Pugwash windfarm

Kings County plans review of wind turbine bylaw

2012-01-23T06:25:00.003-04:00

January 23, 2012 - 6:02am

by Gordon Delaney, Valley Bureau

KENTVILLE — Kings County plans to revisit its new wind turbine bylaw after opposition to a test tower recently erected in the Greenfield area, south of Wolfville.

“There are a lot of concerns out there, so we have committed to do a full review," Warden Diana Brothers said in an interview.

Residents of Greenfield and surrounding areas recently presented county council with a petition with almost 400 names opposing Scotian WindFields’ 60-metre test tower off Peck Meadow Road.

Residents are concerned about noise, potential health risks, lower property values and the minimum setback of 700 metres from the nearest house if permanent towers are erected. They are also worried that the new bylaw doesn’t allow public input into specific wind development projects. If an application meets the criteria laid out in the bylaw, the development may proceed by right. Residents are angry the test tower was erected without community input or knowledge.

The Municipality of the County of Kings passed its wind turbine bylaw regulating large-scale developments last year after a series of public meetings and consultations.

“The ironic part is that we did have a public input process," Brothers said. “But when you do a public consultation process across the county, it’s hard to reach everyone."

Council approved motions at a special meeting last week to spend up to $25,000 researching the health and environmental implications of large-scale wind turbines and to pass the petition on to the province with a letter advising of possible changes to the new bylaw.

“We are responding to the public’s concerns," said Brothers. “We want them to know that we’re going to review the policy."

Bret Miner, who lives about a kilometre from the test tower, said “the residents of Greenfield are concerned that large-scale wind turbines could be put in their neighbourhood without (any) public say at all." In an interview, Miner said the community is not opposed to wind turbines per se, but more study needs to be done and communities need to have a say.

“There’s a lot of information that . . .

goes into compiling setbacks, along with medical studies, and we just want to be careful that everybody has that information.

“We’re very happy the county has committed to review the bylaw. . . . The residents in the area want to make sure the county gets some unbiased scientific information to support a bylaw.

“We’re going to keep pursuing the county to make sure the next bylaw meets what we would expect from a municipal government."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/54736-kings-county-plans-review-wind-turbine-bylaw

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Cumberland County's bylaw is currently written "as of right" - which really means the neighbours have no rights as long as all other criteria are met. Time for a change, methinks.
L

Nova Scotia wind tower plants lays off 32 workers

2012-01-22T11:10:00.003-04:00

CBC news

Posted: Jan 21, 2012 4:54 PM

Despite layoffs this week, Nova Scotia's Economic Development Minister says he's optimistic about the future of the DSTN wind tower manufacturing plant in Trenton.

"DSTN is experiencing what I would chalk up to as some growing pains. I still remain confident that the future is bright for them," Paris said Saturday.

The subsidiary of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering laid off 32 workers, a spokesman confirmed Friday.

The plant has received $70 million in federal and provincial funding.

The Nova Scotia government owns 49 per cent of the business.

"This is somewhat a new industry, and it's even newer here in Nova Scotia," Paris said.

"DSTN is a new player in the game, they have had some contracts, obviously they need more. It's a competitive global market and I think as DSTN's reputation grows, the longer that they stay around, I remain confident that they will serve rural Nova Scotia well."

The company will undergo some in-house maintenance and some of those employees may get work as a result, DSTN spokesman Brad Murray told Pictou County's The News.

DSTN recently announced a production partnership with Seaforth Energy Inc., a wind turbine manufacturer in Dartmouth.

As part of the agreement, Seaforth Energy will train DSTN staff to manufacture wind tower blades.

The company hopes the first blades will be ready by the end of March, Murray told the local newspaper.

Murray said DSTN has also approached some of its employees about training at a company plant in Korea for a month.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/01/21/ns-dstn-lay-offs.html?cmp=rss

Read the comments section too.

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Well, I get to say "I told you so". The writing was on the wall from the very beginning of this venture. I feel bad for the people laid off, but any business that needs consistent government money - no, not government money, OUR money - to keep it going is ultimately always going to fail.

Sprott looking to grow Amherst wind project?

2012-01-20T13:57:00.002-04:00

Wind company considering the east side of the Trans-Canada for more turbines

Darrell Cole

Amherst Daily News

AMHERST – As it passes the halfway mark of its $61-million Amherst wind project, Sprott Power is already looking at its options for expansion.

“We’re looking at possibly expanding our project in Amherst, going to the east of the Trans-Canada Highway,” company chief operating officer Don Bartlett said Friday. “We’re just investigating it now, but it’s something we’re considering.”

Barlett said he is not at liberty to talk about what the expansion plans are, other than to say there will be a public presentation in the coming months detailing what what the company wants to do.

“As we move forward we’ll make some public announcements,” he said.

Before it moves across the highway it would have to go through the entire regulatory process including having an environmental assessment and public consultations completed.

It also needs to collect weather data, including the prevalence of wind on the east side of the marsh.

Any expansion would also hinge on the company being successful in the next round of requests for proposal from the province.

The Ontario-based company started work on the Amherst project last fall and completed the eighth of 15 turbines early Friday. The north side of the project, nearest Fort Lawrence, has been completed. Work is now focused on the south side, closest to the Trans-Canada Highway and the Wandlyn Inn hotel.

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2012-01-20/article-2869525/Sprott-looking-to-grow-wind-project/1

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.... and so it begins. Exactly the same thing could happen in Pugwash .... EXACTLY!

Wind farm divides Pugwash

2012-01-19T21:12:00.001-04:00

January 19, 2012 - 7:56pm By AARON BESWICK Truro Bureau

Debate rages as proposal works toward approval

Dozens of placard-waving protesters marched through downtown Pugwash on Monday to demand a proposed wind farm outside this Cumberland County village be stopped in its tracks.

The developer, who’d cut the project in half from a 2007 plan, was surprised to find the first day of his open house at a local church occupied by frustrated landowners.

The community is divided.

Those in favour say the $85-million, 11-to-12-turbine project would pour renewable energy into the electrical grid, add income to county coffers and showcase northern Nova Scotia as a forward thinking area.

Those opposed are adamant the windmills will lower property values in a rapidly developing area, be will a noisy nuisance and an eyesore.

So what’s going on that a green energy investment in a cash-strapped area of the province would cause lines to be drawn in the Northumberland sand between neighbours and friends?

To understand, you’ll need an introduction to the Northumberland Strait’s changing coast.

In the 1950s, Pugwash-area residents farmed, fished and worked in the woods just as their ancestors had a century before. Soon after, a salt mine opened that added decent paying industrial jobs to compliment the extensive seasonal work.

Between then and now the family farms have been abandoned, lobster stocks in the Northumberland Strait have declined and the lumber industry has largely dried up.

But Pugwash has soldiered on thanks to jobs at the salt mine, Seagull Pewter, a home for disabled adults and a large senior citizen’s complex, along with its downtown business core, hospital and schools.

“There are jobs and a good economy here but still most the young people leave,” said Allison Gillis, a Cumberland county councillor for the Pugwash area.

“One of our greatest imports have been people who moved here to retire. They build homes, shop locally and contribute greatly to our community.”

Among those are Greg and Kathy Downing. Charmed by the strait’s warm waters, lack of industrial and commercial development, they are among the many retirees who have flocked to the area over the past decade to build homes and spend the autumn of their lives.

After careers working in the Northwest Territories, the couple built their home on the Gulf Shore Road five years ago.

The coastal road has been built up, largely by retired professionals from across North America. Many of the houses are valued at over $300,000 — a lot of money in an economically depressed county. The Northumberland Links, also on the Gulf Shore Road, is consistently rated one of Canada’s top five public golf courses and the Fox Harb’r Golf Resort and Spa is nearby.

The proposed turbine development is in a wooded area between the Irishtown and Gulf Shore roads.

It will “be a nuisance and severely hurt property values,” Greg Downing said after reviewing the developer’s proposal.

The Downings and others don’t buy the developer’s independently verified claims that the maximum noise exposure for nearby residents will be 40 decibels or less, lower than traffic noise.

While a handful of houses are about 680 metres away from the nearest proposed tower, the majority are more than 800 metres away. (Cumberland County’s mandatory setback for wind turbines from homes is 600 metres.)

“The future of this area is for people to come and retire and live year-round,” said Downing. “Why put these turbines right next to residential areas when there are plenty of other places they could go?”

But not everyone shares the same vision of Pugwash’s future.

Kara Irving, 40, and her father, Keith, 73, were bringing their 120 dairy cows into the barn on Tuesday. As they did, the elder Irving shared memories of when 18 dairy farms occupied the coast rather than the newly built homes.

And the younger Irving told of how she’s trying to keep the last dairy farm along the Gulf Shore Road alive for another generation.

She supports the wind turbines. Three or four will be on her property and she doesn’t mind having one of the closest homes to the development.

“I went on a tour of the Netherlands in 2000 and there were wind turbines and farms working together all over the place,” Irving said. “It piqued my interest.”

So when Pugwash Wind Farm Inc. president Charles Demond contacted her in 2005 about having 18 turbines for the originally proposed 28-turbine, $120-million wind farm on some of her 280-hectare farm, Irving was all for it.

“I went and visited a number of other wind farms, did some research and thought it would be a wonderful thing,” she said.

The Irvings will be paid for putting the windmills on their property.

But a movement grew against the original proposal. Operating under the banner of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association, the group is composed mainly of Irving’s new neighbours.

In 2007, Pugwash Wind Farm put the original plan on hold. On Monday, when Demond unveiled a significantly reduced 11-turbine plan for the Gulf Shore Road, the church basement in Pugwash was flooded with protesters.

Irving wasn’t impressed because the company “bent over backwards” to accommodate those opposing the wind farm.

And as far as she is concerned, “I’m looking at this from a sustainability perspective for agriculture and for energy.”

“Expenses are going up,” she said. “Will this wind farm help us be able to afford to farm? Yes. Will we get rich? No.”

Demond said Pugwash Wind Farm plans to file for environmental approval next week. A decision from the Department of Environment is expected in March.

If it is positive, the company will then apply to an arm’s-length provincial government body called the Renewable Electricity Administrator for final approval.

Construction could begin by 2013.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/53778-wind-farm-divides-pugwash

Gulf shore wind project back on track?

2012-01-19T03:11:00.002-04:00

Darrell Cole

Amherst Daily News

PUGWASH – A wind project near Pugwash that was put on hold in 2007 is being brought back to life, albeit on a smaller scale.

Charles Demond, of Pugwash Wind Farm Inc., is proposing to erect the wind farm to the north and south of the Irishtown Road east of the village. The project would include 11 to 12 turbines, as opposed to the 27 proposed five years ago, and it will generate about 30 megawatts of electricity.

“This project has evolved and we have done what is logical to do,” Demond said. “We started in 2005 and worked hard at it. In the summer of 2007 we were going to bid the project into the Nova Scotia Power RFP but we decided not to. We really reflected on the project from front to back and sat down with the landowners and made some adjustments.”

The project was introduced at an open house at the Sir Thomas More Roman Catholic Church hall in Pugwash on Tuesday. A second open house is planned for Wednesday from 3 to 8 p.m.

Demond said the turbines are further away from homes than the original project with most much further than the Municipality of Cumberland’s 600-metre setback and some more than 1,000 metres away.

“At the end of the day it’s up to us to build a good project that’s a sensible project and one we feel comfortable with on a business level and a corporate value level. It’s one that’s fair to our host landowners and has a high degree of respect for our neighbours,” Demond said.

Demond said the company plans to submit its environmental assessment to proceed with the project and then respond to a provincial government request for proposals in March.

If all goes well, he hopes to see construction begin in late 2013 or 2014.

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2012-01-17/article-2866760/Gulf-shore-wind-project-back-on-track/1

Peaceful protest at Pugwash open house

2012-01-18T07:33:00.006-04:00

Over 50 local residents march along Church Street, Pugwash to protest the wind farm. Locals have been opposing this project for several years.
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Protestors talk with developers and CBCL. Developer Clair Peers seen in foreground.
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About 50 people from Pugwash and the Gulf Shore quietly marched into the Atlantic Wind Power Corporation open house at St Thomas More church hall, Pugwash with placards. Once everyone was inside the hall, a spokesperson for the group asked pointed questions and made demands that the project be abandoned.

The group stayed for about and hour to talk to the developers, representatives from CBCL who are performing the environmental assessment, property owners and to view the display boards.

The open house continues today from 3pm to 8pm. Questionnaires are on hand to be filled in on site or can be sent in later on.

Comments for the environmental assessment can be sent to:

CBCL Limited
1489 Hollis Street
PO Box 606
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2R7
Attention: Ann Wilkie
Or fax to: (902) 423-3938

If you require additional information or wish to talk with the project team, please contact:

Ann Wilkie at (902) 492-6764

Clair Peers at (902) 897-5951 or (902) 895-0788

Ignoring turbine risks - Jeddore

2012-01-14T11:33:00.000-04:00

After residents narrowly avoided the last wind turbine project in Jeddore, the corporations are again trying to put one into inhabited areas against our wishes. The government of Nova Scotia is ignoring health risks related to wind turbines near homes.

The proposed one, under the provincial COMFIT program, is uphill in the water supply run-off of numerous homes. That’s the concern at the building stage. It has been deviously downsized from 2.15 to 1.99 megawatts, avoiding an automatic environmental assessment at 2 MW.

Health concerns (Google wind turbine syndrome) and various risks also arise from wind turbines in inhabited areas. Reports indicate a loss of property value of as high as 40 per cent because people do not want to live within three kilometres.

The locals are overwhelmingly against this turbine and yet they again have to fight the system to preserve their homes. A very informative site is www.friendsofjeddore.com.

This can only be stopped at the Department of Energy’s COMFIT program director’s office. Hopefully, they will listen to the voters living in the area and not a few corporate shareholders living in urban Halifax, where wind turbines of any size are banned.

Karl Green, Jeddore Harbour

http://thechronicleherald.ca/letters/51937-voice-people

Pugwash Wind Open House Jan 17 and 18th

2012-01-13T21:05:00.002-04:00

Interesting that AWPC has chosen deepest January for an open house in Pugwash when a large number of stakeholders are out of town. We'll have to wait and see to see what differences, if any, there are to the latest proposal.

Pictou County wind farm produces more power than expected

2011-10-27T07:38:00.001-03:00

Shear Wind’s Glen Dhu wind farm has better-than-expected turbine performance

October 26, 2011 - 8:04pm BRETT BUNDALE Business Reporter

The president and CEO of Shear Wind Inc. is optimistic about expanding the Glen Dhu wind farm after better-than-expected turbine performance in its first six months of operation.

Mike Magnus said the 62-megawatt Pictou County wind farm, in operation since the end of March, has surpassed earlier expectations and is producing more power than expected.

“We’re pleasantly surprised and pleased on the performance of the turbines themselves and, more importantly, their ability to capture the energy of the wind,” he said in an interview from Shear Wind’s Dartmouth office.

“It’s pretty early to tell, but we’ve been experiencing upward of 10 per cent better performance than what we had looked at. In this business, 10 per cent is a big number.”

While Magnus declined to put a dollar figure on the stellar performance, he said “it helps us pay down our debt 10 per cent quicker.”

The Glen Dhu wind farm is made up of 27 giant turbines on about 10,000 acres of windswept hills east of New Glasgow.

The wind farm, which has a 20-year power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power Inc., produces enough energy to power 18,000 homes.

However, the site has the potential to produce 230 megawatts — about three times its present capacity.

“Phase 2 of the Glen Dhu site looks very, very promising,” Magnus said. “We know the wind regime there and we’ve got very significant infrastructure that we’ve already invested in, so we’re very optimistic about extending the current site.”

Unlike Cape Breton wind farms that have been hobbled by traffic jams on the grid coming out of the Strait of Canso, transmission lines with extra space transect the Glen Dhu site.

Shear Wind is also eyeing another site in the Parrsboro area of Cumberland County that has features similar to the Pictou County site.

The energy company has been measuring winds in Parrsboro since June and early results “indicate it’s going to be a very good site,” he said.

The province’s renewable energy administrator is expected to issue a request for proposals for renewable energy projects this December, with proposals due by March. John Dalton, the independent administrator for the province, is expected to approve the next round of wind projects by late spring.

Projects will be evaluated and scored on a range of costs and other factors, such as nearby transmission capacity.

While Magnus said Shear Wind’s projects have a strong business case, he noted that there is increasing competition in the wind energy market.

“We feel pretty good about where we sit right now, but there has been more competition. There are a number of outside interests being expressed, but at the end of the day, I think localized entities such as Shear Wind that have made a lot of investment in this province to develop sites to an advanced stage are at an advantage.”

The better-than-expected performance of the Glen Dhu wind farm is proof of the tremendous renewable resource in Nova Scotia and the need for continued investments in areas such as transmission capacity, he said.

“There is a very rich resource here in Nova Scotia. We’ve got a tremendous resource, and like any other resource like oil and gas, there has got to be continued investment in getting that source of energy to market.”

Jean-Francois Nolet with the Canadian Wind Energy Association said given that Atlantic Canada has some of the best wind resources in the country, he is not surprised to hear the Glen Dhu farm is performing better than predicted.

But he said the performance of wind farms needs to be examined over a longer period of time before making assumptions.

“This is good news, but wind resources can fluctuate from year to year, so we need to cautious before jumping to any conclusions.”

Shear Wind owns 51 per cent of Glen Dhu wind farm and Inveravante Inversiones Universales, S.L., through Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc., owns 49 per cent.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/27307-pictou-county-wind-farm-produces-more-power-expected

Group seeks wind farm bonds

2011-10-12T22:26:00.000-03:00

Developers would show ‘integrity’
By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau
Wed, Oct 12 - 4:53 AM

A group in Annapolis County wants to ensure potential wind farm developers — and not taxpayers — are on the hook for the costs of decommissioning turbines.

"Any company coming here, if they are serious . . . should have the integrity to put a bond in place to protect the landowner and the County of Annapolis," Steve Lewis, spokesman for Friends for Responsibility for the Economy and Energy, said recently.

The municipality’s draft wind turbine bylaw, expected to come before council for second reading on Tuesday, does not require a bond or have any protection for taxpayers, he said. As a result, it could leave them paying the decommissioning costs for wind farms in 20 years, the average life span of a turbine.

"So we’re just saying (to council), ‘Slow down, let’s look at this a bit longer,’ " Lewis said.

He stressed that he’s not opposed to wind farm development.

"We want economic development but only if it will not put landowners and taxpayers at financial risk and is of economic benefit to the majority of county citizens," Lewis wrote in a letter to Annapolis County Warden Reg Ritchie.

Lewis also said landowners who allow large-scale wind turbine developments on their land may not be aware of their financial obligations. The cost of decommissioning one large-scale wind turbine could be as much as $100,000, he said.

The county has been working on a wind turbine bylaw for more than a year, as companies seek to develop wind farms in the region, including a large one on North Mountain, near Bridgetown. Lewis wants the county to send the bylaw back to the planning advisory committee for more study.

Under the Municipal Government Act, the county can seek a security or performance bond through a development agreement or through "conditional use" zoning, said Peter McInroy, a Musquodoboit Harbour lawyer hired by Lewis’s group.

But municipalities are reluctant to make that requirement for fear that developers will walk away, said Lewis.

Gregory Heming, a citizen member of the county’s planning advisory committee that studied the issue, is encouraging the county to slow down and get its bylaw right.

"The provincial government set these energy targets and then turned it loose on municipal governments to figure out how that’s going to work, without any guidelines," said Heming, who has a doctorate in ecology, specializing in community development.

Warden Reg Ritchie could not be reached for comment by deadline Tuesday.

Proposed areas for wind-resource zones in the county include Parker Mountain Road, Victoria Beach and Hampton Hills on North Mountain and Spectacle Lake on South Mountain.

A $60-million, 12-turbine wind farm by Sprott Power Corp. of Toronto is proposed for Hampton Hills, about four kilometres north of Bridgetown.

Sprott is renewing building permits it held for properties in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton. In April, the company asked Nova Scotia Supreme Court to overrule a municipal decision denying the renewal.

Annapolis County announced recently it was changing its planning strategy to allow Sprott to proceed with most of the turbines.

The county’s draft bylaw may be viewed on the municipality’s website at www.annapoliscounty.ns.ca.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1267996.html

Ontario wind power bringing down property values

2011-10-01T09:47:00.003-03:00

By John Nicol and Dave Seglins, CBC News

Posted: Oct 1, 2011 6:56 AM ET

Ontario's rapid expansion in wind power projects has provoked a backlash from rural residents living near industrial wind turbines who say their property values are plummeting and they are unable to sell their homes, a CBC News investigation has found.

The government and the wind energy industry have long maintained turbines have no adverse effects on property values, health or the environment.

The CBC has documented scores of families who've discovered their property values are not only going downward, but also some who are unable to sell and have even abandoned their homes because of concerns nearby turbines are affecting their health.

"I have to tell you not a soul has come to look at it," says Stephana Johnston, 81, of Clear Creek, a hamlet on the north shore of Lake Erie about 60 kilometres southeast of London.

Johnston, a retired Toronto teacher, moved here six years ago to build what she thought would be her dream home. But in 2008, 18 industrial wind turbines sprung up near her property and she put the one-floor, wheelchair-accessible home up for sale.

"My hunch is that people look at them and say: 'As nice as the property is going south, looking at the lake, we don't want to be surrounded by those turbines.' Can't say that I blame them."

Johnston says she has suffered so many ill health effects, including an inability to sleep — which she believes stem from the noise and vibration of the turbines— that she now sleeps on a couch in her son's trailer, 12 kilometres away, and only returns to her house to eat breakfast and dinner and use the internet.

Industry rejects claims of lower land values

Meanwhile, the industry rejects claims of lower land values.

"Multiple studies, and particularly some very comprehensive ones from the United States have consistently shown the presence of wind turbines does not have any statistically significant impact on property values," says Robert Hornung of the Ottawa-based Canadian Wind Energy Association (CANWEA).

While acknowledging a lack of peer-reviewed studies in Ontario, Hornung says CANWEA commissioned a study of the Chatham-Kent area, where new wind turbines are appearing, and found no evidence of any impact on property values.

"In fact," says Hornung, "we've recently seen evidence coming from Re/Max indicating that we're seeing farm values throughout Ontario, including the Chatham-Kent area, increasing significantly this year as wind energy is being developed in the area at the same time."

However, Ron VandenBussche, a Re/Max agent along the Lake Erie shore, said the reality is that the wind turbines reduce the pool of interested buyers, and ultimately the price of properties.

"It's going to make my life more difficult," says VandenBussche, who has been a realtor for 38 years. "There's going to be people that would love to buy this particular place, but because the turbines are there, it's going to make it more difficult, no doubt."

Kay Armstrong is one example. She put her two-acre, waterfront property up for sale before the turbines appeared in Clear Creek, for what three agents said was a reasonable price of $270,000.

Two years after the turbines appeared, she took $175,000, and she felt lucky to do that — the property went to someone who only wanted to grow marijuana there for legal uses.

"I had to get out," said Armstrong. "It was getting so, so bad. And I had to disclose the health issues I had. I was told by two prominent lawyers that I would be sued if the ensuing purchasers were to develop health problems."

Realtor association finds 20 to 40 per cent drops in value

Armstrong's experience is backed up in a study by Brampton-based realtor Chris Luxemburger. The president of the Brampton Real Estate Board examined real estate listings and sales figures for the Melancthon-Amaranth area, home to 133 turbines in what is Ontario's first and largest industrial wind farm.

"Homes inside the windmill zones were selling for less and taking longer to sell than the homes outside the windmill zones," said Luxemburger.

On average, from 2007 to 2010, he says properties adjacent to turbines sold for between 20 and 40 per cent less than comparable properties that were out of sight from the windmills.

Power company sells at a loss

Land registry documents obtained by CBC News show that some property owners who complained about noise and health issues and threatened legal action did well if they convinced the turbine companies to buy them out.

Canadian Hydro Developers bought out four different owners for $500,000, $350,000, $305,000 and $302,670. The company then resold each property, respectively, for $288,400, $175,000, $278,000 and $215,000.

In total, Canadian Hydro absorbed just over half a million dollars in losses on those four properties.

The new buyers were required to sign agreements acknowledging that the wind turbine facilities may affect the buyer's "living environment" and that the power company will not be responsible for or liable from any of the buyer's "complaints, claims, demands, suits, actions or causes of action of every kind known or unknown which may arise directly or indirectly from the Transferee's wind turbine facilities."

The energy company admits the impacts may include "heat, sound, vibration, shadow flickering of light, noise (including grey noise) or any other adverse effect or combination thereof resulting directly or indirectly from the operation."

TransAlta, the company that took over for Canadian Hydro, refused to discuss the specific properties it bought and then resold at a loss in Melancthon. But in an email to CBC, spokesman Glen Whelan cited the recession and other "business considerations" that "influence the cost at which we buy or sell properties, and to attribute purchase or sale prices to any one factor would be impossible."

Province says no change to tax base

Ontario's ministers of Energy, Municipal Affairs and Finance, all in the midst of an election campaign, declined requests for an interview.

A spokesperson for Municipal Affairs says his ministry has no studies or information about the potential impact wind turbines are having on rural property values.

However, last February, before an environmental review tribunal in Chatham, Environment Ministry lawyer Frederika Rotter said: "We will see in the course of this hearing that lots of people are worried about windmills. They may not like the noise, they may think the noise makes them sick, but really what makes them sick is just the windmills being on the land because it does impact their property values.

"That's what makes them sick is that, you know, they'll get less money for their properties, and that's what's causing all this annoyance and frustration and all of that."

When Energy Minister Brad Duguid declined comment, his staff referred CBC News to the Ministry of Finance, which oversees MPAC (the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation), which sets values on land for taxation purposes. They indicated that MPAC has no evidence wind turbines are driving down assessed values.

However, CBC found one household in Melancthon was awarded a 50-per-cent reduction in property tax because the house sat next to a transformer station for the turbines.

Losing the rural life

Almost all the people interviewed by the CBC rue the division between neighbours for and against the turbines, and said what they have lost is a sense of home and the idyllic life of living in the countryside.

Tracy Whitworth, who has a historic home in Clear Creek, refuses to sell it and instead has become a nomad, renting from place to place with her son, to avoid the ill effects of the turbines.

"My house sits empty — it's been vandalized," says Whitworth, a Clear Creek resident who teaches high school in Delhi. "I've had a couple of 'Stop the wind turbine' signs knocked down, mailbox broken off.

"I lived out there for a reason. It was out in the country. School's very busy. When I come home, I like peace and quiet. Now, we have the turbines and the noise. Absolutely no wildlife. I used to go out in the morning, tend to my dogs, let my dogs run, and I'd hear the geese go over.

"And ugh! Now there's no deer, no geese, no wild turkeys. Nothing."

For the octogenarian Johnston, the fight is all more than she bargained for. She sank all her life savings, about $500,000, into the house, and she says she does not have the money to be able to hire a lawyer to fight for a buyout. But she is coming to the conclusion she must get a mortgage to try the legal route.

"I love being near the water and I thought, what a way to spend the rest of my days — every view is precious," she said, as tears filled her eyes. "And I would not have that any more.

"And that is hard to reconcile and accept."

Getting a mortgage on her house might not be that easy. CBC News has learned that already one bank in the Melancthon area is not allowing lines of credit to be secured by houses situated near wind turbines. In a letter to one family situated close to the turbines, the bank wrote, "we find your property a high risk and its future marketability may be jeopardized."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/09/30/ontario-wind-power-property-values.html#.TobyvN2TMUM.mailto

Prentice pushes Muskrat Falls power project

2011-09-29T07:23:00.001-03:00

By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Thu, Sep 29 - 7:20 AM

The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project should go ahead even though an environmental assessment has raised questions about the need for it, says a former federal environment minister.

Jim Prentice, who appointed the review panel that says the proposed $6.2-billion project should be studied further, told a Halifax business audience Wednesday that the federal and Newfoundland and Labrador governments should continue to support the development.

