Tidal power proponents envision hundreds of electricity-generating turbines being installed in the Bay of Fundy within five years of the deployment of four prototypes.
Those prototypes are scheduled to be placed in the Minas Basin before the end of 2012.
After that, "we’re expecting we’ll be able to follow a similar deployment and monitoring approach to the one we are employing in northern Scotland," Joseph Fison, director of corporate development for Atlantis Resources Corp., said Wednesday.
"After four or five years, we could have hundreds of turbines in the water."
Fison made the comment after giving a presentation at the Renewable Energy Conference 2011 in Halifax.
Atlantis Resources plans to install a version of its AK1000 turbine in the Minas Basin in the summer of 2012 with partners Lockheed Martin Canada and Irving Shipbuilding.
Fison said Lockheed Martin will provide engineering and procurement services, while Irving will manufacture the turbine base in Halifax before it is floated to the Bay of Fundy.
He told conference participants that future developments could happen quickly if Atlantis Resources is selected for more deployments.
"We would move as quickly as regulatory approvals could be obtained," he said.
Fison said a recent test of an AK1000 turbine off the coast of Australia, located near a large breeding ground for penguins, demonstrated that the huge underwater generator could co-exist with marine animals.
Minas Basin Pulp and Power and Alstom of France are also planning to install turbines in the basin in 2012.
There is a possibility the $10-million turbine removed from the Bay of Fundy by partners OpenHydro of Ireland and Nova Scotia Power Inc. last year will be repositioned in 2011 or 2012.
The turbines will be connected to subsea transmission cables installed by Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, which is leading the project.
Acadia University researcher Richard Karsten said computer modelling indicates a deployment of 2,000 tidal turbines in the Minas Basin area of the Bay of Fundy is reasonable from an ecological point of view.
The modelling indicates that many turbines would result in minimal change to the tidal action in the basin but he said more study needs to be done.
"We do not want to have green power that is not green," Karsten said. "We want to take advantage of the tidal currents without destroying them."
Several hundred people from the renewable energy sector attended the two-day conference in Halifax that concluded Wednesday.
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