Ontario Power Generation has signed a partnership agreement with the city of Port Hope focused on bringing large-scale new nuclear generation to the utility’s Wesleyville location, a 1,300-acre site on the shores of Lake Ontario that has been left undeveloped for four decades. The Ontario government believes that this site has the potential to generate as much as 10 GW of electricity and become “the world’s largest nuclear station,” in the words of Stephen Lecce, the province’s minister of energy and mines.
The Wesleyville nuclear project is expected to support 10,500 jobs in Ontario, including 1,700 positions in Port Hope, which will contribute an estimated C$235 billion (nearly $172 billion) to Ontario’s gross domestic product over the power plant’s projected 78-year lifespan.
Nuclear energy currently provides about one-half of Ontario’s electricity supply.
Hour by hour, there is a lot of back and forth trading between Quebec, Ontario, New England, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and other Midwestern U.S. states, depending on pricing, or the weather which can have a major impact on the hydroelectric coming from Quebec. The decision to build is in part because Ontario’s electricity demand is projected to grow by 90%; some erratic behavior by the US may also be a factor: for example, in March 2025, Ontario imposed a ~25% surcharge on electricity exports to U.S. states (NY, MI, MN) in retaliation for U.S. tariffs; the surcharge was quickly suspended the next day after negotiations.
