Shear Wind signs major deal to supply turbines for $150-million wind farm

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat. May 29 - 4:54 AM

Shear Wind Inc. has signed a major deal with Enercon Canada Inc. to supply wind turbines for a proposed $150-million wind farm, the company announced Friday night.

The renewable energy company is developing the Glen Dhu wind power project to supply renewable power to Nova Scotia Power. The green electricity is scheduled to begin generating later this year.

The company wants to install 30 turbines — 14 in Antigonish County and the remainder near Baileys Brook, Pictou County.

Enercon will supply, install, erect and commission Enercon E-82 turbines for the 60-megawatt wind farm, the company stated in a news release.

Enercon will service and maintain the purchased turbines.

Shear Wind have been in negotiations for months to purchase 30 wind turbines from either a European or U.S. supplier for the proposed $150-million Glen Dhu wind farm located along the border of Pictou and Antigonish counties.

The company has stated previously that turbines cost between $1.5 million and $2 million each.

Glen Dhu was supposed to be operating by now, but Shear Wind was unable to secure financing for the capital-intensive project until late last year when Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate, bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1184703.html

Blowing money?

Taxpayers shelled out $42,000 for Team Dexter to host news conference on green energy
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri. May 21 - 4:53 AM

IT COST NOVA SCOTIA TAXPAYERS $42,000 for Premier Darrell Dexter to unveil the government’s new blueprint for generating electricity at a news conference last month.

The bill for consultants, a former deputy minister, spin doctors, buses and sandwiches added up to that amount, according to figures The Chronicle Herald obtained from the provincial Energy Department.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil told this newspaper that a $42,000 news conference is unconscionable. That’s "more than most Nova Scotians make in the run of a year," he said.

"For the premier to make an announcement using that kind of money is unbelievable. At the same time, he’s telling Nova Scotians to tighten their belts because there’s tough times ahead."

Dexter announced the new energy strategy with much fanfare on April 23 at the province’s largest wind farm, on top of Dalhousie Mountain, about 25 kilometres west of New Glasgow.

The government said it would legislate that 25 per cent of electricity must come from renewable sources by 2015. And Dexter also announced a goal of 40 per cent of electricity coming from wind, tides, biomass and green imports by 2020.

The news conference at RMS Energy’s wind farm, which started producing power from its 30 turbines last year, was considered a perfect backdrop for the NDP government to announce a move away from electricity generated from coal and expensive imported oil.

A big chunk of the cost, about $15,000, involved hiring former journalist Parker Donham to write the text for the glossy 28-page booklet. Donham, now a senior partner in Kempt Head Communications, also attended the news conference and a technical briefing held at Dalhousie Mountain.

Before the premier and other dignitaries, including Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks, unveiled the plan, retired deputy minister Paul Taylor gave reporters a technical briefing at the nearby RMS Energy maintenance facility. Taylor had steered the new policy through different government departments from February to April for a fee of $11,000.

Estabrooks attended the briefing but the new deputy energy minister, Murray Coolican, did not.

Trivium Design of Halifax was hired to create the images, graphs and design of the booklet for $4,000, and 200 copies were printed at a cost of $1,200.

On the day of the news conference, the catering of sandwiches and drinks, along with the rental of audiovisual equipment and buses for transportation to the Pictou County site, cost $6,000.

And while several Energy Department communications officials were on hand, the department hired additional public relations help.

M5, an Atlantic marketing communications firm with an office in Dartmouth, was paid $5,000 for event logistics and organization from April 8 to 23.

Holly Dunn, a senior communications consultant with M5, said she co-ordinated the event and drafted a guest list of 200 people, arranged for catering, organized tents and contacted media outlets ahead of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT:

•Paul Taylor: $11,000 for interdepartmental consultation, February-April

•Parker Donham: $15,000 to write booklet, January-April

•Graphic design: $4,000, April

•Printing: $1,200 for 200 copies of booklet, April 20-22

•Event organization: $5,000, April 8-23

•News conference: $6,000 for audiovisual equipment, catering, bus rental, etc., April 23

•Grand total: $42,000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Energy Department defends the costly news conference and the trip to the Dalhousie Mountain wind farm as an effective way to illustrate the government’s renewable energy policy.

"It’s more expensive, but at the same time it makes it real," department spokesman Matt Lumley said Thursday. "That’s definitely one of our objectives is to make people realize that this is really happening and that renewables are going to become part of the landscape and this is what they are going to look like."

Lumley said other announcements have been made in the legislature and cost less, but coverage of the Dalhousie Mountain news conference appeared in newspapers and other media outlets across the country.

