Leaving the Bow

• Published in: Wilderness and Waterpower pp. 183 - 201
• Main Authors: Armstrong, Christopher, Nelles, H. V
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Canada University of Calgary Press 2013
• Subjects: Environmental economics; History of other lands; History of the Americas
• ISBN: 1552386341; 9781552386347
• DOI: 10.1515/9781552386361-012

During its first forty years, Calgary Power generated its electricity from the Bow River.¹ Step by step, dam by dam, diversion by diversion, the company engineers extracted more and more power from the mountain river until in the 1950s, they began to run out of falling water. Eventually, to keep pace with the growth of southern Alberta, other primary energy sources would have to be found. Starting in the mid-1950s, Calgary Power management began investing heavily in the construction of mine-mouth thermal electric stations to meet a rising baseload. After having, over a half a century, exhausted the hydroelectric possibilities