"It is a transformational project for Atlantic Canada that will take the region and our country to a new level of industrial development," said Prentice, now senior executive vice-president of CIBC.

The Calgary lawyer, who left federal politics in November 2010, said he respects the regulatory process, but he added that the final decision on such megaprojects rests with politicians.

"In my opinion, the federal government has done the right thing in supporting the development of the remaining hydropower potential of the Churchill River.

"And in the days ahead, the voters in Newfoundland and Labrador will have the opportunity to voice their opinion as well."

The former Tory cabinet minister said after his speech he wasn’t trying to sway voters in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Oct. 11 provincial election.

"I’m here speaking on behalf of our bank and we are supportive of the project," he told reporters. "The voters in that province will make their choice in the days ahead."

Prentice said a study commissioned by Nalcor Energy, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Crown energy corporation, after the review panel report has helped answer questions about the project’s benefits.

The development includes sending some of the power generated in Labrador to Newfoundland, then on to Nova Scotia by a subsea cable.

Nalcor is partnered on the project with Emera Inc., the private energy firm that owns Nova Scotia Power.

Emera would spend $1.2 billion to build a 180-kilometre subsea link between Cape Ray, N.L., and Lingan.

Nalcor president Ed Martin, who was in the audience at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council event, said Newfoundland and Labrador’s Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities is also reviewing the project at the province’s request.

"Any type of report or information that we receive, and any questions, we welcome them," Martin told reporters.

"We’ve been very clear about that. We take them in and work with that."

The board’s report is expected by the end of this year or early in 2012, he said.

Meanwhile, preliminary engineering and other work on the project continues, Martin said.

"We’re continuing to do a job. We’re confident in the information we’ve presented. We’re confident in the project."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1265688.html

N.S. feels pressure to develop marine energy industry

2011-09-28T06:58:00.001-03:00

By ROGER TAYLOR
Chronicle Herald Sports Columnist
Wed, Sep 28 - 4:55 AM

The Nova Scotia government is assuming development of "marine renewable energy" is going to be big, but just how big?

Considering there isn’t even a policy framework established for development of marine energy — tidal, wave and offshore wind — and there isn’t even a reliable technology available to harness the tides of the Bay of Fundy, the government could be accused of jumping the gun.

And yet the Energy Department has a lengthy study that attempts to assess communities that would benefit most from the development of marine energy in Nova Scotia, which was the message the government wanted when consultants were hired in March.

Even if marine energy eventually becomes a major industry, at this point, nobody really knows how the technology will develop, what it will look like and who will benefit. In fact, the consultants recommend the province conduct another infrastructure assessment in about four or five years.

"We know what we have; we’re not yet at the ‘tipping point’ — you might have noticed those words in there — so it’s hard to predict exactly what the industry is going to require as technology changes in the future," admits Energy Minister Charlie Parker.

But he told me the government is feeling the pressure to become a leader in this industry or lose out to competitors in other parts of the world.

In a phone conversation Tuesday, Parker said the main focus of the infrastructure study was to provide an inventory of ports around tidal energy projects in the Bay of Fundy. He said it puts a particular emphasis on communities close to the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy tidal power demonstration project near Parrsboro.

"It will help communities to identify what they have and perhaps what they may need, as time goes by, to become a major port in the renewable energy sector."

There aren’t any plans at the moment for development of wind farms or wave energy technology off the Nova Scotia coast, Parker said, but there are offshore wind and wave projects in other parts of the world, which means there is the potential it could be developed here.

Although there are experts who advise the government to be cautious as it tries to develop new energy opportunities offshore, Parker said things are happening quickly in the renewable energy business, which offers an opportunity to create a lot of employment in Nova Scotia.

"Within the next few months, we’ll have our tidal strategy fully completed and moving towards legislation probably by next spring. So, it is a step-by-step process to develop our industry.

"We have a lot of potential to produce energy from within the Bay of Fundy and from these other sources, but we also have the potential to develop an industry here — engineering, technology, supply and service industry, it all goes together."

The study concludes that some tidal power developers, particularly those using base structures designed to float, will likely plan to conduct some operations from ports such as Hantsport or Parrsboro, which are dry at low tide. Ramps or floating dry docks can be constructed to allow marine energy structures to be put floated in the same way boats are launched.

If future demand for offshore wind power generation is to be met, the consultants suggest that "significant production, assembly and deployment facilities will be required." And since it is difficult to transport large offshore foundations, manufacturing facilities would need to be created near "major coastal locations."

Parker said the private sector will develop the marine energy industry but government has a role to play.

"Our job is to be the regulator, to set up the framework that allows this technology to move forward."

He expects the federal and provincial governments to work together to establish one offshore regulator to oversee the development of this new industry.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1265512.html

Battle of the blades

2011-09-28T06:54:00.001-03:00

Dozens of humongous wind turbine parts begin journey to Amherst power project
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Wed, Sep 28 - 4:55 AM

IT LOOKED LIKE AN outtake from one of the Transformer’s films as dozens of monster components for the $61-million Amherst wind project were readied Tuesday at the Port of Halifax for transport to the assembly site.

"This is exciting for us, as it is the first location that the new Suzlon model S97 turbines have been installed as a group in North America," said Derek Lim Soo, vice-president of sales and marketing for Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. in North America.

Each of the 48-metre-long turbine blades — three for each turbine for a total of 36 blades — will be mounted on custom-configured flatbeds to be moved out of the city beginning after midnight Thursday.

The 15 connecting hubs (which hold the blades) and also the nacelles (which include the gears and generators) of the units will also occupy an impressive bit of road during transport.

"All the components for one turbine will arrive each working day and we allow about four days for installation for each unit, weather permitting," said Lim Soo, affiliated with the international company’s Toronto office.

With the exception of the towers that are being made by DSTN Trenton Ltd., the assorted blades, hubs and peripherals to be transported to Amherst over the next couple of weeks will have the capacity to power about 10,000 homes when commissioned in about six months.

The erection of the turbines at the site about five kilometres outside Amherst will make for an impressive vista for motorists approaching the province from New Brunswick, said Jeff Jenner, chief executive officer of Sprott Power Corp., a Toronto partner in the project.

"As people enter the province, they will be able to see them for miles around," Jenner said.

The completed wind farm will be worth about $150,000 in annual tax revenue for the Municipality of County of Cumberland and will create the equivalent of five direct and indirect jobs for maintenance and site upkeep for the life of the wind farm.

Each turbine will be assembled on the ground and hoisted into place with a giant crane.

Halifax-area residents will have limited opportunities to watch the unusual convoy of big trucks as the city requires the loads be moved — via Bedford Highway — outside of its boundaries at night, when there is minimal traffic.

Once outside the Halifax area, there should be ample opportunity to catch each convey of at least 11 trucks during the week along the route up to the assembly site.

Considering each turbine blade is about the length of a downtown Halifax city block, the shipments should be hard to miss.

Premier Darrell Dexter said the project will help the province achieve its renewable energy targets, which he described as among the most aggressive in North America.

"Over the past six years, the price of coal has risen 75 per cent," Dexter said, referring to the province’s reliance of coal for electrical generation.

"The government has established aggressive targets to help reduce the dependence of fossil fuels, a move that will make life more affordable for families by ensuring lower, more stable power rates in the long term."

Suzlon Wind Energy, the world’s fifth-largest manufacturer of wind turbines, is already in talks with other parties in Nova Scotia interested in using their technology for their projects.

"However, these negotiations are currently underway and we’re not in a position to discuss who our potential clients may be," said Lim Soo.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1265568.html

Homeowners oppose cell tower

2011-09-26T06:10:00.001-03:00

EastLink wants to build 76-metre tower
By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau
Mon, Sep 26 - 4:55 AM

WEST BROOKLYN — Residents of West Brooklyn are lining up in opposition to a proposed telecommunications tower in their neighbourhood.

EastLink is proposing a 76-metre cellphone tower at 316 West Brooklyn Rd., near Avonport. It would be on a 1.6-hectare site less than 304 metres from the nearest house.

"As part of our continued investment in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, we are well underway in designing and building infrastructure that will enable a world-class wireless service seamlessly throughout the province," EastLink spokeswoman Jill Laing said in an email message.

"To date, we have about 30 telecommunications sites under construction across the province. We continue to work closely with community stakeholders to ensure that telecommunications structures satisfy Nova Scotians’ wireless needs, while minimizing impact to the local community."

But Stanley Moeller, who lives across the road from the proposed site, said people in the community are unhappy with the location and want it moved farther away.

There are about 50 houses in the area, and residents are circulating a petition opposing the location. They are citing concerns about the impact on their health, environmental issues and property valuations.

According to its application with the Municipality of the County of Kings, EastLink plans to lease the land from an absentee landowner. Because the property is less than four hectares, it is not subject to an environmental assessment.

"We’re not saying don’t put it up here," Moeller said in a recent interview. "We’re saying we want the company to talk to us, hear our concerns and move it farther back from the houses.

"Why is an alternative site not possible?"

Moeller said he moved to the area, with its picturesque views of the Annapolis Valley and Cape Blomidon in the distance, because it is a quiet rural community.

"Why would you want to live in a rural place and then have an industrial tower plunked right in your backyard?" he asked.

Residents met last week to gather ammunition to fight the development. Under the consultation process, EastLink is hosting a public meeting at the West Brooklyn community hall tonight, beginning at 7 p.m. The company plans to provide information on the proposed tower and listen to feedback from residents.

"This is our one opportunity to express our concerns," said Moeller.

Ruth Legge lives with her daughter and young granddaughter less than 304 metres from the proposed tower.

"Basic quality of life is what it comes down to," Legge said in an interview. "We live here and it’s beautiful and unspoiled. This tower is just so out of place and inappropriate. I’m sure they could site it someplace where it’s not literally in people’s backyards."

She said the tower would block the panoramic view many houses in the area have.

"We love the view that we’ve got."

Legge said the site is close to a wetland and the guide wires would block a flight path for migratory birds.

Laing said the tower is not a done deal.

"This is a proposed location," she said in an interview. "This has not been finalized. . . . That’s precisely the reason for the public meeting, to get feedback and be able to answer questions and figure out the next step."

She said EastLink plans to launch its wireless service in 2012 to bring competition to Nova Scotia.

"We are in the process of developing a wireless voice and data network capable of supporting the most advanced applications and providing the best value for Nova Scotians."

She said the company’s entry into the wireless cellphone market could save consumers millions of dollars.

"Throughout Nova Scotia, we are identifying proposed locations to either co-locate on an existing telecommunications structure, our preferred option where feasible, or build a new one."

Moeller said a large contingent of residents plan to show up at the public meeting tonight.

"Even though we were given very short notice . . . the goal is clear. Our community simply does not want that tower in our neighbourhood."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1265140.html

Water power needed

2011-09-23T06:37:00.001-03:00

Dal oceanographer endorses tidal energy projects on Bay of Fundy
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
Thu, Sep 22 - 4:55 AM

Dalhousie University oceanographer Bob Fournier says the government needs a tidal power strategy before allowing development, but current test projects are OK.

Fournier said that’s likely the most important of the 27 recommendations he made to the province in a report released Wednesday.

He said the strategic plan for marine renewable energy should focus on tidal in-stream efforts. It should look at a five-year horizon and encompass the four areas examined in his report — planning, socioeconomic, research and regulatory issues. He said there are more than 50 issues to consider.

"All the issues that we’re addressing should be in that strategic plan, at least in a general sense, and in some cases very specifically," he said.

Fournier’s 27 recommendations also include creating a "trusted regulator" to help developers navigate various regulators, developing a business plan on the competitiveness of in-stream tidal power, and researching the potential impact of future large-scale use of the Bay of Fundy.

Four groups are planning to test turbines in the bay next year in hopes of harnessing the powerful tides to generate electricity.

Nova Scotia Power and partner OpenHydro of Ireland put a $10-million turbine in the Bay of Fundy in November 2009 but the tides made short work of it. Damaged blades meant the 10-metre-tall turbine had to be removed two years earlier than planned.

Fournier said he has no problem with the demonstration projects.

"I think that’s quite suitable as a preliminary step," he said.

"When you go from demonstration to commercial, I would say that that would be the departure that would concern me the most, I would think. But I think the strategic plan will be in place by then."

Energy Minister Charlie Parker said he expects the strategy to be ready this fall, with legislation to follow in the spring. He said the government accepted all of Fournier’s recommendations.

The province hired Fournier last fall to lead the consultation on marine renewable energy legislation.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1264421.html

Green developers eye offshore wind

2011-09-23T06:34:00.000-03:00

Projects could be part of N.S. renewable plan
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Fri, Sep 23 - 4:55 AM

Green energy developers are interested in harnessing offshore wind power in Nova Scotia, says an industry expert.

The province announced Wednesday that it is developing a strategy on marine renewable energy. The plan is primarily aimed at tidal power, but offshore wind will be included in the plan.

"We’ve seen (offshore wind) work in Europe," Anthony Ciccone, a Toronto environmental consultant, said in an interview Wednesday.

"There’s a lot of opportunity here to do that. It’s just a question of finding the right market for it."

Ciccone, a principal at Golder Associates Ltd., was in Halifax this week for a renewable energy forum. During a panel Wednesday, he asked provincial officials about the possibility of offshore wind development in this province.

Ciccone, who is involved in a proposal to put wind turbines on Lake Ontario, said the Calgary-based consulting firm recently opened offices in Halifax and St. John’s.

An Energy Department official told the panel the province doesn’t expect a flurry of offshore turbines, although they could be allowed under upcoming legislation.

"It’s fair to say that we’re not looking for a lot of offshore wind in Nova Scotia in the near term and we’re not looking for a lot of offshore wind anywhere near the coastline," said Bruce Cameron, the department’s executive director of renewable and sustainable energy.

Cameron said offshore wind may be a hard sell with the public and not just because of concerns about the possible impact on the fishery.

"From time to time, in coastal communities, there are concerns about onshore wind that may be on their back doorstep. I’m pretty sure that . . . putting it on their front doorstep is going to be a bit of a challenge."

While a large-scale wind farm wouldn’t fly in Mahone Bay, for instance, one may be possible farther out on the Scotian Shelf, Cameron said.

A Nova Scotia Power executive told the panel that onshore turbines would likely be given preference over offshore ones.

"At this stage, there are a number of good onshore sites available," said Robin McAdam, the utility’s vice-president of sustainability.

Across Canada, some proposed offshore wind projects have stalled recently.

A British Columbia project that included up to 110 turbines hit a hurdle in March 2010 when BC Hydro dropped it from a list of green energy projects being considered, according to CBC News.

Three similar farms planned for Ontario’s Great Lakes have been in limbo since February, when the province placed a moratorium on such projects, saying more study was needed, CBC reported on its website in March.

Nova Scotia’s marine renewable energy plan will be based on a report by Dalhousie University oceanographer Bob Fournier. Energy Minister Charlie Parker said Wednesday he accepted Fournier’s 27 recommendations.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1264569.html

At odds over renewable energy

2011-09-23T06:32:00.001-03:00

NDP, Tories play blame game over energy costs
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
Fri, Sep 23 - 4:55 AM

Premier Darrell Dexter and Tory Leader Jamie Baillie traded offers of blackboard lessons Thursday as they debated the cost of renewable energy to power consumers.

The Tories have for weeks chided the Dexter government about its renewable energy targets driving up costs.

A Tory news release Wednesday said it appeared about 25 per cent of the proposed electricity rate hike was attributable to government policies, but a caucus spokeswoman said Thursday the power costs are so intertwined that a definite figure is unknown.

Dexter accused the third-place party of advocating a fossil fuel policy that led to a 35 per cent increase in electricity costs from 2002 to 2009. He also said the price of coal, Nova Scotia Power’s main fuel, is up 75 per cent in the last six years.

"Maybe the next time I try to explain it, maybe I should use a blackboard because it’s a choice between having a graph line that continues to go up, and one that allows you to create a stable energy price or a flat line," Dexter said.

"I’m not sure why they have so much difficulty trying to grasp the simple concept that, you know, the faster you can get to stable energy prices, the better off the public is."

Baillie said renewable energy sources are the way to go, but at a pace Nova Scotians can afford.

"If we’re going to get a blackboard out, I would like to teach him Economics 101, that raising the HST and forcing power prices up costs jobs and it hurts families."

The provincial Utility and Review Board is considering an agreement between Nova Scotia Power and most of its customer groups for an average increase of a little more than five per cent in 2012. It would add about a $6 a month to the average household power bill.

The Dexter government wants 25 per cent of the province’s electricity to be generated from renewable energy, such as wind, biomass and tidal energy, by 2015, and 40 per cent by 2020.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1264642.html

Nova Scotia Power may have finally heeded its wakeup call

2011-09-20T07:13:00.001-03:00

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
Tue, Sep 20 - 4:54 AM

Could it be that Nova Scotia Power Inc. is starting to clue in to the consequences of higher power rates?

The provincial power monopoly announced Monday that it had reached an agreement with advocates who act on behalf of consumers and industry on its latest rate application.

Not surprisingly, the negotiated rate increase is less than its initial application in May.

If the deal is ultimately approved by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, it would mean that residential customers will see their power rates increased by an average of about five per cent next year, which someone has calculated would mean $6 added to the average monthly residential bill.

The revised increase is down from the 7.2 per cent the utility had originally asked for in its rate application to the review board.

The agreement would also defer until its next rate application the power company’s recovery of any fixed costs that may come about as a result of the indefinite closure of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd. paper mill in Cape Breton.

Ratepayers couldn’t be blamed for being fed up with what seem to be yearly power rate increases and had been bracing themselves for another boost this fall.

Nova Scotia Power is a monopoly and one of Nova Scotia’s largest employers, so it isn’t a stretch to suggest that what’s good for Nova Scotia is probably good for Nova Scotia Power. Vice versa isn’t necessarily true.

Even though the utility is regularly put through a wringer by the regulator to justify the increase it requests, ordinary ratepayers see the company’s return on equity, which is its profit margin, and they automatically think that number is too high.

In the past, that criticism was brushed aside with a number of explanations, such as the Nova Scotia Power rate is similar to what other utilities were making or the regulator set the rate of return and the power company has little authority to change it.

In the agreement announced Monday, the increase in the rate of return Nova Scotia Power will be seeking has been reduced to 9.2 per cent instead of a range of 9.35 to 9.6 per cent in the initial application.

When NewPage, one of Nova Scotia Power’s largest customers, sought protection from creditors recently, citing the high cost of electricity as one of the biggest reasons, it was a wakeup call for the power company and, frankly, everyone in the province.

Perhaps the management at Nova Scotia Power realized it wasn’t prudent business practice to continually ask the regulator to increase rates, even though those increases could be justified in some way, because it forced people to use less power.

Higher rates may appear to pay off for the power company’s bottom line, but it doesn’t make sense if it means Nova Scotia Power could be forcing many of its customers out of business or to seek lower energy prices in other provinces.

If Nova Scotia Power had not been part of a regulated industry in its home province, it could be argued the power company would be less likely to jack up power rates simply because it felt the need to provide a certain rate of return. In that case, the utility would have to be conscious of the potential for competitors to swoop in and take away market share by offering a more competitive price for electricity.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1264189.html

NSP offers reduced rate hike

2011-09-20T07:09:00.000-03:00

Proposal would increase residential customers’ bills by $6 a month in 2012
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Tue, Sep 20 - 4:54 AM

Residential customers will pay about $6 more a month for electricity in 2012 under a rate settlement deal tabled Monday with the Utility and Review Board.

The agreement, subject to board approval, will increase power rates by an average of about five per cent next year, down from the 7.2 per cent Nova Scotia Power Inc. asked for in a filing with the board in May.

"I think it’s a very good settlement for ratepayers, obviously," said provincially appointed consumer advocate John Merrick after the agreement was announced at the start of a scheduled hearing on the rate increase application.

"It’s brought down the request for revenue increases by about $24 (million) or $25 million — we’re still working the calculation of the fine numbers — the executive bonuses are gone, the rate of return that they were seeking to increase from 9.35 (per cent) to 9.6 is down to 9.2," Merrick said.

"We think they moved considerably; they moved to where we wanted them to be and we’re quite comfortable with the outcome."

The agreement reduces Nova Scotia Power’s revenue requirements for 2012 to $66.5 million from $94.4 million.

Merrick, a Halifax lawyer, said the return on equity concession was particularly important, since it governs the amount of money Nova Scotia Power is allowed to put in its own pocket.

"That’s been something that’s troubled us for some time. We started out wanting to see that reduced and it got reduced."

Return on equity is fixed at 9.2 per cent for 2012, with an allowed range of 9.1 per cent to 9.5 per cent.

The agreement includes a deferral mechanism that will allow Nova Scotia Power to recover about $30 million in fixed costs for 2012 associated with this month’s shutdown of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper mill, the utility’s largest customer.

"The differential for the load retention of NewPage is still a cost that consumers are going to have to pick up," Merrick said. "All we’ve managed to do is to defer it for one year."

The consumer advocate said his office will push Nova Scotia Power to minimize the impact of the NewPage closure, which he said could increase consumer rates by another two to three percentage points.

Rob Bennett, Nova Scotia Power’s president and CEO, said he was happy with the agreement, which maintains tree-clearing and storm repair budgets for 2012 at current levels.

"We’re trying to create a new energy future here in Nova Scotia and this open, transparent dialogue with customers is an important part of that," he said Monday.

Bennett said the agreement reflects the utility’s efforts to move away from its dependency on fossil fuels such as coal toward more renewable energy sources.

"Fossil fuels are a huge part of the driving force behind rate increases and they have been for years. We’re trying to change that."

Government-mandated conservation charges could add another two percentage points to consumer rates, but Bennett said conservation will ultimately save customers money.

"While rates may be impacted slightly by conservation programs, we have to remember that that allows the average customer to save money on their power bill."

Premier Darrell Dexter said he’s looking forward to the review board’s reaction to the agreement.

"Anything that’s less than what was anticipated will be welcome, but the reality is that it’s still tougher, when the cost of electricity goes up, for people to make ends meet," Dexter said Monday.

He said the rate increase underlines the need to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity.

"What people have to understand is that the price of coal over the last six years has gone up by 75 per cent. The only way that we can stop the price of power from going up is to stop buying coal.

"So we need to have a program that gets us off of those kinds of fossil fuels into renewables."

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie applauded the agreement’s return on equity and executive bonus concessions, which mirror legislation his party plans to table in the next sitting of the legislature.

"There’s a lot government can do to moderate power rates," he said.

Utility spokesman David

Rodenhiser said 2012 executive compensation incentives aren’t being cut but the 50 per cent portion that previously came from rates will come from shareholders.

Power company representatives will answer questions about the proposal from review board members and interveners on Wednesday.

Nova Scotia Power stock was trading for $27.50 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon, down 13 cents from its previous close.

With files from David Jackson

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1264042.html

Cape Breton Tidal energy project proposal on the way

2011-09-19T07:35:00.000-03:00

Mon, Sep 19 - 4:54 AM

SYDNEY — The group behind a tidal energy venture in central Cape Breton is expected to submit its proposal to the province today.

Central Cape Breton Community Ventures wants to develop a multimillion-dollar marine research centre in Iona in partnership with Fundy Tidal Inc.

The project would be powered by the strong currents in the Barra Strait on the Bras d’Or Lakes.

The proposed marine science centre would focus on research of the lake’s marine ecosystem.

Randy Pointkoski, a spokesman for Central Cape Breton Community Ventures, said the research facility and power station could cost between $30 million and $33 million.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1263832.html

Hear about Glen Dhu expansion today

2011-09-19T07:31:00.002-03:00

Mon, Sep 19 - 4:54 AM

The company that built a set of wind turbines east of New Glasgow is holding a public meeting today to inform citizens of a proposed expansion.

Shear Wind Inc. of Halifax is moving through the environmental assessment stages to develop a 50-megawatt wind farm at Glen Dhu.

Known as Glen Dhu South, it would be a continuation of Glen Dhu North, which opened last May, chief operating officer Ian Tillard said in a news release.

The proposal is in response to a planned request for bids from Nova Scotia’s renewable electricity administrator, Power Advisory LLC, Tillard said.

Two public sessions will be held today at Kenzieville & District Community Centre. The first is from 1 to 3 p.m. and the second is from 5 to 7 p.m.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1263964.html

Amherst Turbine parts set to be assembled

2011-09-13T07:34:00.000-03:00

By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Tue, Sep 13 - 4:54 AM

Like a giant toy set, Sprott Power Corp. is assembling the parts for its $61-million Amherst wind project.

Thirty-six 48-metre-long turbine blades, manufactured in Spain by L&M Fibreglass Inc., are now sitting at the Ocean Terminals in Halifax, with another nine scheduled to arrive at the end of this week. Starting the middle of next month, they will be trucked to the wind farm located on a sod farm near the Tantramar Marshes.

The hubs that contain the gearboxes, generators and other electronic equipment, manufactured in India for Suzlon Energy Ltd., are slated to arrive by ship in the Port of Halifax this weekend. Towers made at the former TrentonWorks railcar plant now known as DSTN Trenton Ltd. will also be part of the project.

"It’s like one big giant Lego set," Jeff Jenner, president and chief executive officer of Sprott Power Corp. of Toronto, said Monday.

Now the weather just has to co-operate for a timeline that aims to see construction completed late this year or in early 2012.

"You’re always subject to construction risk," Jenner said. "Hopefully Nova Scotia has its summer now. It didn’t have a summer in the last two months. Hopefully it’s nice and hot and dry for the next couple of months. It makes for easier construction."

The project is slated to include 15 turbines that will, all told, have a capacity of 31.5 megawatts, enough to power 10,000 homes.

They are expected to first produce power in the first quarter of 2012.

"It’s still looking good," Jenner said of that agenda.

Sprott could face penalties if it doesn’t fulfil its contract with Nova Scotia Power by August.

"So we have a fairly comfortable timeline," he said, noting Sprott has "offsetting contractual penalties for late delivery" arranged with Suzlon, its main contractor, and Indiana-based White Construction, Inc.

The first foundation was poured on the Amherst site last week, Jenner said.

"All the roads are done and about half of the foundations are in various process of completion. Once the foundations are done, obviously the towers and the blades will begin to roll to the project, probably within 30 days."

Moving the blades is a delicate operation. Two of them may fit on a transport trailer, but the truck driver will have to avoid sharp turns and drive slowly.

"Forty-eight metres doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s half a football field," Jenner said. "To have something that’s somewhat fragile move without bending or breaking it takes a lot of effort. . . . The reason we’re in the Port of Halifax is it’s a reasonably straight shot to get out of Halifax and on the road to Amherst."

South Korea-based Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and the provincial government took over the Trenton plant last year with the aim of manufacturing steel towers for wind turbines.

"The towers are beginning to roll out of DSTN," Jenner said, noting that those 80-metre-tall structures will be trucked to Amherst in sections.

"Each tower, once it’s assembled, is 25 storeys high. But they come in three or four sections."

Most of the subcontractors working on the Amherst project are local, he said.

"I expect there are roughly 50 total people at the site right now," Jenner said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1262970.html

Renewable energy plan attracts wind farm developers

2011-09-09T06:41:00.000-03:00

By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Fri, Sep 9 - 4:54 AM

It looks like there will be no shortage of wind farm developers bidding early next year to get their projects off the ground.

About 80 people, most representing wind energy companies, took part in a meeting Thursday in Halifax hosted by the province’s renewable electricity administrator.

"It’s a small pond with a lot of big fish in it," Dan Roscoe, chief operating officer of Dartmouth’s Scotian WindFields, said.

"There’s a lot of big players, a lot of international companies, and, really, we’re looking at three or four projects."

The renewable energy plan requires Nova Scotia Power to buy 300 gigawatt hours per year of electricity from independent producers as part of the province’s next round of renewable energy electricity projects. That’s equal to 100 megawatts of wind power.

The province wants to have 25 per cent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2015, and 40 per cent by 2020.

John Dalton, whose Massachusetts company is overseeing the bid process, said the preliminary plan was to have independent producers notify him of their intentions by Oct. 20.

"One party has already indicated the schedule is too aggressive; they’d like more time," the president of Power Advisory said at the start of the meeting.