"We definitely wanted to plant a stake in the ground," he said. "The point of doing that event there was to actualize it."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1183404.html

Shear Wind won’t have to pay power line costs

URB rules firm entitled to recover upgrade expenses from N.S. Power
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Wed. May 19 - 8:28 AM

Nova Scotia Power has lost its bid to have Shear Wind Inc. of Bedford pay for power line upgrades needed to transport energy from the wind power generating facility to the power grid.

The renewable energy company is developing a wind farm, known as the Glen Dhu wind project, to supply renewable power to Nova Scotia Power. The company wants to install 30 turbines, 14 in Antigonish County and the remainder near Baileys Brook, Pictou County.

Shear Wind wanted to connect its wind generating facility with Nova Scotia’s Power’s transmission line between Trenton and Lochaber, Antigonish County. The two companies entered negotiations on the cost of hooking the wind farm to the power grid but disagreed on who should pay.

Nova Scotia Power asked the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board to resolve the outstanding dispute last December.

Shear Wind argued it was not responsible for the costs and that the benefits of the power line upgrades will flow to the whole transmission system.

Nova Scotia Power argued that they shouldn’t be responsible to cover the costs because they were included in a power-purchase agreement signed earlier with Shear Wind.

The board ruled Tuesday that Shear Wind is required to pay the "up front" costs of the network upgrades but they are "entitled to recover the costs from the transmission provider (Nova Scotia Power)."

The cost of the upgrades was not disclosed in the decision. Nova Scotia Power refused to release the costs because they were "confidential" and Shear Wind was unavailable for comment.

Glen Dhu was supposed to be operating by now, but Shear Wind was unable to secure financing for the capital-intensive project until late last year when Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate, bought a 62 per cent stake in Shear Wind for $27 million.

It is scheduled to begin producing enough electricity to power 17,500 homes by the end of this year.

In a similar decision earlier this year between Nova Scotia Power and Amherst Wind Power LP, the review board ruled the Amherst wind farm must pay $2.35 million of the total upgrade costs of $4.53 million.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1183195.html

Analyst: Legislate green goals

Province’s electricity plan won’t work if it’s only voluntary, think-tank warns
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Tue. May 18 - 4:53 AM

The Dexter government’s new electricity plan for quadrupling the amount of green energy over the next decade could fail without legislative teeth, says Tim Weis, of the Pembina Institute in Ottawa.

"Voluntary compliance doesn’t typically yield the results that you are hoping for," Weis said in a telephone interview Monday.

Last month, the Dexter government unveiled its plan to increase the renewable electricity supply by setting a goal of 40 per cent of electricity from wind, biomass, tidal and renewable imports by 2020.

But the plan to reach 40 per cent from renewable sources between 2015 and 2020 involve voluntary targets without any legislation to enforce that it be done by Nova Scotia Power, said Weis, a senior policy analyst with the independent think-tank on renewable energy.

"I’d rather see 2020 as an actual legislated target than . . . just a goal. It’s still a commendable goal, it’s definitely in the right direction, but it’s always nicer to see these things with actual teeth to them as opposed to voluntary," he said.

At the news conference last month just outside New Glasgow at the province’s largest wind farm, Premier Darrell Dexter announced he was proud that the target of 25 per cent by 2015 is no longer just a target — "it will become a matter of law."

In the next sentence of his speech, he said, "I am also proud to announce that as part of this plan, government is setting a new goal of 40 per cent renewable electricity by 2020."

Typically, regulated policies or goals have a better chance of success than voluntary measures, said Weis.

"The sooner that can get moved from a goal to actually some mechanism is probably in everyone’s interest."

Weis said the government is probably watching how the current renewable energy policy plays out and also how the potential of tidal power will evolve over the next few years.

Last week, the provincial government passed legislation to change the Electricity Act to include the goal of reaching 25 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The Energy Department is currently drafting regulations to be ready by the summer for public comment.

Department spokesman Matthew Lumley said the renewable electricity targets from 2015 to 2020 are "aspirational goals" by the government.

The energy mix required to meet that goal could include wind, biomass, tidal and renewable imports, he said.

"There are a number of variables that will have to play out," said Lumley, referring to power from the Lower Churchill Falls project and tidal power in the Bay of Fundy.

Though the first electricity from the $6-billion Lower Churchill Falls project is years away, Nova Scotia wants to be able to access the green energy to meet tougher provincial environmental laws.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy company, Nalcor, plans to begin producing more electricity from the Churchill River by 2015 — enough to light all the homes in Atlantic Canada plus parts of Ontario — using two sites.

Nalcor has said Cape Breton could possibly be a place to land a proposed multibillion-dollar subsea cable from Lower Churchill.

