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Natural gas and the energy transition

Ontario is working to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by using clean electricity to power more of our lives, from transportation, to home heating to industries. To do this, the province will need to build more sources of clean electricity—a lot more. Building more solar, wind and nuclear—and energy storage systems to provide reliability—will take some time. This is where Atura Power’s combined cycle natural gas turbines come in.

Combined cycle gas turbines are a bridge technology. They will support Ontario through this period of adding more renewable sources of power as Atura Power can start up our facilities to meet the province’s energy needs when renewable sources can't.

If it’s windy and sunny, Atura Power’s stations may not need to operate but we’re ready and waiting if needed. Similarly, when demand is low, Ontario may have enough power that it will not need to call on Atura Power to generate electricity. But on calm or cloudy days when demand is high, the province requires a flexible, dispatchable and reliable power source. One day, energy storage technologies may be able to provide this back-up power, which is why Atura Power is developinging energy storage projects. But for now, combined cycle power generation facilities are uniquely positioned to meet this need.

How does it work?

Combined cycle power generation facilities feature two elements of energy production that maximize efficiency:

1. The gas turbine compresses air and mixes it with fuel that’s heated to a high temperature. This hot air-fuel mixture is ignited causing the gas turbine blades to spin, which in turn drives a generator that converts the spinning energy into electricity.

2. A heat recovery steam generator captures exhaust heat from the gas turbine that would otherwise escape through the exhaust stack. It uses that waste heat to convert water into steam which then turns a steam turbine that drives a generator, converting that spinning energy into electricity.