While the administrator said he’ll consider making changes, others in the audience agreed with the proposed timeline, which would see projects be in service by Jan. 1, 2015.

Independent producers will have to submit their proposals in February and March. The administrator will review them and make recommendations to the Utility and Review Board.

The provincial regulator makes the final decision, with winners being announced in April.

Independent producers shared varying opinions Thursday on whether they should be able to win more than one contract.

The administrator’s initial plan includes such a restriction and also limits project capacity to 50 megawatts.

"We’re going to assess that whole situation," Mike Magnus, president and chief executive officer of Shear Wind, said during a break when asked about the one-contract restriction.

"From the question and answer (session), obviously they’ve got to reassess it as well. It’s a concern."

Shear Wind would like to expand its Glen Dhu wind farm, a 62.1-megawatt facility between Pictou and Antigonish counties, which opened earlier this year. The company has also proposed a 50-megawatt development near Parrsboro, Cumberland County.

Dalton said the feedback will be used to help develop program guidelines this fall.

"We’ve got a good group of prospective bidders in the room," he said after the session.

"We’ve had some good, frank feedback, which we can use to help us refine the proposals that we’ve put forward."

For instance, Dalton said it might be possible to allow developers to be involved in more than one winning bid as long as there are limits on their overall share.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1262333.html

Way to Windmills

2011-09-06T07:43:00.000-03:00

Amherst Daily News

31st August 2011

AMHERST – Those who guessed a new road under construction behind Athol Forestry on Highway 2 in Fort Lawrence is related to the Sprott Power wind turbine project are correct.

“It’s a right-of-way across several parcels of land,” said Penny Henneberry, director of planning and development for the Municipality of Cumberland County.

Trucks laden with building materials for the 15-turbine project can be very long. Henneberry said the blades for the wind turbines now under construction can be up to 50 metres in length. The ROW is being built so vehicles can make the turn.

The first of the towers is being manufactured at the DSTN facility in Trenton, N.S., and company officials expect they will begin making their way to Amherst this month.

One of the pieces of land crossed is owned by the municipality.

Sprott Power has arranged to lease that crossing for $1 from the county. The wind turbine owners will be held liable for any damages that may occur, according to Henneberry, and the right-of-way is being built at their expense.

“I’m not sure of the route that they are going to take (to bring in windmill sections)”, said Henneberry. The bases for the tall structures are being built “as we speak.”

At least one local contractor is benefiting from the right of way construction.

“We’re just supplying material,” said Richard Beal, owner of Sackville-based Beal & Inch. The New Brunswick company is providing sandstone to the site. Beal declined to provide more detail.

Jeff Jenner CEO of the Sprott Power Corporation was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

The project, announced in June, is expected to cost $61 million and produce enough energy to power 10,000 homes as early as the first quarter of 2012. The turbines are expected to generate about 31.5 megawatts of power.

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2011-08-31/article-2737290/Way-to-windmills/1

Guysborough wants windfall

2011-09-02T07:10:00.000-03:00

County warden keen to get into renewable energy
By DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter
Fri, Sep 2 - 4:54 AM

There could be dollars blowing in the wind in Guysborough County, Warden Lloyd Hines says.

The Municipality of the District of Guysborough wants to cash in on a government program that guarantees a price per megawatt hour for community-owned renewable energy projects.

"It’s a no brainer," Hines said in a telephone interview Thursday.

"The investment return on a preliminary look appears to be attractive to municipalities."

The municipality has issued a request for proposals, which closes Sept. 15.

"We are very interested . . . to get some expert advice on what the opportunities are."

A quick glance at the province’s wind atlas (nswindatlas.ca) shows that Guysborough County has some of the windiest points in the province.

Hines said the municipality has been approached several times over the years by multi-national companies interested in setting up wind farms in the area. He said gaining experience with their own small-scale operation will help give the municipality the experience necessary to deal with larger projects.

A proposed site for the turbines is at the county’s landfill.

"It would be a good fit," Hines said, explaining that the operation already uses solar energy and houses recycling facilities and an electronics depot.

Initial estimates show that the turbines would likely cost about $300,000 each. The machines should last about 20 years and would be paid off in about 10 years, Hines said.

The province’s Community Feed-in Tariff program encourages community-owned renewable energy projects by groups such as Mi’kmaq bands, co-operatives, universities, non-profit organizations, community economic development organizations and municipalities.

Groups are allowed to own up to five turbines.

The province has also agreed to extend Municipal Finance Corp. funding to such projects, which will give municipalities access to capital at low rates.

Under program rules, municipalities can have a private partner design, build and operate the project but a private partner cannot have an ownership stake

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1261354.html

Wind farm fined in deaths

2011-09-01T06:58:00.000-03:00

By The Canadian Press and DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter
Thu, Sep 1 - 4:55 AM

A Nova Scotia wind farm operator has been fined $95,000 in the deaths of two young people from carbon monoxide poisoning two years ago.

Rotor Mechanical Service Ltd. of Mount Thom was charged after the bodies of Kyle Elliott, 22, of Brentwood and Mandi Balagot, 18, of Hilden were found in a company maintenance shed in July 2009.

Elliott was a security guard at the site and Balagot was a visitor. They were overcome by fumes from an improperly installed electrical generator in the shed.

Judge Del Atwood said in Pictou provincial court that the $95,000 fine was the largest ever given under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

But Balagot’s mother, Kathy Legere, wasn’t happy with the penalty.

"I get to visit her gravesite daily for something that they did and what they took away from us," a sobbing Legere told CTV News outside court.

Rotor Mechanical president Reuben Burge didn’t want to discuss the fine when reached by cellphone early Wednesday evening.

"It’s an unfortunate incident that has been resolved this way," Burge said.

"Kyle was a good friend and a great employee and that’s how I feel about it. Families have to deal with this, and I do too."

Rotor Mechanical pleaded guilty to three charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The company admitted to failing to ensure the generator was installed and operated to the manufacturer’s recommendations and failing to ensure the health and safety of the two people.

Initially, Burge, RMS Energy — another company he operates — and two other employees were all charged in the deaths, but only Rotor Mechanical was convicted.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1261188.html

Wind farm caution urged

2011-08-31T07:33:00.001-03:00

Advocacy group has ‘serious concerns’ about financial effect of Annapolis County draft bylaw
By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau
Wed, Aug 31 - 7:11 AM

A newly formed taxpayer group is urging caution in developing a policy governing wind farm development in Annapolis County.

There are serious deficiencies in the county’s draft wind turbine bylaw that could adversely affect the county’s finances and taxpayers, says Steve Lewis, spokesman for the Friends for Responsibility for the Economy and Energy.

"This issue is very important. . . . It could impact us financially," he said in an interview Tuesday.

"The major obligation of councillors is to protect their citizens. So we’re just saying slow down, it’s too important to push this through."

The county has been working on a wind turbine bylaw for more than a year and recently approved a draft bylaw as companies seek to develop wind farms in the region, including a large one on North Mountain, near Bridgetown.

The new group is not against wind farm development, said Lewis.

"We just want to work with council through research that we do . . . so they can make better choices."

He said municipalities around the province are struggling with the issue because the Nova Scotia government has not set any firm guidelines and councils don’t have sufficient expertise.

"The province has the money and the experts; they should have given guidance to all of the municipalities so they can make better decisions on this issue.

"We have some very serious concerns, but they all focus on protection for the taxpayers of Annapolis County. We’re not picking on any particular developer or project."

A developer can come to the municipality for a wind farm and not put down any financial security bond, Lewis said.

In 15 to 20 years, the average lifespan of a turbine, he said, the county’s taxpayers could get stuck with the bill for its decommissioning.

Lewis said it could cost $100,000 to remove a turbine.

"This doesn’t include costs for removal of the electrical generating station, on-site transmission lines, roads, bridges, culverts, other buildings and possibly the 1,000-tonne concrete pads for each turbine."

The group wants the bond issue addressed in the draft bylaw before it’s approved.

The possible impact on tourism and land values is also a concern.

"In Annapolis County, where the scenic beauty is so important to the economy, they should consider this when they place these wind farms," Lewis said.

"If tourism and property values are adversely impacted, it would be extremely bad for our already fragile economy for many years to come."

The group is urging county residents to express concerns to their councillors to have the bylaw delayed until protections are included like no tax exemptions for developers, submission of plans for site cleanup and restoration, and prior consultation with landowners.

The planning and advisory committee is scheduled to meet Sept. 6. If the draft bylaw is not held for revisions, the next step is a public meeting, tentatively scheduled for late September. Following that, council will meet to consider changes and vote on the bylaw.

Proposed areas for wind resource zones include Parker Mountain Road and Hampton Hills, on North Mountain, near Bridgetown. Also included are Victoria Beach on North Mountain and Spectacle Lake on South Mountain.

A $60-million 12-turbine wind farm is proposed for Hampton Hills, about four kilometres north of Bridgetown, by Toronto-based Sprott Power Corp.

Sprott is still in the process of receiving renewals for building permits it held for properties in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton. In April, the company asked Nova Scotia Supreme Court to overrule a municipal decision denying the renewal.

Annapolis County announced recently it was changing its planning strategy to allow Sprott to proceed with most of the turbines.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1260935.html

Bylaw proposal a positive first step

2011-08-19T07:29:00.002-03:00

Darrell Cole
Amherst Daily News
17 August, 2011

AMHERST – While not the end of the debate, a member of the Gulf Shore Association believes the county’s latest effort to create rules around wind turbines is a positive step.

Lisa Betts, who helped lead the effort against a proposed wind farm on the Gulf Shore near Pugwash several years ago, attended a public meeting Tuesday in Wallace on the county’s proposed new wind rules.

“It’s certainly an improvement and the language of the new bylaw has been clarified,” Betts said. “I haven’t had an opportunity to talk to Penny (Henneberry, Cumberland County’s director of planning) or to take a close look at it, but at first glance it looks better than it did.”

Betts said the existing bylaw, developed during the fight against the Gulf Shore project, has some shortcomings, including a cookie-cutter approach to the placement of turbines.

Under the existing bylaw, the separation between a turbine and homes has to be at least 500 metres. She said the present bylaw doesn’t have zones for residential and industrial uses.

The second of three public meetings took place Wednesday with the final meeting set for Thursday at the E.D. Fullerton Municipal Building in Upper Nappan beginning at 7 p.m.

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2011-08-17/article-2711248/Bylaw-proposal-a-positive-first-step/1

HRM says turbines must keep distance

2011-08-17T06:37:00.000-03:00

Setback from homes to be 1,000 metres
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE City Hall Reporter
Wed, Aug 17 - 4:54 AM

Halifax regional council moved Tuesday to allay the fears of rural residents concerned about the future development of large wind turbines and wind farms.

Council approved a 1,000-metre setback from habitable buildings for large, industrial-style turbines. Municipal officials had been considering a shorter separation distance.

Alastair Saunders, co-chairman of the Friends of Jeddore, said his group would have preferred an even greater setback, but he is satisfied with council’s decision.

Saunders said 1,000 metres is consistent with other jurisdictions.

Council was debating turbine rules after receiving a staff report with revisions that were made after comments received during a public hearing last month.

"We’re happy with where we are," Saunders told reporters outside the council chamber. "What we’re really pleased with, also, is the fact that council has listened to the concerns of the people."

Councillors also agreed to a community consultation process prior to the installation of large-scale wind turbines proposed for Halifax Regional Municipality.

During Tuesday’s council session, Coun. Steve Streatch (Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley) argued on behalf of Jeddore-area residents, saying new wind energy rules are for the entire municipality.

"We put another set of checks and balances in place, that the communities affected and the residents of HRM will have a say in how industrial projects such as this will take place in their areas," Streatch said after the turbine debate.

Coun. Bob Harvey (Lower Sackville) criticized the province for lacking a uniform set of regulations for the installation and operation of wind turbines.

In other business, council gave the green light to letters of intent linked to the municipality’s bid to become a host city for an international soccer tournament in 2015.

The letters are related to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and a companion event in 2014. There are seven candidate cities in Canada hoping to land soccer matches.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1258646.html

Wind energy threatens bats

2011-08-10T07:22:00.001-03:00

Flying near turbines makes their lungs explode
By SELENA ROSS
Wed, Aug 10 - 4:54 AM

Companies trying to get ahead in the wind power race can write brilliant business plans and hunt down the best technology but they haven’t gotten anywhere until they’ve learned about bat lungs.

Bats are the newest environmental factor that wind energy producers need to consider when they plan and propose a new project. They have taken over from birds as the animal most threatened by turbines.

But wind power companies, like they did a decade ago with birds, are adjusting by reshaping their project proposals around a changing body of environmental research. It’s costly to stay ahead of environmental assessment demands, they say, but disruptions to wind power projects elsewhere in Canada show how expensive it can be to ignore new research.

Bats are mammals, and that means their lungs are less rigid than those of birds.

They don’t need to be hit by the blades of a wind turbine to die. Simply flying near a turbine can make bats’ lungs collapse as the sudden drop in air pressure creates internal hemorrhaging, and their bodies are sometimes found with no external damage but full of burst blood vessels.

This "barotrauma" was present in 90 per cent of dead bats collected near wind turbines and autopsied by a University of Calgary team led by researcher Erin Baerwald, according to a 2008 study. Only about half the bats were found to have been killed by contact with the turbines.

The news created waves in the wind industry, and Nova Scotia was no exception.

"They were kind of ignored early on, and now I believe bats are more of an issue than birds," said Andy MacCallum, development manager for Fairmont Wind Farm, a project planned near Antigonish by global company Wind Prospect Inc.

MacCallum and his colleagues stay on top of the location of bat caves, as well as bird migration patterns and other ecological facts of Nova Scotia, with the help of consulting firms that have built up local environmental expertise specific to the needs of the wind power industry.

Planning around nature happens from the earliest stages, said MacCallum.

A company will stay away from a bat cave, and if it discovers new environmental problems in the course of its research, it will scrap the planned location or make other changes, he said.

"Early on in the process, we make sure that the sites are away from the environmentally sensitive areas," said MacCallum.

"Before we even go public, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes."

None of this is cheap, and it has changed some of the operating principles of wind power companies. Environmental assessment studies, which the province requires for each proposed wind farm, often cost upward of $100,000, with followup studies costing $10,000 to $20,000 every year for several years, said MacCallum.

The numbers stay roughly the same no matter how much revenue a farm is expected to bring in, making bigger wind farms more cost-effective.

Some companies manage to get around the entire cost of environmental assessment by installing a turbine that produces less than two megawatts of power. Once a farm hits two megawatts of production, it is legally required to do an assessment, which has made 1.9-megawatt turbines more popular, MacCallum said.

Then there’s the need to tweak technology — and revenues — mid-production, according to the latest scientific research on animals like bats.

The same University of Calgary team found that programming wind turbines to stop turning during times of low wind dramatically cut down on bat deaths, an idea that the Fairmont farm is looking at.

Sprott Power works regularly with Saint Mary’s University biologist Hugh Broders, who advised the company to put up bat-tracking devices when it first installs its turbines, said chief operating officer Don Bartlett.

He said the company benefits by "just kind of getting ahead of the curve and getting as much data as one can in order to determine if there are any potential issues."

Failing to take steps like this can lead to problems down the road. Environmental organization Nature Canada is campaigning for a major wind farm near Kingston, Ont., to stop production a couple of weeks a year during top migration season for local birds.

No Nova Scotia wind power companies have faced similar demands, according to Wayne Groszko, renewable energy co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre. But if Nova Scotia takes a closer look at the wind industry, it could ask companies to make such major changes, he said.

"Would it be best to shut them off for a few times each year? Would it be best to reduce their cutting speed? I don’t think that kind of research has been done yet in Nova Scotia."

People tend to ask wind power producers to live up to their reputation for green energy, Groszko said.

"Wind turbines are extremely visible to a lot of people."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1257482.html

Politics ‘blatant’ in wind program

2011-07-30T03:28:00.000-03:00

Scotian WindFields: New policy on turbines favours Dartmouth firm
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Fri, Jul 29 - 4:55 AM

Old-school politics threatens the future of wind energy in the province, says the chief executive officer of Scotian WindFields Inc.

"You can’t create this monopolistic environment and expect a successful program," Barry Zwicker said Thursday in interview.

He was reacting to government directives released this week for the community feed-in tariff program.

The program is designed to allow community-based green energy producers to sell energy profitably to Nova Scotia Power.

Scotian WindFields is involved in the development of eight community-based wind projects across the province involving 50-kilowatt turbines.

Zwicker said there are two 50-kilowatt turbines installed in Canada, the AOC version, made in Quebec, and the Endurance one, made in British Columbia.

He said the provincial directives favour the Quebec turbine, which has blades made and assembled in Nova Scotia, and would eliminate the use of a British Columbia turbine his company favours.

"The directives say the swept area of the blades can be no greater than 200 square feet," which would make the 190-square-foot AOC turbine the only acceptable 50-kilowatt option, he said.

"It eliminates 50 per cent of the choice."

The policy change was never discussed with industry representatives or during public consultations, Zwicker said.

Scotian has invested millions in projects that would use the Endurance turbine, which he said best fits Nova Scotia’s relatively low velocity but consistent wind regime, he said.

"We believe it’s a blatant effort to create a situation where there is no competition for the AOC machine."

The government knew before setting the directives that some community groups planned to use the British Columbia turbine, he said.

Zwicker wasn’t blaming Seaforth Energy of Dartmouth, which makes the AOC turbine blades, for the situation.

But he said the government has provided the company with loans and suggested the province may be in a conflict of interest.

"We want them to go back where they were and accept 50-kilowatt machines with nameplate capacity rather than setting criteria that blatantly eliminate other good turbines from being installed in Nova Scotia."

Energy Minister Charlie Parker denied that the directives were designed to give Seaforth a singular competitive advantage.

"Absolutely not," Parker said. "(They’re) designed to encourage small wind development in our communities and there’s many different machines being manufactured worldwide (to) those standards.

"Certainly, Seaforth is one of them, but it will be up to the community groups which machines they want to use."

The directives, based on international standards, will be reviewed next year, he said.

Zwicker suggested that the minister didn’t understand his own directives, since the list of 50-kilowatt turbines that community groups can choose from includes only one, the AOC version, that meets their criteria.

"All the rest are 10, 15, eight kilowatts," he said.

Zwicker also took exception to the minister’s defence of the use of international standards in establishing the directives, which he said are opposed by the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

"They’re using U.S. wind standards," Zwicker said.

He took little solace from the minister’s promise that there would be a review because the directives have a serious impact on the company’s immediate plans.

"Financing of community-owned projects is difficult."

Zwicker said Scotian won’t switch to the AOC turbine, which he called inappropriate for the company’s projects.

"We simply won’t do it. The point is we have no options."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1255641.html

Turbine firm gets lift from N.S. grant

2011-07-30T03:26:00.000-03:00

By SELENA ROSS
Fri, Jul 29 - 4:55 AM

Wind turbine manufacturer Seaforth Energy Inc. is scaling up production with the help of an $88,000 grant from the provincial Productivity Investment Program.

The Dartmouth company recently bought its third blade mould, which allows it to more than triple production, Seaforth vice-president John Simon said at a news conference Thursday.

The wind turbine business is booming and Seaforth can barely keep up with demand, Simon said.

Last year, the company had one blade mould, which could only produce one complete three-piece set of blades each month. Then Seaforth added a second mould.

The third mould cost $100,000, about 20 per cent of which was covered by the province through the investment program.

It will make a huge difference because it is "designed better than the first two," Simon said. "So that one’s even more productive, it’s faster, and now we can have three going at once."

Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, which administers the grants, said the money will bring Seaforth a 50 per cent increase in productivity and improve sales revenue while creating six more jobs.

Aside from a $25,500 grant for equipment purchases, Seaforth also got $62,500 from the program for employee training.

The grant was announced in the wind turbine manufacturing workshop, where young workers in overalls bent over the two older blade moulds, gluing fibreglass in place. The blade-manufacturing technicians are apprentices from community colleges, said Simon.

The company has 20 employees, seven of whom have been hired in the past nine months.

Most of the companies supplying Seaforth with the parts to build the AOC 15-50 turbines are Nova Scotian, including Advanced Precision, a machining and fabrication company based in Dartmouth.

Seaforth Energy has installed turbines off the coast of the southern U.S., the Maritimes and Scotland, said company president Jonathan Barry.

Wind power production is a capital-intensive business, Barry said. But the global market for green energy is set up to help companies like Seaforth grow quickly. Several countries, including the U.K., Greece, Italy and Israel, offer a guaranteed rate on long 15- or 20-year contracts.

After installing the turbines, wind power providers like Seaforth receive 35 to 45 cents per kilowatt hour for the remainder of the contract.

These policies, called feed-in tariffs, are meant to encourage investment in renewable energy. Nova Scotia became the third province in Canada to announce its own feed-in tariff program last month.

The province has set a target of producing 25 per cent of its energy through clean, renewable sources by 2015. The target will go up to 40 per cent by 2020.

Economic Development Minister Percy Paris said Thursday that the province learned hard lessons during the offshore oil industry boom.

"We were in a predicament where we never had the highest-skilled individuals to do the offshore," Paris said. "Then when the offshore came onshore, there we were stuck again because we had to bring in people from outside our jurisdiction to do the jobs that should be done by Nova Scotians."

In Seaforth’s case, the investment program will help ensure that it has the skilled workers it needs, he said.

Though green energy job training is a priority, the province does not give special funding preference to companies in the green energy sector, the minister said.

The Productivity Investment Program, launched in November, has approved or disbursed funding for a variety of local companies, including boatbuilders A.F. Theriault & Son Ltd. ($21,000), Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters ($46,185), Nicom IT Solutions ($9,980) and Maritime Pride Eggs ($18,188).

The program covers up to 20 percent of equipment purchases, reimbursed after the company has submitted proof of purchase, and up to 90 percent of training costs.

The province had previously given Seaforth a $200,000 loan guarantee in September 2010 from the Industrial Expansion Fund.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1255758.html

French plan to build wind farm off D-day site upsets Canadian veterans

2011-07-20T07:11:00.001-03:00

Diana Mehta

The Canadian Press

TORONTO - A French plan to install towering wind turbines within sight of a beach where thousands of Canadians fought a bloody battle launching the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe is raising the ire of some veterans.

"I think it's a disgusting affair," said Jack Martin, who was among the Canadians who stormed Juno Beach during the D-Day landings of 1944.

"I saw so many of my buddies and friends die on Juno Beach that I figure it is very hallowed grounds."

Martin was a company quartermaster-sergeant with the Queen's Own Rifles during the assault and later ran tours to the beach where 359 Canadians were killed.

The French government announced last week that it was receiving tenders for over 1,000 wind turbines off the country's northwestern coast, including at Courseulles-sur-mer, where Juno Beach is located. The entire project is eventually predicted to power more than 4.5 million homes.

The numbers don't sway 87-year-old Martin. He said the turbines might take away from the sombre historical significance of the site.

"We were the only regiment without tank support and yet we penetrated further inland than any other unit in the whole D-Day assault," he said. "It's very important that people know what the Canadians had to go through to make it a historical site."

Retired major Roy E. Eddy agrees, saying it's important for Canadians to keep the memory of Juno Beach alive.

"I'd like to forget about it, but I don't want to," said the veteran, who was 20 when he lost many friends on the beach. "None of us slept for about 72 hours, the noise and the sound was just earth shattering."

The 86-year-old said he's not against wind farms, but doesn't want to see them constructed opposite an area where so many Canadians died.

Veterans Affairs Canada says it "understands and shares" the concerns of those who fought for freedom.

"We wouldn't see it appropriate to develop on the actual site where the battle of Juno occurred," said a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney.

But while voices in Canada have lashed out against the French plan, the Juno Beach Centre at the famous site itself has decided to accept the French government's proposal.

"We see absolutely no impact other than the visual one, and we're prepared to live with it," said director Don Cooper.

The centre was approached by French locals looking to oppose the project but after consultation with its board, which includes veterans, decided not to stand in way of the plan which will see turbines developed some 10 kilometres offshore.

"In a perfect world one might say we'd prefer not to have it, but I think it's something that goes with what happens in the environment today," said Cooper. "To me it's no different than a freighter going by in the channel."

Yet that visual change to the landscape is exactly what historian Rudyard Griffith points to when explaining why some might have a strong reaction against the turbine plan.

"We are changing forever the visual landscape of a globally significant Canadian site," said the co-founder of the former Dominion Institute.

"To be able to walk those beaches, and see them and imagine them as if it was 1944 is, in some ways, essential to keeping that historical memory alive, and in turn that memory shapes and forms our identity today."

Griffith points out that the historical site is not just the beach, but also the waters beyond which brought Allied troops to the shore of Nazi-occupied France. Having turbines constructed so close to where so many fought would be a jarring image at a site preserved to remind visitors of the sacrifices made.

"The coast of Normandy is vast, you'd think they could have the ability to station the windmills at other places along the coast that provide their needs for clean energy but don't mar the visual landscape of Juno beach."

The European Platform Against Windfarms is among those disapproving of the project.

"It's not offshore, it's along the coast, it's only 10 kilometres from the D-Day beach," chairman Jean-Louis Butre, said in an interview from Paris. "People are really upset about what's going on, so upset that we received comments from everywhere."

The organization — a collective of 483 groups — has recorded more that 2,300 signatures for an online petition decrying the project, which includes comments from Canadians.

Butre said in addition to being plainly visible during the day, the flashing lights of the turbines would create a "discotheque" effect around the D-Day beaches at night. Among the complaints he's received he even mentions a call from a retired Royal Air Force pilot.

"They say 'we are going to bomb those wind turbines,'" he said with a chuckle.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/french-plan-build-wind-farm-off-d-day-080006334.html

Ownership rules change for green projects

2011-07-16T07:01:00.000-03:00

By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
Sat, Jul 16 - 4:55 AM

CHESTER — The rules have changed for municipalities that want to get in on green energy projects.

The Community Feed-in Tariff program encourages community-owned renewable energy projects by guaranteeing a price per megawatt hour.

When announced, the program grouped municipalities in the same category as Mi’kmaq bands, co-operatives, universities, non-profits and community economic development organizations and said they must own at least 51 per cent of a project in order to qualify. The other 49 per cent could be held privately.

But that’s no longer the case.

"Right now they’re telling us we have to own 100 per cent of a project," Chester Warden Allen Webber told municipal council this week after meeting with the province’s Department of Energy.

"It’s a game changer for us."

Department spokeswoman Nancy Watson said it turns out the 51 per cent rule violates the Municipal Government Act "and the act trumps COMFIT regulations."

That means municipalities must completely own windmill, biomass or tidal energy projects.

Watson said the province has agreed to extend Municipal Finance Corp. funding to such projects, which will give municipalities "access to capital at very low rates."

Municipalities can still have a private partner design, build and operate the windmill but a private partner cannot have any ownership in the project, she said.

That was news to Rodrigo Moura of AnaiaGlobal Renewable Energies Inc., who appeared before Chester council this week. His company is a joint venture between Grupo Guascor of Spain and Membertou Corporate Division. It wants to form partnerships with municipalities across Nova Scotia to bring community-based wind energy to the province.

His company has already held public information sessions in Wedgeport and in West Jeddore, where it has proposed building wind farms.

Moura told Webber he would be going back to the Energy Department to double check the ownership rules.

"Personally, I would prefer the option of choosing whether or not we have a private-sector partner," Webber said Friday.

The municipality has done some preliminary investigation of winds in the area but has not yet decided if it will build a wind turbine.

The province has only just started accepting applications under the community feed-in tariff program.

Windmills must be operational by December 2014.

A number of wind farms have begun popping up across Nova Scotia, most recently on Nuttby Mountain in Truro, Digby Neck and Church Point.

In Digby County, the municipality is amending its land-use bylaw to allow for this new class of windmill projects.

Community-scale turbines are slightly smaller than commercial types yet larger than personal-use windmills.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1253589.html

Wind developer vows to ease military’s worries

2011-07-09T07:36:00.001-03:00

Greenwood: Turbines would be too close
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Sat, Jul 9 - 4:54 AM

Military concerns about a $60-million Annapolis Valley wind project won’t shoot down the energy project, the developer says.

