The Nanticoke Generating Station supplies power to the southern coast of Ontario from its base in Nanticoke, Ontario in the county of Haldimand. It generates electric power for home, business, industrial, agricultural, and institutional uses. Its eight coal-fired power units, built by Babcock & Wilcox, provide a total capacity of 3900 MW. Construction of the site began in 1973. All eight units were completed in 1978. The station’s annual production is in the range of 20 to 24 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), enough electricity to run nearly 2.5 million households for a full year. Nanticoke’s staff of about 600 includes engineers, technicians, mechanical and electrical maintenance tradespeople, plant and equipment operators, environmental technicians, managers and administrators.

The Nanticoke coal-fired plant near Lake Erie is the largest polluter in Canada and one of the largest in North America. According to the Toronto Star the Government of Ontario plans to keep it open until early 2009. Closure of the plant, however, is not entirely certain as viable energy options for the growing Ontario economy are becoming scarce. Nuclear, Clean Coal, and Natural Gas-powered options as well as alternative energy sources are being considered to replace the massive energy output of the Nanticoke plant, however, to date no specific plan has been drawn up. The plant is the single largest point source of air pollution in Southern Ontario and Northern New York State, and its closure was a major plank of the current Ontario Liberal Party government's election platform.

This gigantic fossil fuel power plant -- the largest in North America -- emits pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, lead, other heavy metals and arsenic. Nanticoke is owned by Ontario Power Generation -- formerly Ontario Hydro -- which, in turn, is 100% owned by the Government of Ontario. According to many Environmentalists, the pollution coming out of Nanticoke's giant smokestacks is the equivalent of the pollution produced by 3.3 million cars. Its emissions contribute not only to the choking smog that lies over Southern Ontario every summer, but also to the potentially devastating impacts of global climate change and to the well-known problems caused by acid rain.

Haldimand County, Ontario