Friday, 6 January 2023: our temperature is 5°C (windchill 1°C) just after noon. We have been having comparatively 'warm' weather recently. So much appreciated and sure beats the -30°C's and windchill -40°C's, that we had fairly recently. Sunrise was at 8:38 am and sunset was at 4:47 pm.
On 3 January 2023, I drove E of the city. A rewarding drive, including stopping to take a few photos of familiar old barns. The previous day, I had made a short drive SE of Calgary. I found that two days like this were so tiring, after barely being out anywhere for so long. I can see that I am going to have to slowly build up to going out more over the next few months, though I am sure that the return to cold and more snow will delay that.
On the way home, I passed the huge Shepard Energy Centre along Glenmore Trail and pulled over to take a quick shot of the billowing clouds of vapour.
“The $1.4-billion plant in east Calgary is capable of generating more than 800 megawatts of electricity for the provincial grid, the city-owned utility company said in a release. 'The facility is the largest of its kind in the province and an important step in Alberta's transition away from aging coal-fired generation facilities,' Enmax said.
Enmax announced the project in 2007 and it became a joint venture with Edmonton-based Capital Power Corporation as a 50 per cent owner in late 2012.
It uses combined-cycle technology that has two combustion turbines to generate electricity while making use of waste heat through a steam turbine for extra power production.
The centre is about 30 per cent more efficient than conventional coal plants and will emit less than half the CO2 per megawatt hour, as well as less carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide gases, Enmax says.
Its cooling towers will also use 14 million litres of reclaimed water per day from the city’s Bonnybrook wastewater treatment plant, the company says.
"With this crucial infrastructure added to Alberta's electricity system, we will bring reliable electricity to Albertans for decades to come,” said Enmax CEO Gianna Manes in a release.”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/shepard-energy-centre-powe...
Grand opening video
globalnews.ca/video/2019487/grand-opening-of-calgarys-she...
calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-largest-natural-gas-fuelled-... 