Sprott Power Corp. plans to build a 12-turbine wind farm in the Hampton Mountain area, four kilometres north of Bridgetown.

Officials at 14 Wing Greenwood say turbines shouldn’t be allowed within a 46-kilometre radius of the Canadian Forces base because turning blades could interfere with radar. The base is 40 kilometres from the proposed wind farm.

Jeff Jenner, Sprott Power president, said Friday the Toronto company is working to address military concerns and has hired a consultant to study the issue.

"I think we will be able to find a couple of solutions that will work for everybody," Jenner said.

But Sprott doesn’t plan to relocate any towers, which have received provincial environmental approvals, he said.

The military voiced its concerns to Sprott during the environmental approval process last year, the company president said. Base officials raised their objections again this week during public meetings into new wind turbine rules proposed by Annapolis County.

A spokesman for 14 Wing Greenwood was out of the province Friday and not available for comment. But Maj. Al Harvey told a public meeting in Kings County in January that having turbines within a 46-kilometre radius of the base could make it difficult for air traffic controllers to see aircraft flying in and out of the Greenwood on their radar screens.

"It is becoming a worldwide major problem for all air traffic control radars dealing with significant interference from nearby wind turbines," the minutes of the meeting quote Harvey as saying.

Jenner said Friday base officials have told Sprott the turbines could interrupt radar coverage with an emergency runway.

"There’s some mitigating work that can be done because wind farms are situated around the world within 40 kilometres of radar installations," he said.

Jenner said it may be possible to adjust radar angle or have a plan in place to halt turbines in case of an emergency, depending on how often the runway is used.

The latest radar systems are able to recognize turbines, the company president said.

Sprott is still in the process of receiving renewals for building permits it held for properties in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton, Jenner said.

In April, Sprott asked the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to overrule a municipal decision denying the renewal.

Annapolis County announced last month it was changing its planning strategy to allow Sprott to proceed with most of the turbines.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1252513.html

Wind farms’ business could take off

2011-07-07T06:37:00.000-03:00

N.S. will call for renewable power plans next year
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Thu, Jul 7 - 4:54 AM

Wind farm developers will get a chance early next year to apply to get their large-scale projects off the ground.

An Energy Department spokeswoman said Wednesday a call for bids from independent producers is expected in the first part of 2012 to develop the next round of large renewable energy electricity projects in the province

"The expectation is that it will be mostly wind," Nancy Watson said in an interview.

She said there’s nothing stopping applications for other types of green energy projects.

The department announced Monday that it has chosen an independent renewable electricity administrator to oversee the bid process and make recommendations to the department.

Power Advisory LLC, based in Carlisle, Mass., will help draft the call for bids and power purchase agreement. The consultant, which also has an office in Toronto, will also hold consultations in the fall on the bid process.

Watson said department officials had their first meeting with the consultant by teleconference on Tuesday.

Independent producers will be bidding for a share of the 300 gigawatt hours per year of electricity that the province wants to buy from them. That’s equal to 100 megawatts of wind power. Nova Scotia Power, the province’s privately owned electric utility, will develop an equal amount of renewable electricity under the province’s renewable energy plan.

The strategy calls for 25 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2015 and 40 per cent by 2020.

Several wind farm developers have unveiled proposals for large projects, including ones in Jeddore, Weymouth, Parrsboro and Cape Breton, in anticipation of the call for bids.

Some developers have said they expected proposals to be sought this summer.

Dan Roscoe, chief operating officer of Scotian WindFields Inc., said he doesn’t think the industry will have any problems with the bid call being early next year.

"It’s something that we think is a good step," he said of having the administrator in place.

"Essentially what would happen before is that the procurement process was being overseen by Nova Scotia Power and they were also a generator. I wouldn’t go so far to say that they actually have a conflict of interest but it certainly creates the perception."

Roscoe’s company works on smaller, community-based wind projects, swhich will be able to supply 100 megawatts of electricity through the province’s new community feed-in tariff program.

The idea of having an administrator involved in large-scale projects was one of 25 recommendations made to the Dexter government last year in a report by Dalhousie University professors David Wheeler and Michelle Adams.

The Energy Department said Power Advisory’s work is expected to take nine months but the contract is for one year, with an option to renew.

The company will be paid an hourly rate of $255, plus legal fees.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1252086.html

New wind power bylaw drafted

2011-06-29T06:19:00.000-03:00

Wed, Jun 29 - 4:54 AM

ANNAPOLIS ROYAL — Annapolis County has drafted a new bylaw that will allow large-scale wind turbines on four areas of the North Mountain and an already designated location on South Mountain.

The proposed legislation follows a year of public meetings and an interim bylaw that restricted development until council had more time to study the issue.

The interim bylaw was never intended to stop wind farm development but it was designed to allow time for a bylaw to be developed that was right for the county, Warden Reg Ritchie said.

"It was important that residents had the opportunity to be included in any decisions made in this regard," he said in a news release. "The year spent researching wind farm development was essential in helping to explore the issues . . . and hone a draft bylaw that reflected what our residents said was important to them."

The new bylaw specifies four locations on the North Mountain, including the Delaps Cove-Victoria Beach and Hampton Hills area, along with an original designated area on the South Mountain.

"Locations for wind resource areas where large-scale wind turbines may be located were brought up repeatedly during the public meetings," said Ritchie. "The planning advisory committee listened to what was being said."

The committee also addressed other wind turbine issues including setback and separation distances from public roads, habitable buildings and property boundaries and the decommissioning of large wind turbines.

Public meetings on the proposed bylaw have been scheduled for the Bridgetown Lions Hall on July 5 and the Lower Granville Hall on July 7. Both begin at 7 p.m. It may also be viewed on the municipality’s website at www.annapoliscounty.ns.ca.

No date was given for when council expects to pass the bylaw.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1250959.html

Digby loosens rules for wind turbines

2011-06-29T06:18:00.000-03:00

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau
Wed, Jun 29 - 4:54 AM

DIGBY — If you live in Digby County, a wind farm could be coming to a vacant field near you.

The Municipality of the District of Digby passed a motion Monday to amend its land-use bylaw dealing with wind turbine developments.

In doing so, it paved the way for a third tier of mid-sized wind turbine developments. Mini wind farms may now sprout in fields or on vacant lots that meet the new regulations.

"The proposed amendments will introduce a new class of turbine — community scale wind turbine(s)," said municipal warden Linda Gregory at Monday’s public hearing.

After several written and oral submissions had been made, mostly urging caution, council passed the proposed amendment to their land-use bylaw allowing for community scale windmill projects.

The amendment now goes to the Department of Municipal Affairs for ministerial approval, Gregory said.

As part of the province’s efforts to promote power production from renewable resources, a community-based, feed-in program was established, a handout from the municipality said.

Participation in such programs is restricted to municipalities, First Nations, co-ops, community and non-profit groups.

The new community scale turbines will be slightly smaller than commercial types. The electricity they generate will be used by Nova Scotia Power in the region, the municipal briefing document said.

The turbines may be set up in clusters on an approved piece of land where electricity could be generated and sent off-site.

The municipality already allows property owners to erect small, personal use domestic windmills for on-site power. The community-based turbines will fall somewhere in the middle of personal- and industrial-use turbines.

"There seems to be an absence of consideration of the good neighbour policy which considers the rights of citizens who already have a property adjacent to a proposed wind turbine installation," Shirley Langpohl of Gilberts Cove told councillors.

"We believe these citizens need to have their right to undisturbed enjoyment of their property protected," she said.

She suggested that the written permission of all nearby landowners be required before a project starts. The bylaw amendment also allows turbines to be erected without an environmental assessment and that’s wrong, she said.

The amendment stipulates a minimum setback of twice the height of a turbine from any property boundary and a maximum noise level of 45 decibels at any property line. More than one wind turbine would be allowed on one lot.

That’s an open invitation for the creation of wind farms within communities, said Sandy Cove resident Ashraf Mahtab. He said that section of the amendment should be removed.

It wasn’t.

Warden Gregory voted against the motion. She said council should have looked at a specific or maximum number of wind turbines per property.

The amendment allows a non-profit or other qualified group to partner with a commercial wind company if the non-profit venture owns 51 per cent or more of the entity.

No non-profit group had asked Digby municipal council to consider community-scale wind farm regulations. But Scotian WindFields Inc., the developer of Digby Neck’s commercial wind park (now owned and operated by Nova Scotia Power) made a request in February.

The company sought the change because the municipality’s land-use bylaw stipulated that the energy produced by smaller type turbines be consumed on-site. But the province’s new strategy envisions smaller turbines selling power to the grid, said Dan Roscoe, Scotian WindField’s chief operating officer, on Tuesday.

"These are smaller-scale wind turbines and shouldn’t be confused with the size of turbines that are at the Digby Neck wind farm . . . the utility grade."

He said 45 decibels is comparable to ambient noise outside on a windy day.

Scotian WindFields is affiliated with community organizations throughout the province, he said, such as Bay WindField Inc. in southwestern Nova Scotia.

A qualified group could sell its electricity to Nova Scotia Power. The provincial utility review board has created a special rate that provides a reasonable rate of return for investors in these projects, Roscoe said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1250886.html

Amherst wind farm taking shape

2011-06-23T06:51:00.000-03:00

By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter
Thu, Jun 23 - 4:54 AM

A $61-million wind farm slated to be up and running in Amherst early next year will have about 50 employees.

"People are actually already on the site working," Jeff Jenner, president and CEO of Sprott Power Corp. of Toronto, said in an interview Wednesday after Premier Darrell Dexter helped break ground for the wind farm.

Sprott, which owns wind farms in Cape Breton, and Firelight Infrastructure Partners, also of Toronto, are leading the project. Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., an energy multinational, is also involved and has hired DSTN Trenton to manufacture the steel towers for the wind turbines.

"I think the reason we’re willing to invest the $61 million here is because your government has a great energy platform and it will attract investors, such as Sprott and others," Jenner said.

"Nova Scotia is at least the only provincial jurisdiction where its commitment to a renewable portfolio standard has what I would call teeth, in that it’s law and people must abide by it, and as a result, people are helping companies like us make it happen."

The project will feature 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 31.5 megawatts, enough energy to power 10,000 homes.

The Dexter government says the wind farm will not only boost the economy in the Amherst area but will help the province reach its renewable electricity targets. The province has set a goal of getting 25 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015 and 40 per cent by 2020.

Amherst Mayor Robert Small couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1249836.html

Firm inks deals for Cumberland wind farm

2011-05-29T06:29:00.000-03:00

By CLARE MELLOR Staff Reporter
Sat, May 28 - 4:54 AM

Halifax-based Shear Wind Inc. has secured enough privately owned land for a proposed wind farm near Parrsboro, Cumberland County.

The company recently signed lease agreements with 10 to 12 landowners in the area, said Mike Magnus, president and CEO of Shear Wind.

"It will end up being between 6,000 and 8,000 acres," Magnus said Friday.

The wind farm would be located behind Harrison Settlement on Canaan Mountain.

The company intends to sell energy to Nova Scotia Power but is also investigating the possibility of shipping power out of the province to other markets.

"We are hoping for the opportunity to participate in a domestic (request for proposals) and then also be able to investigate a similar-size wind farm, or larger, to export out of Nova Scotia."

The first phase of the wind farm would be for about 50 megawatts and would cost between $125 million and $130 million to build, Magnus said, and the project could expand to generate as much as 150 megawatts.

Shear Wind, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (SWX), recently completed the first phase of the Glen Dhu wind farm, a 62.1-megawatt facility located between Pictou and Antigonish counties.

"The topography (near Parrsboro) is very similar to our Glen Dhu site. It has got elevations of anywhere between 240 to 290 metres," Magnus said.

The company has applied to Nova Scotia Power for transmission access and plans to immediately put up a couple of wind measurement towers on the mountain.

"We think that there is wind up there. We will validate that over the next couple of months, and then from the wind towers, we will be able to determine what technology best works on that particular site."

Magnus said there is a lot about the Canaan Mountain site that is attractive.

"What you need is a significant amount of scale to make the economics work right. . . . What we like here is that we have a very strong transmission system to get us to the main spine line out of the province. Those are all important components of building any type of wind farm."

Some community opposition exists to the Glen Dhu wind farm because of noise levels and environmental factors.

Magnus said the Canaan Mountain site is far removed from any homes, and is also far enough away from blueberry farms that it won’t interfere with operations.

Some of the landowners involved in the lease agreements are blueberry farmers who have unused acreage, he said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1245625.html

Wind farm proposed for Victoria County

2011-05-16T07:49:00.001-03:00

Project would be biggest in province
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Fri, May 13 - 4:54 AM

A consortium of Nova Scotia and U.S. companies wants to build a $2- to $3.5-billion wind farm and transmission system in the Cape Breton Highlands.

Highland Power Co. Inc. of Sydney is proposing a 100- to 300- megawatt wind project in Victoria County with a transmission line to other parts of Nova Scotia and New England.

"It’s a very large project. We’d be looking at several years of development," Jeff MacKinnon, a director of Highland Power, said Thursday.

The venture could be twice as large as any existing wind farm in the province. The biggest is Shear Wind Inc.’s Glen Dhu project in Antigonish County. Completed in March, it has 27 turbines generating 62 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to power 18,000 homes.

The Highland Power wind farm would be built on Highland Road, a forested area that is not residential and has been clear cut, MacKinnon said.

The consortium includes U.S. companies Starwood Energy Capital and Charles River Associates, Northern Innovations, a Nova Scotia holding company; the Eskasoni First Nation, RMSenergy Ltd., which owns the Dalhousie Mountain wind project; and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which is opening a wind turbine plant in Trenton.

The consortium was incorporated in Nova Scotia on March 25. Its president is Peter Knollenberg, a West Palm Beach, Fla., businessman and shipwreck explorer. Sydney businessman Jim Kehoe is also a director, according to the provincial Registry of Joint Stock Companies.

Kehoe couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.

MacKinnon, who says he was a fisherman and part of a treasure-hunting venture before getting into alternative energy, said the project is in the "very, very preliminary" stages. The earliest construction could start would be 2013 or 2014, he said.

"All I’m doing right now is laying out the groundwork to gauge the level of interest in a project like this," he said in an interview from Sydney.

MacKinnon said consortium officials have met with the provincial Energy Department and Nova Scotia Power to talk about their plans.

He said the group will be making a proposal to the province when the government issues a call this spring for expressions of interest in developing a 130-megawatt wind farm.

In a letter last week to Victoria County council, Highland Power says the project’s first phase would generate 100 to 200 megawatts of electricity.

Bruce Morrison, warden of Victory County, said the municipality is interested in the project, which could create lots of jobs in the area.

"I’m certainly open in having those discussions and I know council is as well."

Morrison said the wind farm site is almost 20 kilometres from Baddeck on a road that runs from the top of Hunters Mountain to Wreck Cove, where Nova Scotia Power has a generating station.

The warden said the municipality would have to develop a bylaw to allow the project. That process would involve public consultation, he said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1243156.html

Wind breaks N.S. power generation record

2011-05-06T06:48:00.000-03:00

By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Fri, May 6 - 4:54 AM

At least our cold, wet spring weather is good for generating green energy.

Nova Scotia Power Inc. announced this week that there were two days last month when 20 per cent of the province’s electricity came from wind power.

"It’s the most that we’ve ever gotten from wind in the history of the province," Rob Bennett, president of Nova Scotia Power, said in an interview earlier this week.

"That’s a fantastic result compared to where we were just a few short years ago, where only a small percentage was coming from wind, so we’ve made great strides."

On April 24 at midnight, wind farms generated 250 megawatts of power, surpassing the previous record of 235 megawatts set on April 14 at 8 a.m.

On an average day, five to 10 per cent of power comes from wind, Nova Scotia Power says. The amount varies based on such factors as demand for electricity, time of year and time of day.

Bennett said the record-breaking 20 per cent figure was possible because it was windy throughout the province at the same time.

"The wind farms are spread out. Sometimes it’s windy in one area and not in the other," he said.

Seven wind farms, with a total of 119 turbines, have been added to the grid since December 2009. They are owned by Nova Scotia Power and private producers.

The Dexter government has mandated that 25 per cent of electricity be generated by renewable sources by 2015, increasing to 40 per cent by 2020.

Coal generated 65 per cent of the province’s power last year, down from 80 per cent in 2006, Bennett told the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Halifax on Wednesday.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1241902.html

NSP defends bid for 9% rate increase

2011-05-05T06:35:00.000-03:00

Utility had record profit in 2010
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Thu, May 5 - 4:54 AM

Power rate hikes next year are justified despite a record profit in 2010, says the president of Nova Scotia Power Inc.

Rob Bennett defended the utility’s plan to seek an average nine per cent rate hike this year at the same time it’s recorded an 11 per cent increase in earnings last year.

"Nobody likes a rate increase; I don’t like rate increases," Bennett told reporters after the company’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday in Halifax.

"But the fact is, costs are going up, particularly with the fuels that we use to make electricity."

Nova Scotia Power’s net earnings last year were $121 million, up from $109 million in 2009.

The utility told shareholders the increase was due to lower income taxes on renewable energy projects and an increase in the expected benefit from accelerated tax deductions. The tax savings were offset by higher operating, maintenance and general expenses related to pension and storm costs.

Nova Scotia Power didn’t have to ask for a rate hike last year because of the tax credits for renewable energy projects, Bennett said.

Emera Inc., owner of Nova Scotia Power and other utilities, had record earnings of $191 million in 2010, an 8.5 per cent improvement from the previous year. The utility earned $176 million in 2010.

Earnings per share were a record $1.68, compared to $1.56 in 2009.

Emera president Chris Huskilson called 2010 "a tremendous year."

"It’s been a year we’re all very proud of," he told an audience of about 250.

Besides record earnings and share prices in 2010, Emera signed a deal with Nalcor Energy to develop the Lower Churchill Falls hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador, and continued to add to its holdings in the Caribbean, New England and Atlantic Canada, Huskilson said.

"Our success has been the result of six years of solid progress and hard work. Between 2006 and 2010, we delivered eight per cent annualized growth, exceeding our four to six per cent target. Our total return to shareholders over the last five years has been 13.5 per cent annualized. Last year alone, we produced a 31 per cent return to shareholders."

Huskilson told reporters such returns are needed to fund investment in renewable energy projects and lowering emissions.

"As we make those investments, we have to raise money to do that, and as we raise money, we have to be able to attract the capital. In order to do that, we have to be able to provide shareholders and debt holders with a return on their investment."

Bennett said Nova Scotia Power’s rate of return is determined by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, the provincial regulator.

Emera’s first-quarter results for 2011, released Tuesday, included a 59 per cent earnings increase over the same period last year. The utility earned $124 million in the first three months of the year, compared to $78 million a year ago.

The company said the results included one-time gains on two utility acquisitions completed in January.

Nova Scotia Power earned $64 million in the last quarter, compared to $65 million in 2010.

A group of 20 people from the Ecology Action Centre staged a theatrical protest outside the Cunard Centre before the meeting. The protesters, dressed as smokestacks and yellow birds, sang songs and performed a play called Canaries in a Coal Mine.

"We want to send a message that Nova Scotians are very concerned about the rising prices of electricity due, in part, to the unsustainable fuel supply of imported coal here in Nova Scotia," said Brennan Vogel, the centre’s climate change co-ordinator.

The group included six people from the Hillside Trenton Environment Watch Association, which is fighting to reduce emissions at Nova Scotia Power’s coal-fired plant in Trenton.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1241829.html

Emera joins U.S. wind plans

2011-05-03T06:44:00.000-03:00

Company to operate projects in Maine, N.Y., Vermont
By JOANN ALBERSTAT Business Reporter
Tue, May 3 - 4:54 AM

Emera Inc., the parent company of Nova Scotia Power, is getting into the wind energy business in the northeastern United States.

Emera announced on the weekend it has formed a joint venture with First Wind Holdings LLC of Boston, Mass., and Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. of Oakville, Ont., to jointly construct, own and operate wind energy projects in the northeastern U.S.

"First Wind is the premiere wind developer in the northeast and it meets our strategy to invest in renewables and to do so in a low-risk, value-added way," Chris Huskilson, Emera’s president and chief executive officer, told analysts during a conference call Monday.

The new operating company, which has yet to be named, will own seven wind projects producing a total of 370 megawatts. Five of the projects are already operational, including three in Maine and two in New York state. The other two projects, including one in Vermont and another in Maine, are slated to be in service later this year.

Huskilson said he expects the partners will develop more wind projects in the future.

"We’re quite excited about this leading to more, both in the existing pipeline (of projects) that comes with this work, as well as leading to a need for more transmission," he told analysts.

Emera already owns two Maine power companies, Bangor Hydro Electric Co. and Maine & Maritimes Corp.

First Wind will own 51 per cent of the new operating company and continue to operate the wind projects. Emera and Algonquin will own the remaining 49 per cent through a separate joint venture called Northeast Wind.

Emera will initially own 75 per cent of Northeast and Algonquin, 25 per cent.

Northeast will pay $333 million for its stake in the new operating company, with the investment including a $150-million loan to the new venture. The loan will be repaid within five years or converted to equity in future projects, a joint news release said.

Emera said it plans to finance the transaction through existing credit facilities.

Algonquin’s financing plans include a deal with Emera for the Nova Scotia-based company to invest $37 million in the Ontario firm.

Emera will pay $5.37 per share through subscription receipts that will convert to shares once the deal is closed.

The agreement will increase Emera’s stake in Algonquin from 15 to 25 per cent, subject to Algonquin shareholder approval.

The agreement on the three-way joint venture, which does require certain state and U.S. federal regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the end of the year.

On Friday, Emera and Algonquin announced that they have entered into a strategic investment agreement to partner on further energy projects.

"With the support and the co-operation of Emera, we anticipate being able to identify additional attractive independent power and utility investment opportunities," Algonquin CEO Ian Robertson told analysts.

The companies are still free to pursue projects, either on their own or with another partner, that don’t fall within the agreement, he said.

As part of Friday’s deal, Emera will sell its 49.999 per cent stake in California Pacific Electric Co. to Algonquin, subject to state regulatory approval. In return, Emera will receive 8.211 million Algonquin shares in two tranches.

The Ontario company’s shareholders must still approve the deal at a special meeting in June.

Emera first teamed up with Algonquin in April 2009 to operate the California utility.

Algonquin owns and operates about $1 billion worth of clean, renewable power generation and sustainable utility distribution businesses in North America.

On Monday afternoon, Emera’s stock traded down 13 cents a share at $31.37 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1241392.html

Online ad gone with the wind

2011-04-28T07:07:00.001-03:00

N.S. Securities commission says Ontario company violated rules
By ANDREI DEZSI
Thu, Apr 28 - 4:54 AM

The Nova Scotia Securities Commission has forced an Ontario company to remove an online ad seeking investors.

Carl Strand started Strand Energy Corp., of Wasaga Beach, Ont., six years ago and planned to build wind turbines somewhere in Nova Scotia.

Strand posted an ad on Kijiji, a classified ads website, on Friday to gauge local interest in helping him set up a factory here.

The ad said that any pledges made by individuals are not binding but "only a way of showing our company that individuals are interested."

It also said investments of $500 per pledge would be made through a community economic development investment fund, although Strand does not have approval to set up such a fund here.

Kevin Redden, the commission’s corporate finance director, told Strand Tuesday that his ad violates CEDIF regulations that say people are not allowed to advertise or "distribute promotional material" if they haven’t been given provincial approval.

"We never asked anybody for money in that ad that we put in. It was only a non-binding pledge that if they wanted to put some money in at a later date they could," Strand said Tuesday.

"We did not know that this was against the rules of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission because we weren’t asking for any money. But apparently it is."

A CEDIF allows people to invest in local businesses, said Chris Payne, a spokesman with the Department of Economic and Rural Development.

"Instead of investing in the Toronto stock exchange, you’re investing it locally down the street," Payne said of CEDIFs.

Investors can write off 35 per cent of the amount invested into such funds and can get dividends, said Payne. There are currently 10 funds that are paying out dividends in the province, he added.

Payne said that groups that want to set up a fund need to fill out paperwork and get provincial approval before they can approach investors.

"I did get a call from (Strand Energy Corp.) a few weeks ago. They had some inquiries and I gave them some information. But by no means have they made a formal application. They most certainly are not approved," said Payne.

"I will be taking this ad and forwarding it to my colleagues at the securities commission to follow it up," Payne said when informed of the Kijiji ad on Tuesday.

Strand, the designer of the company’s wind turbines, said he has invested $250,000 in his company and built five prototypes over the past six years.

StrandEnergy.ca, the company’s website, says that while the business is currently small, it hopes to capture a large share of the renewable energy market.

"We are pulling the ad and may have to reconsider locating in Nova Scotia," said Strand.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1240527.html

NS Power prepares for 2012 rate hike

2011-04-24T08:01:00.001-03:00

CBC News

Posted: Apr 20, 2011 9:17 PM

Nova Scotia Power is preparing to request its seventh power rate increase in a decade, company representatives said Wednesday.

The utility is projecting electricity costs to increase 20 per cent by 2015. That includes an average residential rate increase of nine per cent next year, four per cent in 2013, two per cent in 2014 and five per cent in 2015.

Nova Scotia Power has not yet filed its application with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, company representatives said at a briefing for stakeholders and members of the media.

Rene Gallant, the general manager of regulatory affairs with the utility, said the main reason ratepayers may have to pay more next year is to cover renewable projects that are currently on the grid but are not yet paid for.

"We've invested about $1 billion in the last three years in Nova Scotia. We've been building wind farms, we've been investing in our plants and our equipment, putting equipment on the plants to keep our emissions down and meet the province's standards," Gallant told reporters after the news conference.

He added that the $1 billion has not yet been included in the utility's rates.

"At some point, like your Visa card, you have to start paying back those amounts that you've borrowed. So that's a key driver of why we're thinking we'll need to change rates," said Gallant.

Nova Scotia Power said it will need $90 million from ratepayers next year — $4.9 million of which is to increase dividends to its shareholders.

Although the utility is coming off a year of record profits, Gallant said the company needs to give shareholders more money to stay competitive.

"They don't have to invest in our company, they can invest in any number of utilities and if the rate of return is not competitive with those other utilities, they'll go somewhere else," he said.

Don Regan, who represents the Municipal Electric Utilities Co-operative, said developments like the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject will also mean higher rates in the future.

"There are capital plans the company has, such as the undersea cable from Newfoundland, which aren't in the numbers we saw today or in the years we saw today," Regan told CBC News.

"We're appreciative of the company laying out the future as they have here today — something they haven't done much in the past — and we're not surprised by what they've brought forward, but it does give us the opportunity to work together to mitigate these effects."

Gallant said the utility hopes there will be rate stability in several years when it completes a transition to renewable energy, an issue that Nova Scotia's NDP government has been pressing since it came to power.

Last year, the provincial government announced plans for 40 per cent of all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. It had already set a goal of 25 per cent by 2015.

On Wednesday, Premier Darrell Dexter said Nova Scotia Power's plans to ask for a rate increase has not shaken his belief in the renewable energy plan.

"We're obviously very concerned with anything that affects people in the province. It is a difficult time for people trying to make ends meet," Dexter said.

"Obviously this is disappointing. We'll be at the hearing, of course, to ask questions and see that they are able to justify the increased costs."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/04/20/ns-power-rate-increase.html

NSP eyes 9% hike next year

2011-04-24T07:49:00.001-03:00

Utility predicts power rates could rise 20% by 2015
By SCHENLEY BROWN
Thu, Apr 21 - 4:55 AM

Nova Scotia Power is proposing to increase rates by an average of nine per cent in 2012, and the utility predicts a 20 per cent hike by 2015.

Rising costs for coal and imported electricity and higher customer use are to blame for the proposed increases, Nova Scotia Power says.

