn plant reached full capacity of for the first time on March 22, 1961. At full load the boilers burned about 400 tonnes of coal per hour, and the turbines and other equipment required about gallons of cooling water from Lake Ontario per hour. Total construction cost was . The turbine hall was almost 300 metres long and was an impressive sight, viewed from the visitor gallery on the west side of the plant where the offices were located. Units 1–4 had one turbine-generator each. The units (5–8) had two turbine-generators per unit—an arrangement called tandem cross-compound—so there were a total of 12 turbine-generator sets in the turbine hall. At the peak of the R. L. Hearn's operation in the 1960s the station employed up to 600 people. Many
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity ge ...
(later Ontario Power Generation) operators, maintainers, technicians and professionals began their careers, and were trained at the station and then went on to work at other plants and Ontario's
CANDU
The CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide ( heavy water) moderator and its use of (originally, natural) uranium fuel. C ...
nuclear stations.
The station at first had four smaller chimneys, one for each of the four boilers. The construction of the four units added four more chimneys. The last three were a bit taller than the first five. The eight short chimneys were a source of
air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
in local neighborhoods and downtown Toronto and also
fly ash
Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash (in the UK) plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs)is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates (fine particles of burned fuel) that are driven out of coal-fired ...
and other particulates. The station contributed to Toronto's smog problem.
The eight chimneys were demolished and electrostatic precipitators were added for the units when the large smokestack was built. The new single tall smokestack was built in response to pressure to reduce smog in Toronto by the emerging environmental movement in the late 1960s. It stands 215 metres tall and was one of the tallest in the world, costing when it was completed in 1971.
Air pollution in Toronto from the station was greatly reduced and the area around the plant became known as a good fishing and recreation spot.
Conversion to natural gas
By the end of 1971,
the entire plant was converted to burn natural gas with four units retaining the option to burn coal. In December 1972,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
Premier
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding ...
called the billion cubic metres of Alberta natural gas the station was burning annually "an appalling waste of natural gas" at the price of about $0.035 per cubic metre, and he charged that Ontario was getting a "cheap ride" at Alberta's expense.
The station operated burning natural gas until 1983. Units 1–5 were mothballed between 1978–1979. Conversion to natural gas reduced pollution but increased operating costs and the plant's efficiency was much lower than today's
combined cycle
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
and
cogeneration
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
plants. The last three units at the plant resumed burning coal along with natural gas but they were phased out of operation in July 1983, due to concerns about increased air pollution in Toronto and an abundant energy supply in the province. The staff level had been reduced to around 180 when power production stopped in 1983. Many of the workers took early retirement and others were transferred to other sites. Some of the generators were operated as
synchronous condenser
In electrical engineering, a synchronous condenser (sometimes called a syncon, synchronous capacitor or synchronous compensator) is a DC-excited synchronous motor, whose shaft is not connected to anything but spins freely.B. M. Weedy, Electric Po ...
s to improve power quality in Toronto and the electrical control room and switchyard continued to operate until 1995, with a staff of about 10.
In October 1985, Premier
David Peterson
David Robert Peterson (born December 28, 1943) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty.
Backgro ...
's Liberal government proposed the re-opening the station using natural gas. It was only the first of numerous proposals to restart the plant, involving
cogeneration
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
, tri-generation, garbage incineration
and eventually
gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
combined cycle
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
plants as new technologies were developed.
In June 1987, Ontario
Progressive Conservative Party (PC) energy critic
Philip Andrewes
Philip W. Andrewes (September 6, 1941) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1987, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller. Andrewes was a m ...
pushed the governing
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
government to have the Hearn re-opened as a "non-polluting" natural gas power plant. In October 1988, PC member of provincial parliament
Donald Cousens
W. Donald Cousens (20 July 1938 – 23 February 2017) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1981 to 1994, and briefly served as a cabinet minister in the gove ...
called for the addition of
scrubber
Scrubber systems (e.g. chemical scrubbers, gas scrubbers) are a diverse group of air pollution control devices that can be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust streams. An early application of a carbon dioxide scr ...
s to the Hearn and proposed to return the station to service.
On March 16, 1990, Ontario Hydro announced the restart of two units (7 & 8) to meet demand for the winter of 1991. The restart had a projected cost of . Work on the restart was well underway when the new
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* t ...
government of Premier
Bob Rae
Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...
cancelled the project.
