The last coal-burning power station in Alberta went off coal on 16 June 2024
Forty kilometres east of Drayton Valley stood the last coal-fired power station in Alberta. Genesee burned coal from the mine beside it for decades, and on 16 June 2024 it stopped: all three units running on natural gas, more than five years ahead of the deadline the province had set. The repowering cost about 1.35 billion dollars and takes up to 3.4 million tonnes of emissions a year out of the air, with another 512 megawatts of capacity coming from the combined-cycle side. Whatever you make of the trade, this is the end of an industry that built half the towns on this map: the Crowsnest, the Coal Branch, Nordegg, Bankhead, Wayne, all of them dug coal, and the last of it was burned here.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
