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."
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