Residential power rates would jump 7.1 per cent — the seventh increase in a decade — if approved by the provincial regulator, the Utility and Review Board. Homeowners could face an increase of as much as 8.8 per cent after adding Efficiency Nova Scotia charges and after Nova Scotia Power’s fuel adjustment mechanism comes into play.

That mechanism periodically moves rates up or down to reflect the difference between estimated and actual fuel costs.

Rene Gallant, general manager and regulatory counsel for Nova Scotia Power, said the utility’s costs are higher than recoveries, and that would suggest a higher rate increase.

Higher coal costs in 2012 are expected to account for about $21 million more in expenses for Nova Scotia Power, while increased power use will cost about $17 million more and the predicted price of imported power will add about $16 million in costs.

"We have the rest of the year to try and turn that around, (but) I can’t sit here and say we’re going to be able to," Gallant said at the presentation Wednesday.

Incurred in those increases is a request to boost Nova Scotia Power’s return on equity to 9.6 per cent from 9.35 per cent.

"Our analysts are telling us that we are below where other utilities’ return on equity is set," Gallant said.

The increase in return on equity is a mechanism to keep the company competitive with other utilities when it comes to gaining investment dollars, he said.

John Merrick, a lawyer and consumer advocate, said he will be scrutinizing Nova Scotia Power’s proposed increases carefully.

"If anything, we think the rate of return should be reduced, because they tend to try and shift all the risk of their operation over to the ratepayer," Merrick said in a telephone interview.

The review board hasn’t approved the request for rate hikes but Nova Scotia Power plans to file an application next month to complete the hearing process for an effective rate change next Jan. 1.

Premier Darrell Dexter said he was disappointed when he heard of the pending application.

"My hope is that they’re able to find a way to lessen the burden on ratepayers."

The government will ask for justification of the proposed rate hike at the review board hearing, Dexter said.

Last summer, NSP’s short-term emission targets for mercury were reduced in order to lower rate hikes, but Dexter said he’s not aware of a similar measure the government could take now.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said Nova Scotia Power should first re-evaluate its operating and administrative costs before proposing an increase of that size.

"Nova Scotians are suffering from rate-hike fatigue at this point," he said.

Industrial customers could see rates increase 10 per cent, while commercial rates could rise by 6.1 per cent. With the fuel adjustments, industrial and commercial rates could increase by 13.5 and 7.4 per cent respectively.

Nova Scotia Power’s two largest industrial customers, AbitibiBowater and NewPage Corp., would be hit with a rate hike of 13.5 per cent, with a possible increase to 16.8 per cent with the fuel adjustments.

Lawyers representing both plants said they will be asking Nova Scotia Power to modify their load retention tariff in order to protect their business.

"Our clients need stable, competitive rates over the long term," one lawyer said.

The municipal rate, which applies to Antigonish, Berwick, Canso, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Riverport, would experience a 7.02 per cent increase that could become a 9.1 per cent increase with the adjustments.

"We have proposed investments in reliability (and) we firmly believe they are in the best interests of customers both in the short term and long run," Gallant said, "but if people are not willing to pay and they’re willing to take that trade-off of less of an improvement of reliability in order to have a lower price, we can talk about that."

With David Jackson, provincial reporter

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1239410.html

Sprott taking wind fight to court

2011-04-23T10:02:00.000-03:00

By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Fri, Apr 22 - 4:55 AM

Sprott Power Corp. has taken its battle to build a $60-million wind farm in the Annapolis Valley to Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

The Toronto-based company building the Hampton Mountain wind farm had filed an appeal earlier this month with the provincial regulator of a decision made last month by a development officer with the Municipality of the County of Annapolis not to renew 12 building permits for properties located in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton in Annapolis County.

But Sprott has since decided a courtroom is a better place for the appeal.

"The chief building official erred in interpreting the Building Code Act and regulations and the Annapolis County building bylaw to authorise a refusal to renew building permits on the basis of a new land use bylaw being in force as at the renewal date, when the right to the permits had previously vested and the administrative requirements for renewal had been complied with," according to court documents made public Thursday.

The county official mistakenly interpreted regulations "to require more extensive construction than (Sprott) had carried out," according to the notice of appeal.

The same official also failed to take into account that Sprott had only carried out as much construction work as it was authorized by the province’s environmental authorities, say court documents.

Leon Sabean is one of several local residents leasing land to Sprott for the wind project.

"As far as I’m concerned it’s crazy," Sabean said Thursday of the development officer’s decision not to renew the building permits.

People have complained about potential noise from the turbines, and the possibility of sun flickering off the blades or ice forming on them and then flying off, and "all kinds of foolishness like that," he said.

"We have a few people come here in the summertime for maybe two or three weeks or a month and they just don’t want them," he said. "They don’t like the looks of them."

But the project will create jobs in the area and tax dollars for the county, Sabean said.

"Not only that but we’ve got a chance to get rid of all our dirty coal that we’re importing from other places," he said. "We’re sitting pretty if they let us do it."

Sprott wants a judge to set aside the decisions nixing its permits. The case is slated to be in court May 18.

"In March 2011 the appellants applied for renewals of building permits respecting the affected properties which had been originally issued by the building inspector of the Municipality of the County of Annapolis on March 9, 2010," say documents the company filed earlier this month with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

"The municipality did not have in place a land use bylaw prohibiting the construction and use of large-scale wind turbines on the affected properties until May 13, 2010. The Annapolis County land use bylaw effective May 13, 2010, purported to preclude the erection of large-scale wind turbines on the affected properties. The decisions under appeal treated the renewal application in 2011 as though it were an original building permit application."

Sprott has told the URB that court is "unquestionably" the right place to argue the appeal.

"Sprott’s position is that both of the impugned decisions of the chief building official are reviewable by way of statutory appeal to the Supreme Court," say documents filed with the regulator.

"If Sprott is found to be correct, the UARB proceedings challenging the decision of the development officer are moot."

Sprott said it went to the board first "out of an abundance of caution," according to documents filed with the regulator. "The developments involve multimillion-dollar projects and the stakes are far too high for Sprott to risk an ultimate determination that the Supreme Court is the wrong forum in which to challenge one of these decisions."

Sprott was given provincial environmental approval earlier this year to install 12 two-megawatt towers but was informed it has to move four turbines that may interfere with recreational enjoyment and health. The project is located about four kilometres north of Bridgetown.

Sprott executed an asset purchase agreement earlier this year to acquire Amherst Wind Power LP, including the company’s 30-megawatt power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power Inc.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1239645.html

Proponents predict wave of turbines

2011-04-21T06:31:00.000-03:00

Hundreds of tidal generators could follow prototypes into Bay of Fundy
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Thu, Apr 21 - 4:55 AM

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.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1239570.html

N.S. factors Lower Churchill into 40% renewable energy goal

2011-04-09T07:46:00.001-03:00

By LAURA FRASER
Chronicle Herald Staff Reporter
Sat, Apr 9 - 7:34 AM

The proposed undersea hydroelectric cable linking Newfoundland and Labrador to this province would help Nova Scotia reach its goal of getting 40 per cent of its power from renewable sources by 2020, the provincial energy minister says.

Charlie Parker introduced the Clean Energy Act on Friday, a bill that would include hydroelectricity as one of the sources counting toward the green energy targets set for the next nine years.

"This target . . . represents (the) transformation of our energy sector from one that is largely dependent on imports of dirty coal to one built on the foundation of clean, renewable resources from our own backyards," Parker said in his speech.

The proposed $6.2-billion Lower Churchill development could produce about 10 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity, if the project is completed on schedule by 2017, the minister said. That would account for about a quarter of the 40 per cent renewable energy commitment.

The hydroelectric power project is now undergoing an environmental evaluation.

Several members of the Senate energy committee questioned whether the project could realistically be finished by 2017, The Canadian Press reported when the committee met in Halifax last month.

Nova Scotia Power CEO Rob Bennett said then that the timeline could be met because Newfoundland’s Crown utility has been developing the project for more than 20 years.

The Liberal party’s energy critic found fault with the act.

"There is no goal in this legislation," Andrew Younger said. "It adds the word ‘hydroelectricity’ to the act. In terms of the goal, they’re going to put it in a cabinet order, which they can change at a whim if Churchill Falls doesn’t come through."

The Lower Churchill development would not be the only way to meet the 40 per cent target, but it would be the most affordable, Nova Scotia Power’s vice-president for sustainability said.

"There’s always renewable resources, (but if) it’s a question of the cost . . . we think (Churchill) is the best thing for customers," Robin McAdam said.

Nova Scotia Power has a 20 per cent stake in the Lower Churchill project, which guarantees it receives 170 megawatts of firm and flexible power annually for 35 years. The power will be delivered from the hydroelectric dam in Labrador through an undersea cable.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said Parker’s bill would help the province move from coal-powered electricity to more sustainable forms of energy.

"Having said that, the legislation is silent on economic goals and I think it’s important that we not lose sight of the economic opportunity that Lower Churchill presents," he said.

Parker’s bill still has to be debated in the legislature before it becomes law. Even then, the change to the act would not hold Nova Scotia Power accountable to the 40 per cent target. To do that, the province would have to amend the province’s renewable energy regulations; currently, there are only regulated targets for 2011, 2013 and 2015 — at five, 10 and 25 per cent.

An Ecology Action Centre spokesman commended the province for setting the 40 per cent target but said he wonders if the required infrastructure will be in place to meet it.

"Relying heavily on renewable energy projects in other provinces to meet those targets could come back to be a problem here," Brennan Vogel said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1237547.html

Amherst: Stalled wind project moving forward

2011-03-03T06:54:00.002-04:00

Published on March 2, 2011

Darrell Cole

Amherst Daily News

AMHERST - A stalled wind project near Amherst has been given a new lease on life with the purchase of the project's assets by an Ontario company.

Sprott Power of Toronto is in the midst of purchasing the Amherst wind project from Acciona that was awarded the contract by Nova Scotia Power in 2008 to generate 30 megawatts of power through a wind farm on the marsh just outside town.

"We're just in the process of getting all the required consents transferred to us," Sprott Power CEO Jeff Jenner said. "It's an attractive project in that it has been worked on over a number of years and in our mind it's a near or ready-to-construct project that was available."

Sprott, headquartered in Toronto, is a relatively new player in the wind energy industry, but its executives bring lots of experience from working with Vestas Energy.

Acciona announced in May 2008 that it was investing $55 million in the wind farm that could include 20 turbines. The project ground to a halt in March 2009 when Acciona said it was not in a position to continue because liquidity for large capital projects was tight and that the Amherst project was extremely capital intensive.

Jenner said his company plans to erect 15 turbines on the marsh with each turbine being about 90 metres in height.

http://www.amherstdaily.com/News/Local/2011-03-02/article-2295650/Stalled-wind-project-moving-forward/1

Ontario stops offshore wind power development

2011-02-13T12:29:00.000-04:00

RICHARD BLACKWELL

Globe and Mail Update

Published Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 2:54PM EST

Last updated Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 5:05PM EST

The Ontario government has called a stop to any offshore wind power projects in the province’s portion of the Great Lakes, until further scientific study is done.

In an announcement that stunned both wind power supporters and opponents, the province – which has strongly supported a shift to renewable sources of power – said Friday that it will not proceed with any offshore wind projects “while further research is conducted.”

No offshore wind projects had yet received full approvals, but several were in the planning stages and one had already received a contract to sell electricity to the province under the “feed-in-tariff” program that pays high prices for renewable power. That contract will be cancelled, applications will be suspended and no more will be accepted, the province said.

Some of the proposed projects, including one in Lake Ontario just off the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, and another near Kingston, had raised the ire of local residents who did not want their view of the lake interrupted by a string of wind turbines.

The government noted that producing power from offshore wind farms in freshwater lakes is early in the development stages, and there are no projects operating yet in North America. There is one in place in Sweden, and a pilot project has been proposed in Ohio, it said.

“We will be working with our U.S. neighbours to ensure that any offshore wind projects are protective of the environment,” Ontario Environment Minister John Wilkinson said in a statement. “Offshore wind on freshwater lakes is a recent concept that requires a cautious approach until the science of environmental impact is clear. In contrast, the science concerning land-based wind is extensive.”

Ontario currently generates about 1,500 megawatts of power from land-based wind farms.

The province halted offshore wind projects once in the past. In 2006 it put a moratorium on any offshore development while it examined environmental issues, but it was removed early in 2008.

There are already hundreds of offshore wind farms in place in ocean waters, mainly off the coasts of European countries

The wind industry was taken aback by Friday's announcement.

“It is an unfortunate decision because Ontario has been working to position itself as a leader in this sector,” said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, which represents developers and wind hardware manufacturers. The decision obviously creates uncertainty for the industry, he said, although he expressed hope that it represents merely a “pause” in development. CANWEA will try to help the government conduct its research, he added.

Wind power opponents said Ontario’s decision shows there are real environmental concerns about turbines, although they would have liked to see a stop to land-based development as well.

“It is a victory and it validates our position,” said John Laforet, president of the lobby group Wind Concerns Ontario. Government officials in the past characterized his group’s opposition to offshore turbines as “absurd,” he said. “This demonstrates they don’t know what they are doing and they are scared [of the political fallout], which they should be. They understand they have a political problem and the science is not on their side.”

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, a group that has supported wind power and other renewables, said it was disappointed with the decision but is “heartened” by the fact that the province is still committed to eliminating coal-fired power plants.

The Society for Wind Vigilance, which wants far more study on the health impacts of land-based turbines, said it would like a moratorium on all industrial wind developments. “The Ontario government admitted on Friday that more scientific research needs to be done before proceeding with industrial wind turbines in the Great Lakes and other freshwater bodies,” said spokeswoman Beth Harrington. “What is clear from our research of industrial wind development on land is that not nearly enough research has been done to protect human health.”

Ontario’s opposition energy critic, John Yakabuski, called the government’s move “a spectacular backtrack.” He said the Liberal’s green energy plan has been “oversold from the start” and it was “never properly planned.”

The Conservative party feels there is no need for offshore wind farms, Mr. Yakabuski said. Other forms of renewable energy “must be a rates that families and small businesses can afford and [projects] must be in communities that welcome it.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/ontario-stops-offshore-wind-power-development/article1904138/

Ontario scraps offshore wind power plans

2011-02-13T12:24:00.001-04:00

Back to Ontario scraps offshore wind power plans

February 12, 2011

Tanya Talaga

The Toronto Star

The provincial government has suddenly abandoned any plans to construct offshore wind projects.

Citing environmental concerns, the Liberals made the surprising announcement Friday that they have placed a moratorium on building wind power projects in freshwater lakes.

While there are currently no offshore wind projects anywhere in Ontario, the issue has been a political problem for the Liberals as the October election inches closer and seats in rural areas are up for grabs. Anti-wind activists living along the Scarborough Bluffs also vigorously oppose any plans to construct offshore wind farms in Lake Ontario.

Activist voices have dogged Premier Dalton McGuinty when he travels to rural communities where wind turbine projects have been installed or are planned.

They say the low-frequency noise from the turbines causes health problems such as nose bleeds and headaches.

The premier has argued the push for wind is needed as Ontario phases out coal-fired plants and the push is made toward a green energy economy.

A Liberal insider confided that officials scrambled to announce the climbdown shortly after noon Friday when they realized it would be buried by the news from Egypt.

On Saturday, a senior adviser to McGuinty, said the timing of the announcement was determined earlier and had nothing to do with events overseas.

“You can take a shot at us for announcing it on a Friday, but the Egypt stuff is ... just false,” said the high-ranking official.

But Energy Minister Brad Duguid denied the move was politically motivated. He said it was done for environmental reasons.

“There isn’t a lot of science on freshwater offshore wind while there is tons of science on land wind farms,” Duguid told the Star.

Building offshore wind turbine projects in freshwater lakes is early in development and there are no projects in North America, he added.

There is one pilot project in Sweden at Lake Vanern and another has been proposed in Ohio.

“We need some time to review the science and we don’t have it today,” he said.

The Liberals will not back down on their land-based wind turbine projects, he added. “We have shown a lot of leadership on the energy file and we haven’t backed away one bit from tough decisions,” he said. “Our generation has to think of our responsibility here … to get out of coal, get cleaner air and provide a healthier future for our kids.”

Anti-wind activists called the reversal a victory.

John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, called the move “excellent” but said the Liberals don’t care about the environment.

“If they cared for it they wouldn’t be allowing on land projects either,” Laforet said, adding he’s watched wind projects go up after forests have been blasted down.

“I think what they have realized is they have unleashed hell on themselves before an election and we aren’t going away,” he said. “One side of me feels vindicated in being a volunteer in this role … but at the same time I don’t believe for a second these guys care for the environment.”

Opposition critics called the announcement a spectacular policy backtrack.

The entire green energy act was founded on political science, not actual science, said Progressive Conservative energy critic John Yakabuski.

“This is a complete admission that these guys have a failed energy policy and never went through the proper planning in the first place,” said Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke).

“Everything these people do is based on whether or not it will get them votes.”

Pausing wind turbine projects proves the government is making a laughingstock of itself, said NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth).

“It’s entirely possible this is a decision based entirely on saving a few seats,” Tabuns said.

“They flip-flopped on the Oakville gas plant and now there’s another big reversal from Brad Duguid,” Tabuns added of the energy minister, who cancelled plans to build the natural gas-powered electricity plant last October saying it was no longer needed. “They’re turning their backs on everything they’ve said.”

Offshore projects are merely a fraction of the government’s renewable energy plan, Duguid added.

So far, 1,530 feed-in-tariff applications for mostly wind and solar projects have been received by the government to date but less than five were for offshore wind projects, he said.

And only one offshore contract in Kingston with Windstream has been accepted out of the almost 1,300 approved contracts, Duguid said.

“That one project contract won’t be cancelled, it’ll be extended until the science is done,” Duguid said.

Jeff Garrah, CEO of the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, said he was “shocked and horrified” to find out that the offshore project in his area was suddenly on hold.

“We’ve worked with various offshore supporters for about a year,” he said, adding the overall loss is about 1,900 jobs in five years.

“This sends a distorted message to outside investors in Ontario when a company is offered a contract, Windstream, and the province reneges on it.”

Gideon Forman, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, said the move is a bit of a setback but not a fatal blow for wind power.

“We don’t think it’ll fundamentally change anything,” he said. “We knew there was a five-kilometre setback with offshore projects but we didn’t think they’d scrap the whole thing. This seemed to come out of nowhere.”

What is important is the continued Liberal commitment to onshore wind projects and the phaseout of coal-fired plants, he added.

“The key thing for protecting human health for us is phasing out coal,” he said.

With files from Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/937358--ontario-scraps-offshore-wind-power-plans

Electrical problem expected as cause in windmill fire

2011-02-02T21:12:00.001-04:00

Published on January 31st, 2011
The New Glasgow News: Sueann Musick

MILLSVILLE – Trenton resident Doug Stewart knew something was wrong early this morning when he pointed his binoculars towards his sister’s house in Millsville and saw nothing but black smoke.

Stewart, who lives near the Trenton Airport, said he is often bird watching and looking at the windmills on Fitzpatrick Mountain, but instead of spotting blades and towers 32 kilometres away, all he saw was smoke.

“I am always looking that way and it didn’t look too bright this morning,” he said. “It was quite black.”

Stewart called the RCMP who told him he was the second person to report the smoke. He also called his sister Donna Sutherland, who lives two kilometres away from the windmills, to see what was happening.

“I didn’t notice it at first,” she said. “There is a spruce tree in the way so I had to go outside and take a look. Once I walked outside, I saw the smoke.”

Central West River resident Kevin Hawkes said he knew there was a problem when he saw black smoke while driving home from work early yesterday morning.

“I went home and grabbed my camera but it was about 15 or 20 minutes before I got there,” he said. “By then it was pretty much out.”

Scotsburn Fire Department arrived on the scene at Tower Road in Millsville about 7:30 p.m. yesterday after someone working at the site reported smoke coming from the motor compartment of the wind turbine.

The turbines are owned by Shear Wind Inc. and were constructed on Fitzpatrick Mountain about four years ago.

Ian Tillard, chief operating officer for Shear Wind, said it took about an hour for the fire to burn itself out. In such cases, he said, the turbines are designed to stop and de-energize so there is little the fire department needs to do other than keep the area clear underneath it.

Tillard said the Scotsburn Department responded in record time and provided the support the company needed, but he acknowledged the company will have to work with local firefighters in the future about responding to such situations.

“We have done a lot of work with fire departments near the Glen Dhu site and it’s apparent we need to do that with the Scotsburn Fire Department,” he said. “Fires like this are extremely rare on these units, but there are concerns in the summer with forest fires and public safety.”

Tillard said the area around the damaged windmill has been cordoned off and the local snowmobile club has been notified since there are some trails on the site.

He suspects the fire was electrical in nature, but won’t know the exact cause until it is investigated by the company. He said the components damaged by the early morning fire will be replaced.

http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2011-01-31/article-2187158/Electrical-problem-expected-as-cause-in-windmill-fire/1

Nuttby Mountain wind turbines cracked

2011-02-02T07:32:00.003-04:00

From CBC News

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 1, 2011 | 5:03 PM AT

Nearly all of the 22 turbine foundations at Nova Scotia Power's Nuttby Mountain wind farm are cracked, CBC News has learned.

"Wherever we identify cracks, they are being addressed. I think right now we are at 19 of the 22," NSP spokesman David Rodenhiser said Tuesday.

The problem came to light late last year when it was discovered five of the towers were moving beyond manufacturers specifications.

During construction last July at the $120-million wind farm, concrete was not vibrated down to the steel base of the towers.

Movement with the remaining towers is within acceptable tolerance levels, Rodenhiser said, but NSP decided to repair them anyway.

"We've found some cracking in some of the other foundations ... we decided the most prudent measure was to address those as well," he said.

The repairs involve injecting an epoxy-like sealant into the 400-tonne concrete pads to stabilize the concrete.

The German supplier, Enercon Canada Inc., supplied the turbines and is paying for the repairs, which are covered under warranty.

"It is my understanding that there was vibration and tamping that did not get done to the extent that the concrete settled all the way to the bottom of the steel," Rodenhiser said.

It will be well into March at the earliest, before the repairs are completed.

As the foundations are repaired, towers will be brought into service generating electricity for the provincial grid.

"The towers have been generating electricity," Rodenhiser said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see this story and some interesting comments go to:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/02/01/ns-nuttby-mountain-wind-farm-cracks.html?ref=rss

Trenton wind turbine company set to start production in spring

2011-01-20T07:45:00.000-04:00

By The Canadian Press
Thu, Jan 20 - 4:54 AM

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Inc. is on schedule to begin manufacturing wind turbine components at its plant in Trenton this spring, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

Brad Murray said work on the steel tower components of the wind turbines is scheduled to begin in May after new equipment has been installed at the former TrentonWorks rail car plant.

Murray said old equipment in the plant has been removed and the installation of the new equipment is set to begin on Friday.

He said several large pieces will be arriving in coming weeks including heavy lift cranes and welding equipment.

Conversion of the plant began last August and Murray said the company experienced only a few "minor delays" related to negotiations with equipment suppliers.

"We are pretty well on budget with what was anticipated," said Murray.

Last March the province put $60 million into the $90 million deal for the plant with the South Korean manufacturing giant, acquiring a 49 per cent equity stake in the process.

The deal included $30 million over 15 years for new equipment for the construction of the turbines.

When the deal was announced officials said the project would likely create up to 500 jobs over three years.

Murray said the facility currently has 36 employees including 20 support staff and 16 plant workers consisting of millwrights, electricians, carpenters and engineers. Of the total, 13 are former TrentonWorks employees.

He said further recruitment is underway and it’s expected about 130 workers will be hired by the time production begins on the turbine towers.

Up to 400 workers are expected to be hired by the time the operation is ready to manufacture turbine blades by the end of the year.

The Trenton operation will be Daewoo Shipbuilding’s first foray into manufacturing for the wind energy sector.

Murray wouldn’t reveal whether the plant has any business lined up once it’s ready to build components.

"Right now the market is a little soft, but there are potential projects that we may have the opportunity to tap into," he said. "We will be competing with companies that are in operation so we have those challenges as well."

He said the plant would likely find markets in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the northeastern United States and Alberta.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1222875.html

How McGuinty’s windmill dreams became a nightmare

2011-01-18T07:53:00.002-04:00

By Thomas Walkom National Affairs Columnist
Toronto Star

When Dalton McGuinty embraced wind power four years ago, it seemed he couldn’t lose.

Politically, his support for this infinitely renewable form of energy put the Ontario premier firmly on the side of the environmental angels.

Even more important, McGuinty’s Liberals pitched their commitment to wind as part of a comprehensive, green industrial strategy.

The government would not merely use wind turbines to generate electricity. It would also subsidize firms to build the giant machines for export.

In effect, windmills would be to the new Ontario what autos were to the old — the province’s economic driver.

Critics of the premier’s ambitious schemes were dismissed as cranks and nutters infected with a not-in-my-backyard syndrome.

To ensure that these self-seekers and know-nothings didn’t interfere with the government’s bold plans, Queen’s Park stripped municipal councils of their power to regulate wind turbines.

On paper, the plan seemed a sure winner.

But that was before Dr. Bob McMurtry.

McMurtry is neither a crank nor a nutter. An orthopedic surgeon and former dean of medicine at London’s University of Western Ontario, he is part of the country’s medical and political establishment.

He’s acted as a health advisor to the former federal Liberal government. In the early 2000s, he was a key advisor to Roy Romanow’s royal commission into Medicare.

McMurtry’s brother, Roy — a Red Tory and former attorney general — was Ontario’s chief justice for 11 years.

Bob McMurtry began as a strong advocate of wind power, keen to have a turbine built on the 16-hectare Eastern Ontario farm he bought four years ago for retirement.

As he explained in a telephone interview this week, he hoped to generate his own power and sell the rest to Ontario’s electricity network.

But being a scientific sort of chap, McMurtry began by researching the issue.

What he discovered alarmed him. In particular, he ran into evidence — re-enforced by personal encounters later — that low-frequency humming associated with wind turbines may lead to chronic sleeplessness, stress and even hypertension causing heart disease for anyone living within two kilometres of a machine.

What alarmed him more was that the provincial government did not even monitor this low-frequency noise. As well, under Ontario rules, giant windmills need be no more than 550 metres from any residence.

So in 2009, he made the not terribly radical suggestion that Queen’s Park conduct a proper, arms-length study on the health effects of industrial wind turbines before authorizing any more.

Failing that, he said, it should insist that new turbines be set at least two kilometres away from any dwelling.

The wind industry was outraged. Fearful of being enmeshed in red tape, wind power firms argued strongly against such a study. Their case was bolstered last May after provincial medical officer of health Dr. Arlene King issued a report saying no scientific evidence exists to show that wind turbines harm human health.

McMurtry countered that this is because no one has ever conducted a proper study — which is why he wants one.

Those interested in the dueling scientific arguments can find King’s report on the Ontario government website and McMurtry’s response at www.windvigilance.com.

But regardless of who wins the substantive debate, McGuinty’s windmill dreams have already become political nightmares.

Dozens of rural municipal councils, angered by the province’s decision to take away their regulatory authority, have passed motions of complaint.

Even the Ontario Federation of Agriculture — which represents farmers who rent their land to wind firms — has called for a moratorium on new turbines until a serious health study can be done.

The opposition Conservatives smell blood.

Trotting around through all of this is the unassuming Bob McMurtry.

He heads up a new international body of doctors and scientists investigating wind power called the Society for Wind Vigilance. Throughout small-town Ontario, he is in great demand as a speaker.

“There’s a real level of anger there,” he told me. “Rural Ontario is on fire.”

http://www.thestar.com/article/922197--walkom-how-mcguinty-s-windmill-dreams-became-a-nightmare

Untendered contract draws criticism for NSP

2011-01-15T07:18:00.000-04:00

‘Deal smacks of preferential treatment,’ Avon Group claims in URB submission
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat, Jan 15 - 4:54 AM

Nova Scotia Power came in for more criticism Friday as a group of its biggest customers strongly objected to an untendered $25-million construction contract and $1-million bonus awarded to an affiliate company in a wind farm deal last year.

