Powering The Therevox Shop
October 18th, 2026 posted by mike under Workshop Updates.Almost all of the electricity to run the Therevox shop comes from renewable power, mostly from hydroelectricity. In August, Melissa and I took an 11 hour road trip north to visit the Manic-5 dam located near the “Eye of Quebec” at the Manicouagan Reservoir to see where our electricity comes from.
We were given hard hats and loaded onto a full school bus. Our first stop was the generating rooms where we navigated metal catwalks past massive control valves and through the turbine service areas. Despite the forces being harnessed and the amount of electricity being generated, these areas seemed very sparse with just a steady hum.
Our next stop on the tour was at the base of the dam in one of the cathedral-like spaces between the massive cement buttresses. This is the largest multiple-buttress dam in the world and the scale is hard to capture in pictures. It started generating electricity in 1970 and after some upgrades now generates 2660MW of power.
Manic-5 is one of 61 hydro generating stations scattered throughout the province. Now every time I turn on the table saw or soldering iron, I will think about the infrastructure required to deliver this clean renewable electricity to the Therevox shop.
