Energy company secures loan

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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