The Avon Group doesn’t want Nova Scotia Power’s customers to have to pay for the million-dollar bonus to Emera Utility Services Inc., and it also wants to disallow $1.5 million of the construction contract for the Digby wind farm, the group states in a submission to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

"The deal smacks of preferential treatment," Halifax lawyer Nancy Rubin, representing the Avon Group, wrote in a seven-page letter filed Friday.

Last year, Nova Scotia Power purchased the 20-turbine Digby wind farm from another affiliate, 3240384 Nova Scotia Ltd., and is now seeking review board approval to pass along the $82.7-million cost of buying the assets and development rights.

The original developer of the Digby wind farm, Sky Power, went into creditor protection in August 2009, and then the numbered company, set up by Nova Scotia Power’s parent company Emera Inc., took over the project.

Subsequently, Emera Utility Services, another subsidiary of Emera Inc., was given the untendered $25-million construction contract and was later handed a $1-million bonus for completing the wind farm last month. The wind farm is now generating electricity.

Rubin argued that Nova Scotia Power broke the code of conduct it adopted in June 2009. That code was intended to ensure that Nova Scotia Power’s transactions with its affiliates were "designed and carried out to produce demonstrable benefit to Nova Scotia Power customers."

Rubin wrote: "It is extremely difficult to be satisfied that the Emera Utility Services lump-sum price is the best price for Nova Scotia Power customers."

Nova Scotia Power has defended its awarding of the untendered contract and the bonus, arguing that its customers received the "best value" because stopping work on the project would have prevented it from being completed on time. And if a substantial amount of the work had not been finished by last March, federal government incentives totalling almost $10 million over the life of the project would have been lost, the utility said.

"The transactions between Nova Scotia Power and its affiliates have served to preserve benefits to customers and demonstrate that Nova Scotia Power proceeded with the best option available at the time," the company said.

The review board can approve, reject or place conditions on the utility’s request to recover the $82.7 million in project costs from its customers.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1222155.html

Shear Wind focused on erecting turbines

2011-01-14T07:14:00.001-04:00

Company facing deadline to deliver power to NSP
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Thu, Jan 13 - 4:54 AM

The president of Nova Scotia’s largest wind farm says his company is concentrating its energy these days on erecting the last 18 of the 27 turbines that will make up the $150-million Glen Dhu Wind energy project.

All of the components for the German-manufactured turbines have arrived and it’s just a matter of getting "them all erected," Mike Magnus of Shear Wind Inc. said in an interview Wednesday.

"Hopefully the weather holds out."

The company has three cranes on site working to erect the gigantic turbines. Magnus is hoping to get "two or three" in place in each of the next few weeks so that Shear Wind can meet its March 31 deadline of producing 60-megawatts of power for Nova Scotia Power.

The company already has nine turbines operating on the site, which straddles the Pictou-Antigonish county boundary.

Originally, Shear Wind planned on having the 27 turbines up and running by the end of December 2009, but it ran into financial troubles during the global recession that prevented it from securing financing for the capital-intensive project until late last year.

That’s when Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate, bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million, and a new deal was worked out with Nova Scotia Power that gave Shear Wind new deadlines for the production of power.

The Bedford renewable energy company met the first of those deadlines by producing 20 megawatts of green energy from the site by Dec. 31. That enabled the company to avoid paying Nova Scotia Power a $1.5 million penalty.

Magnus announced the company is moving its annual shareholder meeting to April 5 from Feb. 1 so that it will coincide with the completion of the Glen Dhu project.

The company also announced it has extended a stock option for Magnus to purchase one million shares at 30 cents, from now until June 26, 2012.

Options are "an incentive for any type of manager," Mangus said. "The reality is the options are all part of joining a company. Building a company is a significant task and you don’t build it in one or two years."

Shear Wind stock was trading up two cents a share Wednesday on the Toronto Stock exchange at 30 cents a share.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1221682.html

Solar industry fears rebate loss

2011-01-14T07:12:00.001-04:00

Agency overseeing program to close end of March
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri, Jan 14 - 4:54 AM

Nova Scotia’s solar industry is concerned the plug may be pulled on the province’s solar rebate program.

That’s because Conserve Nova Scotia, the agency overseeing the solar rebate program, will shut its doors on March 31 and all of its 50 rebates and programs are being reviewed.

"We are all on pins and needles as to what is going to happen next," Richard Vinson, vice-chairman of Solar Nova Scotia, said Thursday.

Solar Nova Scotia is a lobby group that represents the industry.

Vinson said the rebates are important for building a viable solar industry in the province.

The rebate is $1,250 "but that makes a big difference to homeowners and it’s also a major marketing incentive," he said. Losing it would be "a big deal for the solar industry in this province."

And it would follow on the heels of the federal government’s decision last March to do away with its rebates for energy efficiency a year ahead of schedule.

"The industry is staying alive but not by a whole lot," said Vinson, who also owns Halifax-based Creative Solar.

Conserve Nova Scotia, formed four years ago, is being replaced by Efficiency Nova Scotia, which began operation on Jan 1. 2010 and has $41.9 million budget that is paid by Nova Scotia Power customers through a surcharge on power bills of almost three per cent. (In 2012, the budget is expected to increase to $61-million for energy conservation in the province.)

The rebate programs offered by Conserve Nova Scotia are still under review "so there has been no decision on them," spokeswoman Kim Silver said.

She said once the review is completed "we’ll make decisions whether programs will be transferred to other departments, maybe contracted to Efficiency Nova Scotia, end or be changed."

Silver did not say when the review would be completed.

Anyone interested in taking advantage of the programs should apply sooner rather than later, she said.

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Conserve Nova Scotia spent $465,392 providing a 15 per cent rebate on solar thermal panels for commercial, residential and industrial, according to Conserve Nova Scotia’s annual report released in June 2010.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1221918.html

Scotsburn company fined for securities violations

2011-01-14T07:08:00.000-04:00

By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Fri, Jan 14 - 4:54 AM

Northumberland Wind Field Inc. has been ordered to pay a $5,000 penalty for contravening Nova Scotia securities and economic development regulations.

The Scotsburn corporation admitted Thursday in a hearing before commissioner Walter Thompson that it didn’t tell investors it was to be operated as a blind pool — a limited partnership that doesn’t specify the properties the general partner plans to acquire — rather than as an active company.

It also acknowledged that it didn’t disclose it would use capital raised in a 2007 public offering to invest in other wind fields.

Northumberland used $118,774 of $187,290 raised from 42 investors to buy into Colchester-Cumberland Wind Field Inc., Fundy Tidal Inc., Wind Horse Power Inc. and Scotian WindFields Inc.

It spent $87,774 of the money on 500,000 shares of Scotian WindFields.

The commission concluded that Northumberland didn’t intentionally violate the Securities Act or mislead investors on purpose.

Corporation president Sharon Henderson, who participated in the hearing by teleconference from Scotsburn, called the infractions an inadvertent error by past management.

She acknowledged that the securities violations were a negative for Northumberland but said investors remain confident in the corporation and its plans to build wind turbines.

Northumberland, which said in August that it intended to have a wind turbine up and running in Pictou County within two years, was charged a $4,000 administrative penalty and $1,000 in costs.

In other commission hearings Thursday, two insiders — people with access to key information before it is made public — with The Helical Corp., a Halifax software company, were each ordered to pay $2,500 in penalties and $500 in costs for failing to register as insiders.

According to an agreed statement, William Fleming admitted he violated the Securities Act by failing to register as an insider after buying 60,000 common Helical shares on Sept. 15, 2006, for $1,900.

Under securities regulations, he was required to file a report on the purchase within 10 days of the end of September 2006.

Fleming sold the shares for $1,800 on Jan. 15, 2007, when he was no longer an insider.

The commission ruled Fleming wasn’t aware he had to register as an insider or file insider reports on trades and hadn’t intentionally violated the act or deliberately misled investors.

Emeric Neil Black bought 115,000 Helical shares on May 6, 2005, while he was a company director, making him an insider. He sold 10,000 shares on Sept. 2, 2005, and 50,000 shares on Dec. 14, 2005, without filing insider trading reports, according to an agreed statement.

The commission concluded that Black didn’t deliberately violate the Securities Act or intentionally mislead investors.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1221911.html

Wind turbines must be moved

2011-01-12T07:10:00.001-04:00

Proposed towers pose problems, says province
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Wed, Jan 12 - 4:53 AM

The developers of a proposed $60-million wind farm near Hampton in Annapolis County "must go back to the drawing board" and relocate four turbines that are considered to be too close to cottages, says an Environment Department official.

Toronto-based Sprott Power Corp. was given provincial environmental approval to install 12 two-megawatt towers but has to move four turbines that may interfere with recreational enjoyment and health, states a ministerial decision released Monday.

Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau ordered the relocation of the Hampton Mountain wind project turbines, and this will require consultation with the Environment Department regarding noise and separation distances.

One of the turbines is located less than 400 metres from a cottage, and the owner has complained, while the other turbines are between 400 and 700 metres from cottages, said Peter Geddes, manager of environmental assessment for the department, on Tuesday.

"They’ll have to take a look at another place because quite a number of the seasonal cottages are (within) 400 metres to 600 metres."

Geddes said the project received municipal approval before any limitations on setback distances for wind farms has been regulated.

Jeff Jenner, president of Sprott Power, said he hopes it will not be necessary to relocate the turbines.

"That is the condition in the permit, but we have already provided the ministry with information to address their concerns and so, hopefully, we have addressed their concerns (and will) not have to relocate those turbines," Jenner said in a telephone interview late Monday afternoon from Toronto.

He said the department has raised concerns about the noise and proximity of the turbines.

"We have already addressed those items and we are going to re-address those items through the process," Jenner said.

The turbines are set back 700 metres from any dwellings, which the company believes is "sufficient," he said.

Geddes said the 700-metre distance refers to the setback from permanent dwellings, not the seasonal properties.

The company must resubmit new locations to the Environment Department, which may require further assessment, the decision states.

It also stipulates that prior to clearing and construction, Sprott must conduct a Mi’kmaq ecological knowledge study unless otherwise approved by the Environment Department.

The company must also develop and implement a noise monitoring plan prior to the Hampton Mountain project becoming operational. It must also have a plan to monitor shadow flicker to the "satisfaction" of the department.

The project is located about four kilometres north of the town of Bridgetown.

In its application to government, the developer indicates it hopes to have a buyer for the green electricity by March.

While the project has no immediate customers, Jenner said the company has been in discussions with the local municipal electricity utility and Nova Scotia Power.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1221525.html

NSP customers asked to pay for untendered wind contract

2011-01-06T07:36:00.000-04:00

Consumer advocate: Emera gave contract to affiliate, failed to get lowest price
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Thu, Jan 6 - 4:54 AM

Nova Scotia Power customers are being asked to pay for an untendered $25-million construction contract, along with a $1-million bonus, to an affiliate of its parent company, Emera Inc. The contract is for the development of the Digby wind farm.

The utility has failed to get the lowest price for its customers, John Merrick, Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate, said during the first day of a hearing before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

"I’m not sure they kicked the tires hard enough to make sure they got that best possible price," Merrick told reporters outside the hearing room. "Nova Scotia Power really has to be thinking about the ratepayers and not just (Emera) shareholders."

Emera Utility Services Inc., a subsidiary of Halifax-based Emera, was awarded the $25-million contract to oversee construction of the $82.7-million Digby wind farm project last year.

The 20-turbine wind farm is currently operating and produces enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.

The power utility is seeking board approval to pass along the construction costs to build the green project to its 470,000 customers. The review board can approve the expenditure, approve with conditions, or reject the request.

Board vice-chairwoman Margaret Shears raised concerns about the $82.7-million wind farm deal and the lack of evidence presented by the utility to prove that the $25-million construction contract was the best deal for ratepayers.

She said the board has little evidence, other than the utility’s opinion "that it’s the best price Nova Scotia Power could have gotten."

She said the board brought in the affiliate code of conduct years ago after Nova Scotia Power failed to properly tender contracts to ensure the lowest prices for its customers.

The board needs to ensure these big expenditures are in the best interest of ratepayers because they will "shoulder the cost of it," she said.

Nova Scotia Power president Rob Bennett defended awarding the contract to a sister company, saying the project was built on time and on budget.

"Nova Scotia Power’s engagement of affiliates provided demonstrable benefits to our customers," Bennett said in an opening statement to the board.

Merrick said Nova Scotia Power executives argue the contract provided customers with the "equivalent" price in the marketplace.

"Asking someone to match the price is not the same as asking someone to give their best price. They’re lowest price, that’s the test that should be applied."

Merrick wants the board to determine whether Nova Scotia Power has not complied with the affiliate code of conduct, which stipulates the lowest price must always be reasonable and justifiable, especially when dealing with other related companies.

He also called the "bonus" suspicious, considering it was to be awarded as an incentive to have the work completed before the Dec. 20, 2010, deadline. Some of the turbines started generating power in late November and the remainder were installed by the contract completion date of Dec. 20, 2010.

Emera originally picked up the struggling wind farm project in 2009 and took full control in February 2010 from Interwinds Corp. (formerly SkyPower) and Scotian Windfields, using a numbered company, 3240384 Nova Scotia Ltd., headed by Emera president Chris Huskilson.

In June, Emera transferred the assets of the numbered company to Nova Scotia Power, which now is looking to have these costs picked up by its customers.

The hearing wrapped up late Wednesday.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1220408.html

Five Nuttby turbines taken out of service for repairs

2011-01-06T07:33:00.000-04:00

Windmills moving too much between base, foundation, NSP discovers
By EVA HOARE Staff Reporter
Thu, Jan 6 - 4:54 AM

The second-largest wind farm in the province has run into some trouble.

Five of 22 turbines at the $120-million Nuttby Mountain project were moving back and forth too much, a problem that was discovered during checks that were conducted within the last month.

"At one of these site checks, (they found) that’s there’s more movement between the base and the foundation of these turbines than we’d like to see," Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman Patty Faith said in an interview Wednesday.

The movement would be "very, very minute," as in the millimetre range, she said.

There are "hairlines" in the bases of the affected turbines, but Faith stressed they were not cracks in the turbines’ foundations.

"What has occurred is that movement has caused more of a cosmetic type of thing," she said. "The naked eye wouldn’t be able to determine it."

The turbine builders would have the information on the exact cause of the movement, which is graded during maintenance checks, she said. Anything from levels one to four is acceptable.

Faith did not have the number for the levels detected on the troubled turbines.

It takes three days to repair each of the affected turbines, she said.

Taxpayers and the power company will not have to pay for the repairs because Enercon, which installed the turbines, would foot that bill, she said. "This was all within the confines of our warranty."

The exact cost to fix the problem wasn’t known Wednesday evening. Faith said it’s unlikely the information would have been provided to the power company.

Because the farm was up and running ahead of schedule, Faith doesn’t believe the downtime required to fix the five turbines will "have a dramatic impact" on the utility’s energy goals for the site.

Another wind farm in Digby underwent the same maintenance routine and all was fine.

The Nuttby Mountain project is expected to be able to power 15,000 homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 114,000 tonnes per year, Nova Scotia Power’s website said.

Financial troubles drove Nuttby Mountain’s initial developer — EarthFirst Canada Inc. of Calgary — into bankruptcy. Nova Scotia power picked up the development rights to the project in April 2009.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1220400.html

Energy company secures loan

2010-12-30T08:10:00.000-04:00

Shear Wind borrows $5 million for wind power development in Alberta
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Thu, Dec 30 - 4:54 AM

A Bedford renewable energy company is borrowing $5 million for the development of a wind project in Alberta.

Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc., majority owner of Shear Wind Inc., is loaning Shear Wind money for project development, expenditures and operating expenses, the company disclosed in a filing with securities regulators on Friday.

The loan will be advanced to Shear Wind’s Alberta subsidiary, Vindt Resources Inc., and an initial amount of $3 million will be loaned at an interest rate of 10 per cent.

Genera Avante Holdings Canada is a division of Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate that bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million last year.

This news comes as Shear Wind, a publicly traded company formed in 2004, is on schedule to meet its current contractual obligation to provide Nova Scotia Power with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for about 6,000 homes, by the end of December.

The green energy is being generated at the $150-million wind turbine park near New Glasgow.

Glen Dhu Wind Energy was supposed to be in operation by the end of 2009. However, the company had difficulty raising money during the recession, which delayed the project by a year.

The company has installed nine wind turbines in Pictou County. Over the next few weeks, it will install another three turbines. By the end of March, it aims to have another 15 installed.

The site straddles Antigonish and Pictou counties.

Shear Wind’s project is one of six contracts Nova Scotia Power signed with wind developers in 2008 for 247 megawatts of electricity, enough for 87,000 homes, to be generated by late 2009.

Nova Scotia Power has purchased two of the struggling projects, which should be fully operational by the end of this year, and bought a 49 per cent stake in Renewable Energy Services Ltd.’s Point Tupper wind project, which is already producing power.

Shares of Shear Wind remained unchanged at 21 cents Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1219588.html

NSP wins tax deferral for wind projects

2010-12-24T06:25:00.000-04:00

But URB wants more details on finances at January hearing
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri, Dec 24 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power was given last-minute permission to postpone paying taxes this year on three wind projects, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board ruled Thursday.

But the Halifax-based power utility is being hauled before the board in January to answer further questions about the company’s finances and how much money would be saved by the tax deferral.

"It may well be that it is appropriate that the deferral be used in the manner which Nova Scotia Power suggests, but the board believes that under the circumstances . . . a further examination of these issues by the board and interested parties is both necessary and warranted," the board wrote in its decision.

Nova Scotia Power wanted to roll over an undetermined amount of tax savings from the renewable energy projects — wind farms near Digby Neck, Nuttby Mountain and the Strait of Canso — to 2011. It applied to the board last week and demanded a decision by Dec. 31.

The board took issue with the ultimatum, the tight timeline and suggested Nova Scotia Power knew they were going to face an over-earning situation in 2010.

"The board believes Nova Scotia Power would have known about this issue long before Dec. 15 and (it) should have brought the application in a more timely manner," board chairman Peter Gurnham and Murray Doehler wrote in the decision.

In its application, Nova Scotia Power also told the board it "must" approve its request but this direction didn’t sit well with the regulator.

"The board wishes to make it perfectly clear that it, and not Nova Scotia Power, will determine whether directives ‘must’ be issued," the decision said.

The board also said the utility can follow its decision or appeal it to the Court of Appeal.

David Rodenhiser, Nova Scotia Power spokesman, said the power company is reviewing the decision.

"We’re pleased that the board has agreed to the deferral and has confirmed that it provides an advantage to customers as we submitted," he said. "We look forward to the hearing on how the deferral will be implemented."

Postponing the tax payments was opposed by Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate, NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corp., Bowater Mersey Paper Co. Ltd., the Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia Co-operative, and the Avon Group, which represents several medium to large Nova Scotia businesses.

They argued that any extra earnings belong to customers and not the shareholders. They also asked the board to order a hearing for full disclosure to ensure shareholders do not receive the full benefit of any excess earnings.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1218765.html

Shear Wind expansion OK, judge rules

2010-12-24T06:24:00.000-04:00

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri, Dec 24 - 4:53 AM

An environmental group has lost its appeal of Antigonish County council’s decision to rezone land for a proposed wind farm.

The Eco Awareness Society failed to file an appeal within the requisite time, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Heather Robertson ruled in a decision released Thursday.

The dispute started after county council approved the rezoning of nine properties in February. The rezoning opened the door for Shear Wind Inc. of Bedford to proceed with the $150-million Glen Dhu wind power project with 30 turbines along the boundary of Antigonish and Pictou counties.

"This is a good example where the statutory decision makers should have finality in the public decision-making process," Robertson wrote.

"The community, the government officials, as well as the developers, should be entitled to understand the finite time lines that apply, without fear of interference months after the decision through a further judicial review."

She further noted that the evidence presented showed a development officer carrying out his duties with a "recognized expertise."

Shear Wind has proceeded with the project. The company has installed nine wind turbines near Baileys Brook, Pictou County, and will begin delivering green electricity next week.

The company wants to install 14 turbines in Antigonish County and the remainder near Baileys Brook.

Under a contract signed in 2008, Shear Wind must provide NSP with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for almost 6,000 homes, by the end of December.

Last year, the Bedford renewable energy company had to forfeit a $500,000 performance deposit to Nova Scotia Power after failing to deliver electricity to the utility by the end of 2009.

Shear Wind was unable to secure enough financing until late last year, when Spanish conglomerate Inveravante bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1218768.html

Financial headwind slows down Shear Wind

2010-12-21T07:21:00.001-04:00

Green energy firm loses $1.7m
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue, Dec 21 - 4:53 AM

Shear Wind Inc. is reporting another financial loss.

The Bedford renewable energy company suffered a $1.7-million hit for the year ending Aug. 31, according to company documents filed with securities regulators on Monday.

Last year, Shear Wind reported a loss of $938,975, for the same period.

Part of the company’s reported loss is attributable to $500,000 it had to pay Nova Scotia Power for missing its deadline to generate electricity for the power company by the end of 2009. The penalty for missing the deadline was set in a contract Shear Wind signed with the utility in 2008.

Shear Wind, a publicly traded company formed in 2004, missed the deadline because the collapse of the financial markets forced it to delay the start of construction of its $150-million wind turbine park near New Glasgow. Called Glen Dhu Wind Energy, it was supposed to be in operation by the end of 2009.

The company is on schedule to meet its current contractual obligation to provide 60 megawatts of green electricity to Nova Scotia Power by the end of March. As part of that agreement, Shear Wind must provide the power company with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for about 6,000 homes, by the end of December.

Missing that deadline would be costly as Shear Wind has provided a $1.5-million performance security deposit to the utility.

As of last Friday, Shear Wind had installed nine wind turbines near Baileys Brook, Pictou County, and will begin delivering green electricity next week, Ian Tillard, the company’s chief operating officer, said last Friday.

For the year ending Aug. 31, Shear Wind reported expenses of $1.59 million, $586,033 for salaries and benefits and $232,983 for professional fees. Another $96,000 was spent on consulting fees, $35,000 was charged by an unnamed director for helping with various meetings and financing activities in 2009 that was not incurred in 2010.

Travel expenses were $70,121, up from $63,788 in the same period the previous year. The increase is attributed to the travelling Shear Wind officials did in relation to negotiations that resulted in a $27-million cash infusion last November by the Spanish conglomerate, Inveravante, in return for 62 per cent ownership of Shear Wind.

As of Aug. 31, the company had total assets of $60.6 million, according to the financial statements.

Shear Wind has other wind-power projects in various stages of development in New Brunswick and Alberta.

As of the end of August, the company had spent $3.9 million on wind development. Of this total, $2.9 million has been spent in Alberta, $14,603 with respect to land controlled in Nova Scotia, $867,387 in New Brunswick and $153,520 in Saskatchewan, according to the management discussion and analysis filed with regulators.

The stock was trading up three cents Monday, trading at 20 cents share on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1218397.html

It’s power time, Shear says, as N.S. wind farm set to go

2010-12-18T06:20:00.000-04:00

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat, Dec 18 - 4:54 AM

The largest wind farm in Nova Scotia is ready for its product to go to market.

Shear Wind Inc. executives said Friday the company will beat the deadline to generate wind energy for Nova Scotia Power by the end of the month.

"It’s a major infrastructure investment in Nova Scotia, and we’ve accomplished this with no government assistance — a company that started a little over five years ago," said Shear Wind CEO Mike Magnus.

"When was the last time an investment of this magnitude was made in this province? That’s the accomplishment of this company, one that management, shareholders and the citizens of Nova Scotia should be proud of."

The company has installed nine wind turbines near Baileys Brook, Pictou County, and will begin delivering green electricity next week, said Ian Tillard, Shear Wind’s chief operating officer.

"Everyone has a smile on their face," said Tillard in a telephone interview from Baileys Brook on Friday. "When you see one come online, it is a very positive feeling."

It’s a significant milestone for the Bedford renewable energy company, which last year forfeited a $500,000 performance deposit to Nova Scotia Power after failing to deliver electricity to the utility by the end of 2009.

"The nine will get us there," Tillard said. "Nine is the minimum requirement to meet our contractual side of that. We are very pleased with that, and we have one online right now."

He intends to notify Nova Scotia Power on Monday or Tuesday that at least one of the turbines is generating electricity. Under a contract signed in 2008, Shear Wind must provide NSP with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for almost 6,000 homes, by the end of December.

Tillard said work continues on the installation of another three turbines, with a further 15 to be up and running by March 31. A crew of about 90 people started erecting the 2.3-megawatt Enercon wind turbines Nov. 3. Close to 85 per cent of the workforce is from Nova Scotia.

Shear Wind is developing the $150-million Glen Dhu wind power project to produce 60 megawatts of power. The site straddles Antigonish and Pictou counties, with the original schedule calling for 27 turbines to be online by the end of this month. A shortage of wind turbines caused the delay.

Ironically, construction was affected this month by unusually high winds at the construction site.

"Here’s the issue," said Tillard. "This time of the year is the windiest month at the site. There’s no sense of desperation about it, it’s just the way things get dealt with in the wind industry."

In May, Shear Wind signed a $100-million contract with German wind turbine manufacturer Enercon.

"With all the years of preparatory work both on the project development side and the (environmental assessment) process and the intense process on the financing side, to actually now see these things erected is very satisfying," said Tillard.

Shear Wind’s project is one of six contracts Nova Scotia Power signed in 2008 with wind developers for 247 megawatts of electricity, enough for 87,000 homes, to be generated by late 2009.

When all the projects that are currently under construction are completed, wind power will account for 280 megawatts of electricity, representing 13 to 16 per cent of the province’s supply.

Shares of Shear Wind were trading up three cents Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange at 18 cents.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1217810.html

Skinny steel ribbons brighten solar picture

2010-12-12T06:52:00.000-04:00

By The Economist
Sun, Dec 12 - 4:52 AM

The future, according to MiaSole, a Californian startup, is unrolling at one centimetre a second in a bland-looking building in Silicon Valley. Despite the location, and the fact that most other solar cells are made from silicon, MiaSole’s cells are not. Ribbons of steel a metre wide and half a hair’s width thick spool through vacuum chambers in which they are sputtered with copper, indium, gallium and selenium — collectively known as CIGS. Out of the end comes a new type of solar cell which promises to be both efficient and cheap.

MiaSole’s current cells turn 10.5 per cent of the light that hits them into electricity. A tweaked version that manages 13 per cent should go into production early next year. Further tweaks have produced cells with an efficiency of 15.7 per cent. This is as good as the best silicon cells and much better than those of First Solar, an American company which uses another cheap technology and is the biggest maker of solar cells in the world. MiaSole says its manufacturing costs work out to less than $1 per watt of generating capacity. This is better than all silicon-cell makers and far less than the $3 per watt of Solyndra, a rival CIGS firm that won a large loan guarantee.

All to the good: The rationale for the industry’s generous subsidies has been that as volumes increase and manufacturers get more experienced, costs will decline. For much of the 2000s, with a shortage of pure silicon and lavish support from European governments, the price of solar panels failed to fall as expected. But since January 2009, according to pvXchange, an online marketplace, the wholesale price of solar modules in Europe has dropped by 43 per cent. This is bad news for high-cost producers. And cheap, efficient thin-film cells like MiaSole’s will make life harder still. So will a slackening in the growth of demand for solar panels: This year it doubled, but demand is likely to grow by just 10 per cent or so in each of the next two years.

The solar-cell boom has been a mostly European phenomenon. Spain, then Germany, boosted demand by giving generous "feed-in tariffs" (subsidies) to anyone who produced solar power for the grid. Spain’s subsidies were slashed after 2008. Germany’s generosity has lasted longer. As a result of this, and falling prices for solar cells, demand for solar power doubled to 7,400 megawatts in the past year, calculates GTM Research, a consultancy. Solar power now produces up to a tenth of Germany’s electricity on sunny days.