Redevelopment plans
The site was designated as protected for future electricity development by the
Mike Harris
Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...
- and
Ernie Eves
Ernest Larry Eves (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003. A Progressive Conservative, he took over the premiership upon Mike Harris's resignation as party leade ...
-led Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. This was also done with all other existing publicly owned electrical generating stations during the
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
of the Ontario electrical power system. The plant had all of the
asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
insulation removed and site remediation work was done in the 1990s. Former premier
Mike Harris
Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...
later mentioned his plans to build the
Portlands Energy Centre
The Portlands Energy Centre is a 550-megawatt natural gas electrical generating station in Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Port Lands area of the Toronto waterfront at 470 Unwin Avenue, adjacent to the site of the decommissioned Hearn Gen ...
on the site of the Hearn, but the actual plant, opened in 2008 sits next to Hearn.
In 2002, Ontario Power Generation announced that Studios of America and
Comweb Group (headed by
Paul Bronfman) would be leasing the property of the former generating station and had plans to construct a square metre multipurpose film production studio called Great Lakes Studios on the site. Most of the boilers and a large amount of other equipment were removed and sent to the scrapyard. This movie studio project was abandoned in 2006. Although the station did not become a movie studio, the R. L. Hearn interior and grounds were used in a number of movie productions over the years. , Studios of America still has long term lease obligations for the Hearn site (32.5 years, according to the City of Toronto’s Waterfront Secretariat, or 20 years, according to Studios of America). Subsequent reports indicated that the lease-holders are Paul Vaughan of Studios America and real estate developer Mario Cortellucci, with no reference to Comweb Group.
The Ontario government announced in April 2005 that the Portlands Energy Centre would not be part of the approved of new power production in Ontario coming online in the next few years. The Independent Electricity System Operator warned of rolling black-outs in Toronto if are not added by 2008, with an additional required by 2010. However, in February 2006 this decision was reversed, a new plan emerged proposing a new plant be built next to the Hearn site. Toronto mayor
David Miller lobbied to have Hearn restored in some capacity to provide that power rather than build a second plant, while nearby residents opposed any kind of power generation plant in the area.
A proposal was made by
Enwave
Enwave Energy Corporation is a Canadian energy company headquartered in Toronto that provides sustainable district energy solutions including heating, cooling, hot water, combined heat and power, geoexchange, energy storage, sewer heat, waste- ...
(the former Toronto District Heating Corporation) and
Constellation Energy
Constellation Energy Corporation () is an energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across th ...
to install advanced gas turbines and cogeneration inside the station and restore the station's control rooms, turbine hall and building exterior as a historical, filmmaking and education centre. The Minister of Energy,
Donna Cansfield rejected the proposal.
On September 18, 2006 an agreement was signed between the Provincial government, Ontario Power Generation and
TransCanada Corp.
TC Energy Corporation (formerly TransCanada Corporation) is a major North American energy company, based in the TC Energy Tower building in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that develops and operates energy infrastructure in Canada, the United States, ...
to construct a gas-fired plant next to Hearn. The Portlands plant may eventually be co-generation, however it is being built as a combined cycle plant due to inability to negotiate contracts for cogeneration energy sales. The
Portlands Energy Centre
The Portlands Energy Centre is a 550-megawatt natural gas electrical generating station in Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Port Lands area of the Toronto waterfront at 470 Unwin Avenue, adjacent to the site of the decommissioned Hearn Gen ...
opened in June 2008 with simple cycle production and combined cycle operation scheduled for mid-2009. Extensive demolition of previously preserved areas of the station including the turbine hall began once Studios of America abandoned their plans for a film studio.
In 2006, proposal to build a transmission corridor from the Portlands plant to connect with higher voltage transmission lines north of Toronto was being discussed and opposed by resident and other groups. The transmission system that the R.L Hearn station supplied was a network of buried and overhead lines and transformer stations in Toronto. The city has been supplied by stepdown transformer stations from the east and west since the R. L. Hearn closed, which are becoming overloaded, especially in the summer.
On June 21, 2010, architecture firm
Behnisch Architekten
Behnisch Architekten is an architectural practice based in Stuttgart, Germany, with branches in Munich, Germany; Boston, Massachusetts and Los Angeles, California.
