wind turbine toronto

Toronto's famous wind turbine is working again

After two years of sitting at a standstill, the blades of the massive wind turbine at the Exhibition Place are spinning once more. 

The 299-foot-tall white windmill known as the Toronto WindShare ExPlace turbine started generating energy again on Friday afternoon.

As the first windmill to be installed in a major North American city, the ExPlace turbine added an average of 1,000 MWH of electricity (enough to power 100 homes per year, according to the site) to Toronto's power grid until it stopped in March 2017. 

Its operators, Toronto Hydro Energy Services and WindShare (the TREC-owned wind power co-op), had to shut the turbine down for maintenance after a rainstorm caused damage to the tower's ring generator. 

It was meant to re-open later that year, but despite the wait, these upgrades will hopefully extend the turbine's lifespan by an extra 10 years. 

Lead photo by

Bryan Bonnici


Latest Videos



Latest Videos


Join the conversation Load comments

Latest in City

Here's a preview of what it will be like to ride on new Toronto LRT line

There's a brand-new $26M TTC subway station entrance in a popular Toronto park

Ontario's largest snake grows up to 2 metres and squeezes prey to death

Ontario is home to world's oldest pool of water at a staggering 2 billion years old

Stunning new Toronto park set to open next year

Toronto somehow isn't home to Ontario's jankiest LRT

A Toronto transit project is actually going to finish early for once

People worried about Ontario police's plan to use facial recognition software