On a welcome day hundreds of municipal and private enterprises expect visitors conducting excursions and answering guests' questions. The Portlands Energy Center in Canada is on the list. The gathering takes place on Sunday and employees go to work on voluntary basis.
An industry area of Portland resort is located 5 km away from Toronto downtown.
It's not a mistake. One area can be industrial and recreational at the same time. Some time ago this place was stuffed with enterprises of different kinds. Today only a couple of them is left such as a power station and a waste water station, which are now close to parks, beaches, recreation areas, etc.
Portlands electric power station produces 550 MW energy which is enough for half a million of houses. The station is famous for a combined cycle of energy generation. Natural gas is the main resource burning of which sets two steam turbines in action (cycle 1). Acquired heat (649 degrees Celsius) goes to a boiler room where it is used to heat up water with formation of steam which sets the steam turbine in action (cycle 2).
Second cycle enables to get more energy out of a resource unit and decreases hazardous emissions. The idea of environmentally free production is important for the station owners. The center occupies 12 hectares of land 11 of which are planted and face Lake Ontario. In the nearest future that entire territory will be covered with a huge park and have over 3000 kinds of trees and bushes. An apiary is situated right here.
Internal atmosphere looked industrial and brutal. A perfect place for shooting another part of Terminator. Station employees showed guests around providing comments. It was a working day for the station and noise made it impossible to hear what the guide was saying.
Excursions are rather interesting. Every guest got a helmet, protective glasses, bright vests and ear plugs.
The station was launched in 2008 and has new equipment.
Local inhabitants were against its construction and expressed their indignation at the stage of station design planning. Negotiations were carried out for several years. In the end, its appearance underwent considerable changes as the idea of making the building attractive from aesthetic point of view was rejected. The project of construction of the largest research center of solar energy in Canada was also freezed due to unknown reasons.
The height of the exhaust tower is 75 meters.
Water used for steam generation and the system cooling is produced right at the electric station, taken from Ontario Lake and processed at a special water-purifying workshop.
Portlands Center was built next to a copper power station that was later reconstructed into a gas-burning enterprise. The future of the old enterprise is undecided yet as it is far from being environmentally friendly. Adjacent center makes its existence unnecessary. The area of its turbine house is 4.5 times less as compared to that of the center. The number of employees constitutes 600 and 27 for the copper station and the center.
Another group of guests is getting ready to visit the center.
via heck-aitomix