The office was founded in 1989 by Stefan Behnisch, son of the well-known German ...
presented a proposal for converting the Hearn site into a three-pad arena. This plan did not proceed. The facility remains in the hands of the lease-holders with options that include extensions lasting until 2041. The property is not suitable for residential development because it is too close to the Portlands natural gas generating plant.
Other uses
![Hearn machinery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Hearn_machinery.jpg)
The nearly abandoned plant attracted photographers and
urban explorer
Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...
s who published their work on websites and in photography exhibits in recent years. On June 15, 2008, Ryan Nyenhuis, an urban explorer trespassing in the plant fell three storeys into a coal chute, and was trapped for three hours when he became pinned under a steel plate. He suffered serious injuries and died two days later in hospital.
During the 1990s the Hearn Generating Station doubled a filming location in many Canadian television productions, including ''
Goosebumps
''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually i ...
'' (it served as the Dark Falls Chemical Factory on the Season 2 episode ''Welcome to Dead House''), ''
Once a Thief'' and ''
Animorphs
''Animorphs'' is a science fantasy series of children's books written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K. A. Applegate, and published by Scholastic. It is told in first person, with all ...
''. It was usually used to substitute as an industrial factory because of its basic industrial appearance and its iconic tall smokestack. This trend began to decrease in the early 2000s but the generating station still appears on TV from time to time, including in ''
12 Monkeys
''12 Monkeys'' is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film ''La Jetée'', starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, with Christopher Plummer and David Morse in sup ...
'' from 2015-2018 as Raritan Valley National Laboratory, the home of a time machine in a post apocalyptic world. In 2010, the station was used as the backdrop for the climactic scene of the movie ''
RED
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
'', other scenes of which were shot in the Toronto area. In 2018, the station was also used for a location shoot for the ''
Star Trek: Discovery'' episode "Brother".
Twitter posting of '' Star Trek: Discovery'' executive producer Olatunde Osunsanmi dated 22 January 2019. Additionally, it was used as a film location for Shazam! (film)
''Shazam!'' is a 2019 superhero film, superhero film based on the DC Comics character Shazam (DC Comics), of the same name. Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Films, The Safran Company, and Seven Bucks Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. ...
. Furthermore, the station was also used as a filming location for Disney Channel original films
Many television films have been produced for Disney Channel, an American family-oriented basic cable channel and former premium television channel since its launch on April 18, 1983. Until October 1997, films were released under the banner n ...
(DCOM) Zombies 2
''Zombies 2'' is an American musical and dance Disney Channel Original Movie that premiered on Disney Channel on February 14, 2020. A sequel to the 2018 Disney Channel Original Movie ''Zombies'', the film stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly, and ...
, known formally in the Disney trilogy as Seabrook Power and is where the musical number 'Flesh & Bone' takes place.
On June 5, 2014, the building was used for the Toronto Luminato Festival Big Bang Bash, their 2nd annual fundraising gala. It also featured the Yves Saint Laurent Opening Night Party later that evening. In 2015 the building was used for UNSOUND hosted by Luminato Festival. In 2016 Luminato Festival used the building for its festival hub where Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American experimental metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington. The band is known for their distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, drone, bla ...
performed for the first time.
See also
*Lakeview Generating Station
The Lakeview Generating Station was an Ontario Power Generation coal-burning station located in Lakeview, a community just east of Port Credit, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The former station, constructed in 1958–1962, was located just eas ...
* Nanticoke Generating Station
*Portlands Energy Centre
The Portlands Energy Centre is a 550-megawatt natural gas electrical generating station in Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Port Lands area of the Toronto waterfront at 470 Unwin Avenue, adjacent to the site of the decommissioned Hearn Gen ...
*Toronto Port Authority
The Toronto Port Authority (TPA), doing business as PortsToronto (PT), is a port authority that is responsible for the management of the Port of Toronto, including the International Marine Passenger Terminal, and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport ...
– Federal Government agency responsible
for port operations
*Toronto waterfront
The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.
History
Lake Ontario is a recent lake. A ...
Notes
References
{{Fossil fuel power ON
Buildings and structures in Toronto
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Power Generation
Coal-fired power stations in Ontario
Natural gas-fired power stations in Ontario
Energy infrastructure completed in 1951
Former coal-fired power stations in Canada
1951 establishments in Ontario