The Truro Daily News
HALIFAX – New life is being breathed into the Nuttby Mountain wind project through news that Nova Scotia Power (NSP) has taken over the venture’s development rights.
“Becoming directly involved as the developer of the Nuttby wind project should allow it to advance, despite the challenges that exist in today’s financial markets,” said Robin McAdam, NSP’s executive vice-president of sustainability. “We know how to build a wind project and we believe we have access to financing to do this sort of thing.”
The Nuttby Mountain development rights are currently owned by Calgary-based EarthFirst Canada Inc., and include land leases and transmission interconnection rights as well as provincial environmental approval. EarthFirst commenced a process to sell the project last August and is currently operating under creditor protection.
The proposed wind farm would have a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts and is designed to produce enough energy to power approximately 15,000 homes. NSP said the project has the potential to reduce the province’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes annually.
Initial development came through Atlantic Wind Power Corp (AWPC), which sold it to EarthFirst. AWPC had planned to manage construction of the project to completion but McAdam said the Atlantic team, led by Charles Demond, will remain involved with the project through a service contract with NSP.
“He’ll provide advisory support to all aspects of the project,” McAdam said. And while NSP is “very much in an as-soon-as-possible mode” to get the project started, McAdam said, the fact that EarthFirst had yet to have a turbine model selected means they now have to get out into that market to see what is available. “That will be a big driver in the schedule.”
As well, there still is geo-technical work to be done at the site to ensure the proper foundations are constructed for the turbines.
The bottom line, though, is that NSP’s involvement removes any uncertainty that had been surrounding the project. “It’s just too early to be very specific (regarding timelines). We want to get it up as fast as we can,” McAdam said. “We’re proceeding with this project because we want to see renewables (energy) advanced in Nova Scotia ...
“Nova Scotia Power is committed to expanding its use of renewable energy from all available sources, including biomass, tidal and wind.”
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