However, electricity consumers’ anger at their big bills is forcing Germany to cut its subsidies. By January they will be a quarter lower than in early 2010. Politicians elsewhere have watched and learned. On Dec. 2, France’s prime minister, Francois Fillon, suspended all non-household applications for his country’s feed-in tariff scheme. In Italy, Europe’s second-biggest market, fat tariffs will be trimmed in stages next year. Even so, Italy’s combination of sunny skies and high electricity prices mean demand for solar power is likely to keep growing.

Most of the growth will be elsewhere, however. China will become a big user, as well as a maker and exporter, of solar cells. America is likely to build lots of large-scale solar plants. Shayle Kann of GTM Research calculates that the power-purchase agreements signed by America’s utilities will expand its solar capacity from 214 megawatts now to 5,400 megawatts by 2014.

Travis Bradford of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago says that taking into account all the costs of construction including its finance, a state-of-the-art solar plant in a sunny state is broadly competitive, over its life, with a new "peaker" gas-fired station. Gas peakers, turned on only when demand is at its highest, are the most expensive fossil-fuel plants. Even so, getting to this level of competitiveness is a big step forward.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1216719.html

Turbine to be commercialized in Bay of Fundy

2010-12-08T06:47:00.000-04:00

Swiss firm, B.C. partner target 2012 for 13- by 20-metre tidal generator
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Wed, Dec 8 - 4:55 AM

International power giant Alstom revealed its plans to commercialize its industrial-scale Beluga 9 tidal energy turbine in the Bay of Fundy in 2012.

The Beluga 9 is intended for "very powerful currents" and will be the company’s first tidal turbine generator, the firm announced Tuesday.

The underwater turbine will be 13 metres in diameter and 20 metres high, the height of a six-storey building.

"Now, we are firmly establishing ourselves in the tidal stream power business," Michelle Stein, Alstom’s spokeswoman, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Montreal.

Clean Current Power Systems of Vancouver, B.C., was originally awarded a berth site in the Bay of Fundy and proposed testing its Mark III turbine. Then in 2009, Alstom Hydro of Switzerland partnered with Clean Current and has been working on a redesign of the original proposal.

"So what we’ve done is we’re building on the technology and the experience Clean Current had on their initial demonstrator. Now we are preparing our commercial demonstrator to be tested in the Bay of Fundy," she said.

She said the Beluga 9 prototype is a one-megawatt unit being tested at Alstom’s facilities in Europe and in Quebec. "We’re conducting an extensive series of tests before deploying the turbine at sea," she said.

Alstom will join two other developers — Nova Scotia Power and Minas Basin Pulp and Power of Hantsport — that have berths for turbines on the Bay of Fundy floor.

Nova Scotia Power and its partner, OpenHydro of Dublin, Ireland, have experienced the trials and tribulations of developing working tidal turbines. Most recently, OpenHydro failed to retrieve its damaged turbine from the floor of the Minas Passage for an inspection, and has postponed the recovery until December.

Patty Faith, Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman, said the companies may go back again next week and try and recover the turbine, depending on the weather.

"It is the last window of opportunity until spring," she said Tuesday.

The two companies deployed a $10-million turbine in the Minas Passage about 10 kilometres west of Parrsboro last November. They discovered that two blades — made from blends of plastic and glass — on the 400-tonne experimental turbine had broken off in May. The malfunction is forcing the company to pull the device out of the water a year ahead of schedule.

"We feel our technology is different. However, we will continue to monitor the experience of those companies and obviously take lessons learned and see what we can do to ensure the success of our product," said Stein of Alstom.

Minas Basin Pulp and Power and its partner, Marine Current Turbines Ltd. of Bristol, England, will join Alstom and deploy their turbine in 2012.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1216027.html

Glen Dhu wind farm being sued over unpaid site work

2010-11-26T07:12:00.000-04:00

N.B. firm says it’s owed more than $185,850
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Fri, Nov 26 - 4:53 AM

A New Brunswick construction company is suing over $185,850 in unpaid work it did at the site of a future wind farm that straddles Antigonish and Pictou counties.

Greenfield Construction Ltd. of Miramichi launched the suit against Shear Wind Inc., Glen Dhu Wind Energy Inc. and Enercon Canada Inc. to recoup money it is owed for site preparation and form work it did at Baileys Brook that wrapped up in early September, said a statement of claim made public Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Greenfield has also registered a claim for a lien on the property.

"That’s something between our contractor (Enercon) and their subcontractor (Greenfield)," Bill Bartlett, Shear Wind’s chief financial officer, said in an interview Thursday.

"It’s nothing to do with us."

At first, Bartlett said the claim had been resolved. Then he changed his tack.

"It’s going to be settled in the next day," Bartlett said.

Greenfield’s lawyer, James MacNeil, confirmed Thursday that the companies are in discussion. "There are certainly talks going on," MacNeil said.

Bartlett said there is no chance the legal dispute could set back the wind power project that has already experienced delays due to a shortage of turbines.

"None whatsoever," Bartlett said. "It’s just a hiccup that happened and it’s being settled."

Shear Wind is developing the $150-million Glen Dhu wind power project to produce 60 megawatts of power. It was scheduled to have 27 turbines up and running by the end of December.

But the Bedford renewable energy firm has said it will erect only 12 of 27 turbines by Dec. 31, and the remainder will be installed by March 31.

Shear Wind is contractually obligated to provide Nova Scotia Power with 20 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, enough for almost 6,000 homes, by the end of December under a contract signed in 2008.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1214078.html

Society for Wind Vigilance - first international symposium proceedings now available

2010-11-19T07:58:00.001-04:00

FIRST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

THE GLOBAL WIND INDUSTRY AND ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS: Loss of Social Justice?

The Waring House Inn and Conference Center,

Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario October 29-31, 2010

Introduction

“Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death.” [1]

Globally, many individuals living in close proximity to industrial wind turbines report experiencing adverse health effects. In some cases families have felt compelled to abandon their homes to protect their health.

Pleas for recognition of their situation remain largely ignored by authorities and the public at large.

“I can’t believe the government is doing this to me”…”interference with the normal political processes”…”our rights as citizens…have been eroded” illustrate the feelings of hopeless by those impacted by industrial wind turbines.

Comments such as these formed the inspiration for an international symposium to explore the theme: THE GLOBAL WIND INDUSTRY AND ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS: Loss of Social Justice?

The symposium explored topics related to industrial wind turbine noise and the risk to health, the urgent need for research, and the loss of social justice. Legal, economic and social impacts were also explored.

Research from clinicians and presentations by experts in acoustics, physics, epidemiology, law, environmental economics and policy analysis were given. The role of advocacy journalism was also presented.

Each presentation formed a logical building block for the next, culminating in a description of the impacts to the loss of social justice.

http://www.windvigilance.com/symp_2010_proceedings.aspx

Wind firm CEO says fear limiting opportunity

2010-11-19T07:52:00.000-04:00

By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Fri, Nov 19 - 4:53 AM

Fear and ignorance at the municipal level is inhibiting growth of the wind power industry in Nova Scotia, a legislative committee heard Thursday.

Barry Zwicker, chief executive officer at Scotian Windfields, called for provincial intervention as some municipalities introduce restrictions that make it increasingly difficult for proponents of new wind farm projects to obtain required local approval.

"We’ve had wind farms with us for more than 20 years and repeated studies concluded they present a zero health risk," said Zwicker.

He said municipalities around the province are responding to unfounded local concerns about health risks like noise with an assortment of inconsistent land-use controls.

"Controls are approved by people who don’t understand the issues and who are scared of change."

He said if some people do not like the appearance of wind turbines they should just look the other way.

Zwicker told members of the province’s standing committee on resources that the Municipal Government Act and the Electricity Act should be tweaked to provide guidance to municipalities. He suggested this would include a provincial interest statement on energy, along the lines of the interest statement currently used to protect groundwater.

Interviewed after the committee session, Zwicker said Richmond County recently ruled that wind energy developers must proceed through a development agreement or rezoning process that will delay approval by months, while the Municipality of the County of Kings recently banned wind turbines larger than 100 kilowatts.

He added that the Municipality of the County of Annapolis recently ruled that wind turbines can only be erected in areas where there is little or no wind.

He said inclusion of an appropriate interest statement in Nova Scotia legislation would allow municipal planners and decision makers to check that proposed local controls are consistent with provincial energy objectives.

Zwicker also said the province could strengthen the wind power industry by supporting developers with loan guarantees to make it easier to raise capital.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1212826.html

Bid to lift turbine fails

2010-11-16T06:13:00.001-04:00

NSP, OpenHydro to try again today to retrieve machine from Fundy bottom
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue, Nov 16 - 4:53 AM

NOVA SCOTIA Power and its Irish partner OpenHydro ran out of time Monday and failed in their first attempt to remove their 400-tonne turbine from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy.

"We definitely had it in the frame and we are just running out of time, so unfortunately we are looking at another repeat operation tomorrow but with a little more experience," said OpenHydro president James Ives, who was on board the barge and giving instructions to the crew on a marine radio.

Ives made the decision shortly before 12:30 p.m. to abort the operation after engineers and tugboat crews had worked for hours trying to position the catamaran-style barge Installer over the turbine.

They were trying to lift it up to the barge before the tide started to come back in but they ran out of time.

The one-megawatt turbine, almost as tall as a six-storey building, is designed to harness the tidal action of the Bay of Fundy to generate enough electricity to power 300 households, but it is being pulled out of the water a year before the end of its scheduled testing period.

The retrieval operation, shrouded in secrecy, started at about 4:30 a.m. Monday in the Minas Channel, part of the Bay of Fundy about 10 kilometres west of Parrsboro.

The open-centred turbine and its subsea base are 16 metres in diameter, and crews tried to lift the unit using winches.

Closely watching the operation was John Woods, vice-president of Minas Basin Pulp and Power of Hantsport.

"All of us are benefitting from OpenHydro’s experience and expense," said Woods, whose company plans to launch its own test turbine in 2012.

He was anxious to see how OpenHydro stationed the barge and handled the wind and powerful tidal currents.

"We have pictures of how they got it down, and now we need to know how they stay on station and with tides and wind interaction," said Woods.

Representatives of government, business and academia were also watching from two chartered fishing boats. Among those on board was OpenHydro’s insurance broker, Alex Dunlop of Halifax.

"Anything, when you are dealing with prototypes (and) with heavy masses of water like this, is extremely risky," said Dunlop, who works for the global renewable energy insurance company AON of London, England.

The recovery operation is the first for a commercial-size underwater turbine, he said.

"It’s new technology, so we don’t really know a lot about it."

Dunlop said AON is interested in learning about the costs involved in bringing such a massive underwater turbine to the surface.

The turbine stopped transmitting information a mere seven days after it was lowered to the ocean floor almost exactly a year ago. The acoustic modems intended to allow crucial data to be recovered from the turbine didn’t work, and several attempts to activate them failed.

This summer, Nova Scotia Power and OpenHydro revealed that two blades had snapped off the turbine. The damage was discovered in May when a video camera was lowered 15 metres into the murky waters to film the turbine and caught the image in a two-second clip. Then the companies decided it was time to bring the turbine up and find out what had gone wrong.

Although it was always touted as experimental, it was Canada’s most ambitious attempt at harnessing the tides with a commercial-scale turbine.

The demonstration turbine cost $10 million, with Nova Scotia Power investing the lion’s share and $4.6 million coming from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a non-profit green energy foundation.

Two other test turbines are expected to be placed in the Bay of Fundy by 2012.

Clean Current Power Systems Inc. of British Columbia and its partner, international industrial giant Alstom of Switzerland, will deploy one turbine, and Minas Basin Pulp and Power and its partner, Marine Current Turbines Ltd. of Bristol, England, are handling the other.

The tests are intended to determine how turbines on the floor of the Bay of Fundy would affect marine life, including fish and whales.

Nova Scotia Power customers have a big stake in the outcome of the tests — turbines could provide cheap, clean and abundant electricity in the future.

"We are a province addicted to coal, and this offers a solution to get away from coal over time," Woods said.

Minas Basin has built a $12-million demonstration facility that includes underwater transmission lines to take the power generated by future turbines to a building containing electrical equipment that links up with the Nova Scotia power grid.

The building will also house a research laboratory to help the province and private companies determine whether turbines are environmentally and commercially feasible in the Bay of Fundy.

Lobster fisherman Croyden Wood of Parrsboro believes tidal power will become reality in the Bay of Fundy but he is concerned about how many turbines would be put there.

"We want to put traps down there, and they want to put turbines," Wood said. "I’m afraid if (there are) too many, the fish and lobsters won’t come to the area."

Wood, 47, owns one of the two boats that Minas Basin Pulp and Power hired to take people out on the water to watch Monday’s operation.

After the turbine is eventually retrieved, probably sometime this week, it will be towed to Cherubini Metal Works, a Dartmouth fabrication company.

OpenHydro is picking up the tab for recovering the turbine.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1212226.html

Turning to tides for power

2010-11-15T06:59:00.000-04:00

Fundy energy could light N.S. homes by end of 2011, Dexter says after project funding announced
By MICHAEL GORMAN Truro Bureau
Mon, Nov 15 - 4:53 AM

PARRSBORO — Premier Darrell Dexter believes energy from tidal power could be flowing into Nova Scotia homes as early as the end of next year.

Dexter made the comment Sunday after a news conference to announce $20 million in funding from the federal government for a tidal project in the Bay of Fundy and the purchase of four subsea cables.

"As soon as that technology is in the water and as soon as it’s generating electricity, it will literally go right into the grid," said Dexter. "It’s in the best interest of all the proponents to get their technology in the water as soon as possible and I’m told by the proponents that they feel that this is a realistic expectation."

The Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, a non-profit institute receiving government and corporate funding, signed an $11-million contract for the production and installation of four subsea cables for the Minas Passage test site. The cables will connect tidal devices to the power grid and allow for the collection of real-time data.

IT International Telecom Inc., which won the contract, will complete about half of the work at its marine terminal in Halifax Harbour, creating about 100 jobs. The combined length of the cables is 11 kilometres and it is expected that they will be installed by next summer.

Paul Kravis, IT International Telecom’s vice-president, said the company is proud to be able to lay a green footprint in its own province.

"This is a great chance for our Nova Scotia-based employees to bring their skills and expertise to work right here in Nova Scotia. For us, this is more than a local contract; it’s a world-class project."

The Parrsboro location, which overlooks the Bay of Fundy, will be home to research labs, a community room and tidal energy-related educational tools.

Although Sunday’s announcement was good news, the project has not been without its challenges.

An experimental turbine is scheduled to be removed from the test site sometime this week because of two broken blades. Nova Scotia Power lost contact with the turbine just seven days after it was launched last spring. The turbine had wireless sensors that were to collect data about environmental impacts and potential electrical production.

Dexter said this remains a research project and such challenges will continue to be addressed moving forward.

"These technologies are, by their very nature, experimental. They are going to continue to experiment with various kinds of technology in order to find the very best (and) in order to make this commercially viable."

The province has started a consultation process to help create legislation for renewable marine resources before considering larger developments and to ensure such projects don’t interfere with the fishery or environment in general.

Power rates in the province continue to rise due to increases in the price of carbon-based fuels. The development of renewable resources such as tidal and wind power should ultimately help reduce electricity rates, said Dexter, although he admitted it will take time.

"They’re not short-term projects; they’re long-term projects. They mean that you are able to wean yourself off of your dependence on carbon-based fuels and give you a reliable fuel source for many years to come."

Dexter said part of changing the way people use energy in Nova Scotia includes partnering with other provinces, whether it is Newfoundland and Labrador with its Lower Churchill project or other provinces with which energy projects can be shared.

"There is a great opportunity for us to rewrite the entire energy standard, the entire energy equation, for this region."

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1212115.html

Record earnings for Emera

2010-11-06T07:31:00.000-03:00

Halifax-based energy company posts third-quarter profit of $44.8 million
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat, Nov 6 - 4:54 AM

Emera Inc., the owner of Nova Scotia Power and other utilities, is reporting record earnings of $44.8 million, compared to $37.3 million the previous year, in third-quarter financial results released Friday.

"We have momentum in our business and this is translating into record earnings for the first three quarters of this year. In fact, Emera shares have provided an annualized total return to shareholders of 14.5 per cent over the last five years. This result is one that we are particularly proud of as it is proof that our strategy is working," Chris Huskilson, Emera president, told analysts during a conference call.

Emera’s stock was up 25 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange late Friday, trading at $30.20 a share.

The Halifax-based company also reported profits of $151.5 million for the first nine months of this year, compared to $138.2 million for the same period in 2009.

Huskilson also noted several milestones for the company over the past three months, with the advancement of the Maine and Maritimes Corp. as well as a transaction with NV Energy.

NB Power and Emera continue to work together to "formalize an agreement" to develop a new transmission line from Nova Scotia to southern New Brunswick, said Huskilson.

"New capacity in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick benefits everyone in the region. It improves our options for future renewable energy development. It enhances the reliability of the systems," he said.

This week, Nova Scotia Power and its partner, NewPage Port Hawkesbury, closed a deal after receiving regulatory approval to go ahead with a $208-million project to burn wood waste at a new power plant at the mill’s site in Point Tupper starting in 2012.

Also, Nova Scotia Power appeared before government regulators this month to hike power rates for residential customers by 6.5 per cent starting next year. If approved by the board, it would be the sixth power rate increase in nine years in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Power’s earnings were $22.4 million for the third quarter this year, compared to $16.6 million for the same period last year.

The company stated the increase relates primarily to lower income tax expenses as a result of tax deductions associated with NSPI’s increased renewable investments.

Emera has $508 billion in assets. Besides Nova Scotia Power, it operates Bangor Hydro Electric Co. in Maine and the Brunswick Pipeline, a 145-kilometre gas pipeline in New Brunswick.

Bangor Hydro Electric contributed $11.5 million to earnings in the third quarter of 2010, compared to $8.8 million in the same period in 2009. The increase was primarily due to increases in transmission pool revenue due to recovery of regionally funded transmission investments, in addition to other increases in transmission revenues in 2010.

Emera’s pipelines contributed $8.5 million to earnings in the third quarter, compared to $5.7 million in the same period in 2009.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1210651.html

NSP biomass project going ahead

2010-11-02T06:53:00.001-03:00

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue, Nov 2 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power will go ahead with its plan to burn wood to generate electricity at a new power plant in Port Hawkesbury, says the utility’s vice-president of sustainability.

"We are proceeding and will be closing that transaction as soon as possible," said Robin McAdam at an energy conference in Halifax hosted by the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council on Monday.

Nova Scotia Power and its partner, NewPage Port Hawkesbury, received regulator approval for the $208-million project two weeks ago but had been reviewing the decision, which had conditions attached stipulating any cost overruns must be paid by the utility’s shareholders, not customers.

The decision to proceed came three days before NewPage Port Hawkesbury’s parent company, NewPage Corp. of Ohio, releases its third-quarter financial results.

The paper company has been confident the project would go ahead and that it would receive an $80-million upfront payment from Nova Scotia Power for a 30-year-old boiler.

The utility intends to spend about $200 million, including $80 million to buy NewPage’s boiler and $93 million in construction costs.

NewPage has said the $80 million from the boiler sale will enhance its liquidity. The company has reported having $7 million in cash and $113 million available on a line of credit, but it also has a $3.4-billion debt.

Later Monday, Nova Scotia Power issued a news release stating the sale of the boiler is expected to "close in the near term."

The 60-megawatt power plant is expected to create 150 new jobs in northern Nova Scotia, primarily in the forestry business.

"This new biomass facility is important for NewPage, for the Port Hawkesbury mill and rural Nova Scotia," said Bill Stewart, NewPage Port Hawkesbury’s director of woodlands and strategic initiatives.

On Monday, McAdam defended the controversial project and the use of burning 650,000 tonnes of wood a year to fire a steam generator at NewPage’s mill in Cape Breton. The project has an in-service date of early 2013 and would account for about three per cent of Nova Scotia’s electrical generation.

The utility says the facility will burn stem wood and won’t include tree tops, stumps and branches from the forest floor, which are considered necessary in restoring nutrients to the soil so new trees can grow.

"Still, it’s evident that there is a lot public concern about using biomass as fuel for electricity. We certainly have not had our head in the sand as these concerns have been raised," said McAdam.

He said the utility has no interest in using a fuel source that isn’t sustainable.

"We fully appreciate the value of Nova Scotia’s forest from an environmental, recreational and economic perspective. Using biomass for electricity doesn’t conflict with these values."

McAdam said biomass is wood that has no other commercial use.

"Biomass is wood that needs to come out of the forest so the higher-value tree can grow and replace that diseased, crooked and knotty tree that isn’t doing anything."

NewPage, the utility’s largest customer, will be responsible for supplying fuel to the plant and will be utilizing about 1.1 per cent of the land it manages, said McAdam.

The deal between the two companies stated that if Nova Scotia Power gives notice to proceed after Sept. 30, the contract price will escalate by 0.2 per cent per month.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board released its decision Oct. 14 and stated the most important part of the project is a contract worth $92.9 million covering engineering, procurement and construction costs. Any additional costs cannot be passed along to power customers on their bills.

Also, if there are capital cost overruns, the power company must come back before the board for another public hearing.

The utility says it needs the biomass project to proceed in order to meet the province’s renewable energy target of generating 10 per cent of its electricity from wind, tides or biomass by 2013.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1209878.html

NSP wants your power

2010-11-02T06:51:00.000-03:00

New plan will see utility pay customers for surplus electricity
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue, Nov 2 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power wants to start paying customers for surplus electricity generated from renewable sources.

This is good news for one of the region’s largest landlords. Killam Properties Inc. wants to be able to install more and larger turbines at its properties around the province.

"That would encourage us to take a serious look at adding new turbines at areas where there is good wind," company president Philip Fraser said Monday.

This year, Killam installed two wind turbines at its 300-home trailer park in Lake Echo to generate electricity for the community’s street lighting, water supply and water treatment facilities.

"If we actually produce more, we would be offsetting our consumption and reducing our power bill," Fraser said.

He was reacting to Nova Scotia Power’s announcement that it has filed a proposal with the provincial Utility and Review Board to expand a program referred to as "net metering."

Net metering allows customers to generate electricity from a small renewable source to meet all or part of their own power requirements. Nova Scotia Power has offered this option to its customers since 1989, and more than 80 residential and business clients across the province participate, the utility says.

A new proposal would allow producers to generate one megawatt of electricity, up from 100 kilowatts, to reduce the amount of their power bills.

"Net metering is a great way for our customers to make a direct contribution to the renewable electricity transformation taking place in this province," said Robin McAdam, Nova Scotia Power’s vice-president of sustainability.

"We have supported expansion of the program for some time and are delighted to bring forward these enhancements," he said in a news release. "They were developed with input from government and other stakeholders to offer greater options and benefits for customers who wish to generate electricity for their own use."

Earlier this year, amendments were approved under the Electricity Act ordering Nova Scotia Power to enhance its metering program and file its proposal by Monday.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1209854.html

Decision on biomass project may come by Friday

2010-10-28T07:41:00.000-03:00

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Thu, Oct 28 - 4:53 AM

An announcement is expected as early as Friday on the controversial $208-million project to generate electricity by burning wood proposed by NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Nova Scotia Power, a source has told The Chronicle Herald.

After getting the government go-ahead Oct. 14 to build the biomass-burning project outside Port Hawkesbury, the power company has yet to make a definitive decision on the plant.

Instead, it has been reviewing the regulator’s decision, which stipulated any cost overruns must be borne by the utility’s shareholders, not its customers.

"There hasn’t been much said. Were the conditions so onerous that it scared them off? I don’t know, from the point of view of Nova Scotia Power, perhaps they just don’t like that much risk," said Wade Prest, a small woodlot owner and director of the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owner and Operators Association, on Wednesday.

A Nova Scotia Power vice-president has said the utility has yet to make a decision on the project and is examining the conditions.

"There’s a process we have to go through to carefully consider the conditions and we are doing that," said Robin McAdam on Oct. 15.

Nova Scotia Power wasn’t supportive of the idea of sharing any risks of the project with its shareholders during a hearing into the development last month.

McAdam told regulators that sharing the risk with shareholders would be "proposing a different kind of regulatory construct than exists today in Nova Scotia."

Neither McAdam nor Bill Stewart, NewPage Port Hawkesbury’s lead manager on the project, were available for interviews Wednesday.

NewPage Port Hawkesbury, a subsidiary of Ohio-based NewPage Corp., is a partner with Nova Scotia Power in the plan to build the power-generating plant. The utility intends to spend about $200 million, including $80 million to buy NewPage’s boiler and $93 million in construction costs.

NewPage has previously said the $80 million from the boiler’s sale will enhance its liquidity. The company has reported having $7 million in cash and $113 million available on a line of credit, but it also has a $3.4 billion debt.

Next week, both NewPage and Emera, parent company of Nova Scotia Power, release third-quarter financial results.

In its 50-page decision, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board ordered the utility be on the hook if a penalty clause kicks in for a late start to the project.

The deal between the two companies stated that if Nova Scotia Power gives notice to proceed after Sept. 30, 2010, the contract price will escalate by 0.2 per cent per month.

The board also stated the most important part of the project is a contract worth $92.9 million covering engineering, procurement and construction costs. Any additional costs cannot be passed along to power customers on their bills.

Also, if there are capital cost overruns, the power company must come back before the board for another public hearing.

The utility says it needs the biomass project to proceed in order to meet the province’s renewable energy target of generating 10 per cent of its electricity from wind, tides or biomass by 2013.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1209022.html

Change is in the wind

2010-10-27T07:22:00.000-03:00

Turbine demand drops in EU, rises in Canada
By KRISTINE OWRAM The Canadian Press
Wed, Oct 27 - 4:53 AM

TORONTO — Call it a tale of two continents: the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines announced that it will lay off nearly a third of its workforce because of a weak outlook for the European wind energy market in 2011, while Canada is expecting a year of record growth.

Denmark-based Vestas A/S on Tuesday posted a 24 per cent drop in third-quarter earnings and said it will lay off some 3,000 workers in Denmark and Sweden to adjust to lower demand in Europe.

The company said it shipped a total of 719 wind turbines in the quarter, or 27 per cent less than a year earlier, and CEO Ditlev Engel said growth in the European market next year will be below earlier expectations.

"When we look into 2011 we see a lot of uncertainty in a number of European markets which, for instance, the Danish factories have been servicing," Engel said in an interview posted on the company’s website Tuesday. "So you could say we have maybe been too optimistic for too long."

But the weaker outlook for European demand is having no impact on optimism on the other side of the Atlantic.

Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said over 1,000 megawatts of new wind energy capacity is expected to be installed in Canada next year — exceeding the record 950 megawatts of capacity that was installed in 2009. One megawatt is equal to one million watts.

"We are quite confident that we’re entering a period of sustained strong growth for the industry in Canada, and we think that’s going to provide some significant benefits, both environmental but also economically, to the country," Hornung said in an interview.

Contracts have already been signed for 6,000 megawatts of new capacity to be installed over the next five years, and Hornung said he expects that number will increase to 8,000.

Canada currently has 3,499 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, and the wind energy association expects that to increase to 4,073 megawatts by the end of the year — enough energy to power more than 1.4 million homes annually.

Every province in the country generates some wind power, and there are commitments to build new capacity in every province except Newfoundland and Labrador over the next few years, Hornung said.

The biggest areas of expansion will be Quebec, with contracts in place for 3,000 new megawatts of capacity by 2015; Ontario, with contracts for 1,500 megawatts; and British Columbia, with contracts for 800 megawatts.

Currently, only about 1.5 per cent of Canada’s total energy demand is met by wind power, but Hornung said this is expected to increase to five per cent by 2015.

This demand is primarily being driven by government policy. Many provinces are working to reduce their reliance on polluting sources of energy like coal and are encouraging increased use of clean energy sources like wind. The development of wind farms is also helping to boost the economy of some regions.

Quebec, for example, is developing wind farms on the Gaspe Peninsula, an area that has been hard hit by declines in the fishery and forestry industries, Hornung said.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1208928.html

Williams edges closer to decision on N.L.-N.S, undersea cable

2010-10-26T18:23:00.001-03:00

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
Tue, Oct 26 - 4:53 AM

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams seems to be the only one willing to talk openly about the possibility of Lower Churchill hydro electricity from Labrador landing in Nova Scotia via undersea cable.

