August 2026
Stave Falls Field Trip: Learning about Hydro Electric Power
Stave Falls Field Trip: Learning about Hydro Electric Power
In the fall of 2024, parents and caregivers with For Our Kids Vancouver were on a mission: stop city council from repealing a ban on natural gas in new housing developments. For months leading up to the vote, team members learned about the environmental and health hazards that come from producing and burning natural gas, met with city council members to explain exactly why parents want fossil fuels out of their homes, published an op-ed in the local news, and coordinated with local allies to make opposition to the repeal highly visible inside and outside City Hall as deliberations got underway.
During the public hearing, For Our Kids member Brittany Hopkins remembers listening to hours of public testimony from home, waiting for her turn to address Council. While the vast majority of public speakers supported reinstating the ban and continuing with electrification of new housing projects, she couldn’t help but notice her anxiety rise whenever an industry professional warned of surging energy demand and an impending energy crisis. Were they telling the truth? Should parents be worried about a future full of rationing and rolling blackouts? Or, were these fossil fuel proponents gaslighting the public into helping prop up a dirty, dying industry?
After two afternoons of public comment, For Our Kids Vancouver and their allies were able to celebrate. A tied vote by the mayor and council meant the ban on natural gas in new housing developments would remain in place, for the time being. But Brittany’s desire to learn more about the energy that powers our lives didn’t cease. Could For Our Kids families get an up-close and personal look at clean power generated in their province?
Luckily, it didn’t take long to find a publicly accessible option — the Powerhouse at Stave Falls in Mission, B.C. Operated by the provincial utility firm BC Hydro, the 100-year-old former hydroelectric generating station (which operated from 1912 to 2000) now serves as a visitors centre and museum. With 89 percent of BC energy produced from hydroelectric sources, it felt like the perfect place to start.
The two-hour guided tour covered a wide range of topics, including the importance of rain for hydropower generation, the mechanics behind hydroelectricity generation, and the technological improvements that have made modern hydroelectricity generation far more efficient, along with a plethora of archival photos and artifacts from the facility’s long history in operation.
“It was so impressive to get up close to these old hydroelectric generators — somewhere the general public wouldn't normally have access to in an active powerhouse,” said Hannah Lane, a For Our Kids Vancouver team member who co-organized the field trip. “It was amazing to see how water and gravity (with a little help from some engineering) could provide electricity to so many communities across BC. It was also reassuring to learn that BC Hydro is looking to diversify their portfolio by including more renewable energy like wind and wave power.”
Brittany was delighted by the museum’s focus on alternative energy sources, too. In addition to being able to tinker with interactive models of solar, wind and geothermal power generating systems, the museum displayed a 3-D map identifying how the dam’s operation had eroded the lake’s shoreline over its lifetime of operation.
“I was impressed that the exhibits and our tour guide acknowledged the environmental degradation that large-scale hydropower stations can cause, and the need for advancing alternative renewable energy sources,” she noted.
The team was disappointed by the lack of information about the Indigenous peoples native to the land the powerhouse was built on — the Sto:lo People and the Kwantlen First Nation, and hope BC Hydro will expand the exhibits with local indigenous history in the future. They were also surprised to learn about the townsite and settler community that grew around the site to support the construction and operation of the powerhouse, as well as how the operators had navigated hazardous conditions to provide electricity to the Lower Mainland.
“It really made us appreciate modern safety standards!” Hannah said.
With their first field trip successfully completed, the team’s drive to learn more about the sustainable infrastructure all around their community has only intensified. At the end of August, the team will gather with a City of Vancouver staff member to tour a variety of green rainwater infrastructure tools — like wetlands, rain gardens, rainwater tree trenches and permeable pavers — that help manage rainwater that falls on the city.
The team is continuing to seek opportunities to learn about and tour renewable energy projects that are powering a more sustainable future, like solar, wind and geothermal. Sign up for the For Our Kids Vancouver e-newsletter here to receive information about future events, or contact the team at [email protected] to share ideas on future field trip destinations.