Williams told the annual convention of his Progressive Conservative party on the weekend that the provincially owned Nalcor Energy was in talks with Emera about developing Lower Churchill in two phases — Muskrat Falls first, then the larger Gull Island phase.

Williams says the Muskrat Falls portion alone would be enough to eliminate the need to build a new generating station on the island of Newfoundland, with any excess power being sold to Nova Scotia and New England.

There is nothing new to the idea that negotiations are taking place between Nalcor and Emera. In January 2008, the two energy companies signed a memorandum of understanding to carry Lower Churchill electricity to Nova Scotia and the U.S. market.

The energy trading arm of Emera already sells a small amount of power from the original Upper Churchill hydro project on behalf of Newfoundland and Labrador.

But this time, Williams says he’s ready to announce a decision on the Nova Scotia option "sooner rather than later."

An Emera representative was reported to have indicated only that talks with Nalcor and NB Power are ongoing. Nalcor didn’t respond when contacted Monday. In an email, Murray Coolican, Nova Scotia’s deputy minister of energy, declined to comment on the status of discussions.

The fact that the federal government is expected to make some decisions on funding so-called gateway energy projects may be bringing this issue to a head. Williams confirmed on the weekend that the federal government will be asked to provide loan guarantees to assist in getting the project built.

It had been reported earlier that both Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia already asked Ottawa for $375 million from a federal fund for public-private projects.

One of the reasons the Nova Scotia option is on the table is the ongoing dispute the Newfoundland government has with Quebec over how it was treated for the original Churchill Falls power project.

"Imagine how exciting a day it would be if we could see that power avoid Quebec altogether," Williams was reported to have told his supporters during his speech.

If a deal is reached, Lower Churchill power would first have to be brought from Labrador onto the island part of Newfoundland, likely via undersea cable, and then by undersea cable to a landing point in Cape Breton.

The cost of building the cable from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia has been predicted to cost about $2 billion.

Negotiating an arrangement with Nova Scotia and Emera isn’t the least of the problems facing the Lower Churchill project. There is political opposition in Newfoundland by those who doubt whether it is possible to develop only half of the project and make money on it. Others question whether it is wise to bypass Quebec.

An agreement with the Innu of Labrador must also be ratified by the Innu before the Lower Churchill could be developed. There are some influential native leaders who fear building the Lower Churchill project will result in flooded burial grounds and the loss of traditional Innu hunting areas.

And that’s not all. The Quebec government took steps earlier this year to block Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia from gaining access to federal funds to help with the building of a Maritime transmission route.

Nova Scotia can’t count on Williams signing a deal for a Maritime transmission route just yet, either.

The Newfoundland premier seems to be leaving the door open to Quebec participating in the Lower Churchill if Quebec Hydro would agree to reasonable transmission rates.

On another note, the price of natural gas is calculated based on a per million British thermal unit measurement. The wrong measurement was used in a recent column.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1208814.html

Subsea cable still up in the air

2010-10-26T18:21:00.000-03:00

Emera mum on talks to get Churchill power to N.S., U.S.
By The Canadian Press
Tue, Oct 26 - 4:53 AM

Emera Inc. is declining comment on whether a deal is imminent with Newfoundland’s Nalcor Energy on the proposed $6.5-billion Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador.

Over the weekend, Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador said talks continued between Emera and his province’s Crown-owned agency.

Williams said the project would likely be completed in two phases with the help of Halifax-based Emera and that he planned to make an announcement "sooner rather than later."

Emera spokeswoman Sasha Irving confirmed Monday that talks are ongoing with Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick on an energy link.

"When we have something that we are able to announce, certainly we will be happy to do that and provide details," said Irving.

Emera’s subsidiary, Nova Scotia Power Inc., has been talking with Nalcor about a subsea cable to carry electricity to Nova Scotia and the U.S. market since a memorandum of understanding was signed in January 2008.

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have also asked Ottawa for $375 million for the project from a federal fund for public-private projects.

Nova Scotia Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks said although he isn’t involved in the negotiations between the two utilities, he recognizes the talks are central to getting all the "moving parts" of the project off the ground.

"They are the key particularly when it comes to finances," said Estabrooks.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberal Opposition called on Williams on Monday to release details on any deal, saying "secrecy on this file doesn’t cut it."

"Taking just any deal doesn’t mean it’s a good deal," Kelvin Parsons, the Liberal party’s interim leader, said in a news release.

"I hope the premier is not grasping at straws just for the optics of him keeping his promise to cut a deal on this project."

The cost of the cable project hasn’t been revealed, although a study by SNC-Lavalin for the Nova Scotia government estimated the price tag at $800 million to $1.2 billion.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government vowed to seek an alternate route to get Lower Churchill power to the U.S. after losing a four-year battle with Quebec about moving electricity through that province. In May, Quebec’s energy board ruled that Hydro-Quebec was entitled to refuse to negotiate a contract with Nalcor Energy.

‘Taking just any deal doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. I hope the premier is not grasping at straws just for the optics of him keeping his promise to cut a deal on this project’

Interim N.L. Liberal Party leader

KELVIN PARSONS

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1208808.html

World's largest wind-turbine maker to lay off 3,000

2010-10-26T18:19:00.000-03:00

Firm says cheaper to build a windmill in Spain than in Denmark
By The Canadian Press
Tue, Oct 26 - 5:17 AM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Vestas A/S, the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, has posted a 24 per cent drop in third-quarter earnings and says it will lay off some 3,000 workers in Denmark and Sweden to adjust to lower demand in Europe.

Net profit was C126 million, down from C165 million in the same period last year. Sales dropped to C1.7 billion from C1.8 billion.

The company, based in Randers, Denmark, said Tuesday it shipped a total of 719 wind turbines, or 27 per cent less than in the third quarter of 2009.

Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel says it has become cheaper to build a windmill in Spain than in Denmark and that growth in the European market in 2011 will be below earlier expectations.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/9018430.html

Why PEI’s wind plan is dying

2010-10-24T15:40:00.003-03:00

RICHARD BLACKWELL

CHARLOTTETOWN— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 6:59PM EDT

Last updated Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 6:42PM EDT

In October, 2008, Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz made a bold promise. The province was going to dramatically increase the amount of wind power it produced, boosting production to 30 per cent of its total electricity consumption from the 18 per cent it then generated.

The move would make the province a green powerhouse, and the North American jurisdiction with by far the highest proportion of wind-generated electricity. At the same time, PEI would become an energy exporter – despite having no other homegrown sources of power – by building additional wind projects to sell power into the New England market.

All this was to be accomplished by 2013, when the province would have 500 megawatts of wind turbines churning out power – a substantial amount for a tiny island province. Only Ontario, Quebec and Alberta would have had more.

Mr. Ghiz vowed that the $1-billion worth of wind farm and transmission construction would be the largest project on the island since the building of the Confederation Bridge.

Two years later, the plan is in disarray. While PEI tried to attract private developers to the province, several of their proposals demanded higher power prices than the province was willing to pay. The government and its utility rejected the offers because they would have driven up electricity prices, which are already the highest in Canada.

Currently, the government is in negotiations with two developers to build projects that will add just 30 MW to the 164 MW of wind power already in production in the province.

PEI’s tarnished vision underlines the delicate economics of renewable energy around the world, where subsidies and high energy prices are often the keys to getting projects off the ground.

While there is tremendous pressure on governments to wean their power grids off fossil fuel, renewables are still an expensive alternative that can push up electricity prices. There is also an increasing public pushback against huge turbine developments – or other “clean” generation projects – near populated areas, forcing politicians to think twice. Just last week, the Ontario government backed down on a proposed natural-gas-powered electricity plan in the populous – and wealthy – Toronto suburb of Oakville, after a well-organized and intense public protest.

In PEI’s case, a key problem was that expected North American “cap-and-trade” carbon-pricing policies did not come to pass, Energy Minister Richard Brown said in an interview at his office in Charlottetown. If they had, carbon credits associated with wind power would have made development on PEI much more viable, he said.

At the same time, the plunge of the global economy into recession didn’t help. “Economic conditions went down the tubes, and that opened up a lot of excess [power generation] capacity,” Mr. Brown said. Consequently, energy prices dropped, making wind less viable.

Still, “the plan is not dead ... we are still committed to 500 MW of wind,” Mr. Brown insists. The time frame has merely been extended until the economy turns around and energy prices make wind projects more viable. “Any developer that wants to come forward with a project on Prince Edward Island, I am more than pleased to entertain [their plans],” he said.

PEI’s plan was formulated at time when oil prices were above $100 (U.S.) a barrel, noted Dinara Millington, a senior economist with the Canadian Energy Research Institute in Calgary. But that didn’t last. “They did not foresee these kinds of issues, with the economy being so depressed and prices for fossil fuel energy being so low,” she said. That removed any incentives for private developers to jump in with big projects.

Essentially, unless energy prices show substantial and sustainable increases, in most jurisdictions wind power is not economical without subsidies of some sort, Ms. Millington said.

The dilemma for PEI is that if it pays too much to wind developers, electricity prices for consumers and businesses will have to go up, and some of those businesses may leave the island as a result, damaging the overall economy.

By contrast, Ontario can pay high “feed-in tariffs” for the wind and solar power it buys from developers because those renewables still make up just a tiny proportion of that province’s power generation and thus put less upward pressure on overall electricity prices. Even in Ontario, however, the shift to renewables has raised the spectre of higher power prices over the longer term.

“I’ve had developers come in here and say ‘well I can go to Ontario.’ ” Mr. Brown said. “My comment to them is, ‘If Ontario is offering a better deal, see you later.’ ”

Indeed, Ontario currently pays 13.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for on-shore wind power, while PEI pays just 7.75 cents. That makes PEI far less attractive, unless a developer can export some of its power at a much higher price.

With 22 per cent of PEI’s electricity currently generated by wind, “we’re already a world leader in renewable energy,” Mr. Brown said, but he’s not willing to push those numbers higher if it means subjecting islanders to higher rates.

Transmission is also an issue, if PEI is to become a bigger wind energy exporter. Currently, undersea cables carry power to the province from New Brunswick, and some wind power (from a privately owned wind farm) off the island. But that capacity is limited.

The federal government needs to help finance new transmission lines, Mr. Brown said, but Ottawa should also be taking the lead in creating a better east-west power grid that connects the provinces together. The current situation, where most provinces connect north-south to U.S. states, is inefficient and counterproductive to Canada’s energy and environmental interests, he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/why-peis-wind-plan-is-dying/article1752506/

NSP, Daewoo ink deal on wind power

2010-10-20T06:48:00.000-03:00

By The Canadian Press
Wed, Oct 20 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering have agreed to build and use made-in Nova Scotia wind towers and blades across the province.

Premier Darrell Dexter says his government has signed a letter of intent that provides the opportunity for Daewoo to supply wind turbine components for up to 100 megawatts of capacity over the next four years.

The Nova Scotia government is a partner with Daewoo to build a wind turbine plant at the former TrentonWorks railcar factory.

Nova Scotia Power will work with Daewoo on having the Trenton plant supply the towers and blades required by the utility during the next several years.

The private utility company will also encourage the use of those components by independent power producers working on their own or in partnership with communities. Under the letter of intent, Daewoo would supply Nova Scotia Power with the wind turbine components, subject to competitive pricing and quality, and the ability to meet requirements of the utility’s turbine suppliers.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1207865.html

Power rate discussion being held in the dark

2010-10-20T06:45:00.000-03:00

Hearings on latest NSP hike mostly behind closed doors
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Wed, Oct 20 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotians are being asked to pay an additional $7 per month for electricity starting next year but the public isn’t getting to hear much of the evidence.

The second day of public hearings into the rate increase were mostly held behind closed doors before the provincial Utility and Review Board, which sets power rates in Nova Scotia.

If approved, this will be the sixth power rate increase in nine years, with the average residential customer paying $244.08 every two months to keep the lights on, according to Nova Scotia Power.

Several consultants criticizing the proposed rate increase for homeowners and businesses testified in camera to the three board members hearing the case.

Other information about Nova Scotia Power’s coal contracts, the utility’s credit rating and mercury emissions were also marked confidential for only lawyers, consultants and board members to view.

One consultant testified Nova Scotia Power shareholders should pick up the tab for the utility ordering excessive amounts of coal in 2009, which resulted in higher carrying charges.

"I stand by my analysis of the costs borne by customers due to additional coal handling costs incurred in 2009 and would ask the board to consider that a portion of those cost should be borne by NSP and not the ratepayer base," Colin Gubbins, a U.K. coal consultant with McCloskey Group, told the board Tuesday.

He was hired by two of the province’s largest consumers of electricity, paper giants NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Bowater Mersey, which are facing an 11.3 per cent hike in power rates.

He also testified he could not find any evidence of Nova Scotia Power trying to renegotiate the coal supply contracts.

Gubbins criticized Nova Scotia Power for testing pricey low-sulphur coal during a time of year when electricity demand is high and requires more coal be burned. The utility was using the coal to ensure it met environmental rules.

The utility conducted its mercury testing in November and December of 2009, which resulted in higher fuel costs and environmental emissions that were much lower than regulations required, Gubbins testified in written evidence.

"It is unclear why ratepayers should incur additional costs in 2009 on account of a requirement effective in later years," Gubbins stated in the submission.

Earlier this year, Nova Scotia Power forecast power rate hikes of 12 per cent for residential customers and 18 per cent for industrial customers, so it could buy more expensive coal with reduced mercury content as the provincial government required.

But in late July, the Dexter government softened its pollution rules to save power customers money on their power bills. It extended until 2014 the deadline for the utility to lower its mercury emissions to 65 kilograms a year from 168 kg.

The deadline extension from 2010 will reduce Nova Scotia Power’s fuel expenses by $60 million for 2011, the company says.

It is forecasting fuel costs of $544.7 million for the year.

On Monday, a proposal was put forth to phase in the power rate increase over three years, but that was rejected by Nova Scotia Power.

The hearing continues today in Halifax.

Board chairman Peter Gurnham has stated a decision would probably be made in late November.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1207861.html

NSP rejects phased-in rate hike

2010-10-19T07:22:00.000-03:00

Utility asking review board to approve 6.5% increase in power bills next year
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue, Oct 19 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power rejected a proposal Monday recommended by a majority of its electricity customers to phase in a planned power rate increase over the next three years.

Senior utility executives distanced the company from any deferral of fuel costs, arguing that financial markets want the utility’s costs paid in a timely manner or it will face higher borrowing costs when it builds a wind farm.

Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate, representing the province’s 440,000 residential customers, supports the proposal so customers don’t face rate shock next year.

In the coming years, Nova Scotia Power’s customers will be faced with "significant" increases to pay for energy savings programs, higher fuel costs and capital expenses on renewable energy projects required to meet new environmental targets, said Bill Mahody.

"The compromise reached by many of the interveners properly allows for the smoothing out of fuel costs paid by ratepayers over a relatively brief period," said Mahody.

"This deferral mechanism provides NSP with an opportunity to share in the burden faced by its ratepayers while also making the company whole by the end of the deferral period."

News of Nova Scotia Power rejecting the deal came on the first day of a scheduled hearing into its application before the Utility and Review Board to hike power rates for residential customers by 6.5 per cent starting next year.

If approved by the board, it would be the sixth power rate increase in nine years in Nova Scotia.

The utility is also seeking rate increases of 8.6 per cent for commercial customers and 11.3 per cent for industrial customers. In addition, customers are facing an increase of almost three per cent on power bills starting Jan. 1 to cover the $41-million budget of setting up a new government agency to run energy efficiency programs.

"What we are concerned about is future costs for customers. . . . We truly have customers in mind when we think about future costs of financing," Brian Rendell, Nova Scotia Power’s vice-president of finance, testified Monday.

The utility requires low-cost financing as it is investing over $1 billion in renewable energy such as wind projects and tidal development, said Rick Janega, Nova Scotia Power’s chief operating officer.

Nova Scotia Power’s largest customer, NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corp., maintains double-digit power rate increases are "very troublesome" at any time but, in these "uncertain economic times," they are of even "greater concern," said NewPage lawyer David MacDougall.

He said the energy efficiency charges combined with the proposed rate increase will mean an 8.8 per cent increase for homeowners and 12.4 per cent increase for large industrial customers.

Nova Scotia Power argues that those figures are "exaggerated" and higher than its estimates.

The proposed phasing in of the rate increases was agreed to by NewPage, Bowater Mersey Paper Co. and the so-called Avon Valley group, representing businesses, as well as the consumer advocate.

MacDougall said the board has the discretion to defer power rate increases under the new method, which was approved by the board in 2009, for recovering fuel costs called the fuel adjustment mechanism.

Under the plan, an estimate of Nova Scotia Power’s base fuel costs is reset every two years and built into power rates. The estimate is later adjusted in two stages so customers pay the actual fuel costs.

Nova Scotia Power is estimating its fuel costs to be $544.7 million in 2011.

The hearing continues today in Halifax.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1207674.html

New Regulations Encourage Community-Based Renewable Projects

2010-10-16T12:10:00.001-03:00

NS Dept of Energy

October 15, 2010 9:23 AM

New energy regulations announced today, Oct. 15, will help stabilize electricity costs for Nova Scotians, while promoting a greener, more sustainable province for generations to come.

The new regulations enable the province to increase the amount of renewable electricity produced in communities across Nova Scotia, to help government achieve the goals it set in the province's new Renewable Electricity Plan.

"These regulations are another step towards implementing some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the world," said Premier Darrell Dexter.

"These greener, local projects will help to create good jobs, provide a better future for Nova Scotians and reduce our overall dependence on imported carbon-based sources. This will help stabilize electricity prices over the long term and improve the environment."

The Renewable Electricity Regulations follow a consultation process that determined eligible technologies and who would qualify for a community-based feed-in tariff program, which involves a fixed pricing structure for renewable electricity production.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board will immediately begin the process of setting rates for community-based feed-in projects, with a hearing in the new year and a decision expected by spring.

An on-line application and approval system is scheduled to be in place in the spring. A website and preliminary guide detailing how to participate is available at www.nsrenewables.ca.

Rates will vary for developmental tidal projects and community-based projects such as small-scale in-stream tidal, run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, and biomass combined heat and power systems.

Wind projects will also face different rates -- one for projects over 50 kW and another for micro-scale projects under 50 kW. This ensures a variety of community opportunities and support development of Nova Scotia companies.

"The new regulations are an exciting step forward for Nova Scotia and it should help our company build its wind turbine business both locally and globally," said Jonathan Barry, president of Seaforth Energy. "The ability of Nova Scotians and businesses to participate in community energy will help us to scale up our operations, research and development and manufacturing and will make us more competitive globally."

"The new Renewable Electricity Regulations are very important in helping provide us with direction to move forward with the implementation of our Regional Energy Strategy for Cumberland County," said Shawna Eason, Cumberland County energy officer. "Our strategic priorities, especially wind energy development of both large scale and community projects, will benefit from the COMFIT program, helping us to increase the amount of sustainable, clean energy generated in Cumberland County."

The regulations put the Renewable Electricity Plan into action and puts Nova Scotia on course to reach its target of 25 per cent of renewable electricity supply by 2015 and a goal of 40 per cent by 2020.

The new regulations provide opportunities for combined heat and power projects, where a proponent has direct access to a biofuel source, such as sawmills, farms and greenhouses.

Medium to large-scale renewable electricity projects by independent power producers will be subject to a competitive bidding process overseen by a renewable electricity administrator who will set rates.

Talks are continuing between the province and the Mi'kmaq to encourage the development of renewable electricity projects on First Nations. The regulations are expected to be amended to incorporate agreements reached.

The province will review and analyze the progress of the Renewable Electricity Plan, with a special focus on the COMFIT program, within 18 months of implementation to determine whether the regulations are achieving its goals.

http://gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20101015002

NSP reviewing biomass decision

2010-10-16T07:27:00.001-03:00

Utility weighing conditions imposed by utility and review board
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat, Oct 16 - 4:54 AM

A day after getting the government go-ahead for its proposed $208-million biomass-burning project outside Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia Power couldn’t say Friday if it will proceed.

Executive vice-president Robin McAdam told The Chronicle Herald that the power company is still reviewing the provincial regulator’s decision, which approved the electricity-generating project but stipulated that any cost overruns must be borne by the utility’s shareholders, not its customers.

"So, I don’t have a clear fix on that," McAdam said.

"But be assured there’s a lot of work going on."

Nova Scotia Power will not appeal the Utility and Review Board’s ruling but is studying the conditions the board imposed.

"That’s something we’re still working our way through, but I expect there’s a way to advance the project," McAdam said. "There’s a process we have to go through to carefully consider the conditions and we are doing that."

Nova Scotia Power and its largest customer, NewPage Port Hawkesbury, have been given the green light to burn 650,000 tonnes of wood waste a year for 40 years at NewPage’s Point Tupper plant, producing enough electricity for 50,000 homes.

The review board’s 50-page decision, written by chairman Peter Gurnham, includes several conditions intended to protect Nova Scotia Power’s 470,000 customers.

Gurnham wrote that the most important part of the project is a contract worth $92.9 million covering engineering, procurement and construction costs.

Any additional costs cannot be passed along to Nova Scotia Power customers, he ruled.

The board noted that Nova Scotia Power "has shown an unusual aversion to shareholder risk" in twice presenting this project to the board for approval.

McAdam was noncommittal Friday on whether the utility is prepared to shift any risk to its shareholders.

"Our job is to provide electricity at the lowest possible cost to our customers of Nova Scotia, and we are able to do that because of the kind of regulatory regime that we have here," he said.

"We work to keep the risk at the right level so we can raise money at the lowest possible cost. When we raise money at the lowest possible cost, customers benefit.

"We manage the risk profile to the best of our ability."

The board also ordered that Nova Scotia Power’s shareholders, not its customers, be on the hook if a penalty clause kicks in for a late start to the project.

Also, if there are capital cost overruns, the power company must come back before the board for another public hearing.

The board also addressed the financial woes of NewPage Corp., the Ohio parent company of NewPage Port Hawkesbury.

NewPage has reported having only $7 million in cash and $113 million available on a line of credit while being $3.3 billion in debt and facing annual debt servicing charges of $330 million.

If NewPage or its Nova Scotia subsidiary fails, no additional project costs can be passed on to Nova Scotia Power customers, the board ordered.

The utility has said it needs the biomass project to proceed in order to meet the province’s renewable energy target of generating 10 per cent of its electricity from wind, tides or biomass by 2013.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1207146.html

$208m biomass project gets OK

2010-10-15T07:16:00.000-03:00

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri, Oct 15 - 7:02 AM

A $208-million project to generate electricity by burning wood waste in a paper mill outside Port Hawkesbury was approved with conditions Thursday by the province’s Utility and Review Board.

Nova Scotia Power and its largest customer, NewPage Port Hawkesbury, were given the go-ahead to proceed with the project at the Point Tupper mill, and they expect to burn 650,000 tonnes of biomass a year for 40 years, producing enough electricity for 50,000 homes.

Opponents say the regulatory board’s decision will clear the way for more tree-cutting in the province and increase carbon emissions.

The board’s 50-page decision, written by chairman Peter Gurnham, includes several conditions to provide safeguards for Nova Scotia Power’s 470,000 customers.

Gurnham wrote that the most important part of the project is a contract worth $92.9 million covering engineering, procurement and construction costs. Any additional costs cannot be passed along to Nova Scotia Power customers.

The board also ordered that Nova Scotia Power’s shareholders, not its customers, be on the hook if a penalty clause kicks in for a late start to the project. Also, if there are capital cost overruns, the power company must come back before the board for another public hearing.

The board also addressed the financial woes of NewPage Corp., the Ohio parent company of NewPage Port Hawkesbury. NewPage has reported having only $7 million in cash and $113 million available on a line of credit while being $3.3 billion in debt and facing annual debt servicing charges of $330 million.

If NewPage or its Nova Scotia subsidiary fails, no additional project costs can be passed on to Nova Scotia Power customers, the board ordered in its decision.

The utility says it needs the biomass project to proceed in order to meet the province’s renewable energy target of generating 10 per cent of its electricity from wind, tides or biomass by 2013.

The Ecology Action Centre of Halifax, which opposes the project, is concerned over the supply of biomass and said the review board should have waited for the provincial government’s new policy on forestry practices, expected to be unveiled later this month.

"We’re especially disappointed that this decision is going forward before the natural resources strategy is being released," said Jamie Simpson, forestry program co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre.

"(The new) regulations should come first, and then decide where we want to go with forest biomass harvesting."

Simpson also said the project will place a major new stress on forests and will require an extra 350,000 tonnes of clearcutting a year.

NewPage Port Hawkesbury said it was pleased with the board’s approval, especially since the board rejected a similar proposal last year.

"It’s great news for all of Nova Scotia that we are going to be able to provide a significant contribution to the generation of renewable energy in the province," said Bill Stewart, the company’s director of woodlands and strategic initiatives.

Stewart said the project will create about 150 new jobs in the seven eastern counties of Nova Scotia in trucking, harvesting and silviculture.

Port Hawkesbury Mayor Billy Joe MacLean acknowledged there is deep opposition to the project in some quarters but he said NewPage is a reputable company that will manage the forests properly.

"The company is a good community-minded company and they are the mainstay of our economic base here," the mayor said.

Independent sawmill operator Murray MacDonald, who owns or leases more than 6,000 hectares of timber in Pictou County, said the news was like a shot in the arm to the forestry industry.

"It builds confidence and it is positive news for our industry," said MacDonald, president of M.R. Holdings Ltd. "Everyone in the industry is going to benefit from this, but we must make sure to keep biomass secondary to the sawmills."

Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks applauded the review board’s decision.

"It’s important for Port Hawkesbury particularly, (and all of) rural Nova Scotia," he said.

Estabrooks also noted that Nova Scotia Power customers are protected from any risks.

With Jeffrey Simpson and Mary Ellen MacIntyre, staff reporters

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1207046.html

NSP wants to test ‘smart grid’

2010-10-09T07:04:00.002-03:00

Green technology saves users’ cash
BY JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat, Oct 9 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power is looking to spend $4.3 million to find out if customers are prepared to save money on their power bills while helping the environment.

The utility wants to participate in a regional pilot project to help manage the electricity grid and use wind power more effectively by using "smart grid" technology.

Here’s how it would work.

When the wind is not blowing, the utility wants to be able to shut off customers’ hot water heaters, instead of what they do today, which is switching to another fuel source like coal.

The idea behind the program "is to save energy and increase the use of renewables," said Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman Patty Faith, on Friday.

The study will select up to 1,500 residential customers and 150 commercial customers to participate in the test. About 750 will be in Nova Scotia.

Faith said the customers and the areas in this province to be tested will not be decided until the expenditure is approved by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

If approved, Nova Scotia Power would install special devices on water heaters that communicate with the electrical grid. The devices would tell the appliances to turn on or off, depending on the conditions of the system and the amount of renewable energy available.

Homeowners shouldn’t notice if their hot water or space heater was turned off, Faith said.

The pilot project will evaluate, "the customers’ role and their acceptance of utility load control for the purposes of renewable energy integration," the power company said in its application to the board.

Called PowerShift Atlantic, the $32-million project was first announced in July in Fredericton when the federal government announced it would provide $15.9 million through the federal government’s Clean Energy Fund.

"The challenges with wind generation are the variability and uncertainty of production levels to match customer demand. If proven commercially viable, load control, as an ancillary service, may provide an effective means of dealing with wind energy intermittency," the utility’s application said.

"This is a unique opportunity to look at how you can take that technology and use it to balance intermittent power like wind," said Faith.

Participants in the study besides Nova Scotia Power are NB Power, Maritime Electric Co. Ltd. of Prince Edward Island, the University of New Brunswick and the power commission in Saint John, N.B.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1206040.html

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Note

I effectively already do this. I have an Aube T1040 timer which turns my hot water heater on for two hours in the early morning and that is enough hot water for me for the rest of the day. With this and other power saving tactics, my daily power usage was down to 7.2 kWh on my last power bill.