Meanwhile, an experimental turbine in the Bay of Fundy has run into problems with remote sensors not working for its developers, Nova Scotia Power and partner OpenHydro. The other two test turbines have run into delays and will not be launched until 2011.

Nova Scotia Power now produces 10 to 12 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, and supplies power to 470,000 homes and businesses in the province.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1182940.html

Burning questions linger for biomass

RACHEL BRIGHTON JUST BUSINESS
Sun. May 9 - 4:53 AM

Emera Inc.’s record profits could be coming at the expense of local jobs and industry as well as the environment.

The possible connection is spelled out in a set of six reports released this week by the provincial Natural Resources Department ahead of a new natural resources strategy later this year.

The record first-quarter profits for Emera, which were also announced this week, were fuelled in large part by tax breaks on investments made in renewable energy in Nova Scotia.

As Emera’s major business unit and profit driver, Nova Scotia Power has been investing heavily in wind power and it hopes to increase its capital investment through a controversial joint venture with NewPage Port Hawkesbury. The utility is seeking approval for a co-generating plant that would burn biomass to produce electricity for the utility and steam for the Cape Breton paper mill.

The project is supported by government, which regards biomass as a short-term fix for meeting renewable energy targets for electricity and as a potentially long-term source of fuel for other uses, such as heat.

But the steering panel that is advising government on its natural resources strategy pointed out in its report this week that burning biomass is "counterintuitive" if the government really wants to protect the environment.

The steering panel concluded there was "ample evidence that our forests are already under considerable stress." It also questioned whether Nova Scotia could burn biomass at a level that was sustainable and that would "make much of a difference" to the environment.

Instead, the panel urged government to slow down on biomass and treat the proposed project at the Cape Breton paper mill as a test case.

Another of the reports released this week sets the local controversy about biomass in a global setting, warning of unintended consequences for local industry as global and local demand for biomass expands.

The expert panel on biodiversity explained that an increase in demand for biomass exports from Nova Scotia could create a shortage of local wood supply, attract more foreign competition, and draw off workers from other forest industries. "Nova Scotia could face significant impact to rural communities dependent on traditional resident forestry businesses," according to the report.

The panel also warned that an increasing demand for biomass fuel could drive up commodity prices and "stress industries such as sawmills, paper production, and other value-added forest enterprises in Nova Scotia (as) a growing biofuel industry competes for trees with other forest product users."

The steering panel, which thinks management of natural resources should be grounded in science and local ecological knowledge, has called for the creation of a scientific panel and a virtual science institute to advise government and share research.

In the meantime, as the warnings about biomass pile up, so do Emera’s profits.

Rachel Brighton is the publisher of the regional magazine Coastlands and a former business editor and journalist.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1181411.html

Project may hike NSP rates

C.B. wind farm concerns utility customers
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat. May 8 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotians could ultimately face higher power bills if the utility invests in a struggling wind farm in Cape Breton.

The bills likely won’t go up for the first two years, says the lawyer representing a group of Nova Scotia Power’s largest customers, but after that Nova Scotians will have to pay more.

"Customers are only better for two years with NSP ownership and that over the balance of the time horizon they will be paying more," Halifax lawyer Nancy Rubin states in evidence filed with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

She states that, according to Nova Scotia Power’s evidence, the annual revenue requirement is forecast to be lower under ownership by the utility from 2010-2012 but during the remaining lifetime of the 20-year project customers will pay more.

The group wants the board to "carefully scrutinize the economics" of a wind deal between Nova Scotia Power and Renewable Energy Services Ltd. (RESL) of Lower Sackville.

The utility is seeking approval of its agreement to partner with RESL and spend $27.7 million to build and construct a wind farm planned for the Strait area that would come on line later this year.

Under the agreement, RESL will build and operate the wind farm and Nova Scotia Power will have a 49 per cent stake in it.

The $55-million project is to produce 22.5 megawatts of electricity from 11 turbines, enough energy for about 6,000 homes.

Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate John Merrick is wondering what’s up with the deal, too.

Merrick says Nova Scotia Power customers should be getting something for guaranteeing 85 per cent of the $27.8 million of the cost of the project.

"Normally, a guarantor charges a fee or requires some other compensation," he states in pre-filed evidence with the board.

The power company’s guarantee is "valuable" and should translate into compensation, reduction in electricity prices or an increase share in the project, he states.

"The consumer advocate also has a concern that on a go-forward basis NSPI may be motivated to protect its shareholders by giving further assistance to RESL," he states.

Nova Scotia Power proposes to buy six of the wind farm’s new 11 Enercon wind turbines. There is one existing turbine at Point Tupper.

The utility and its parent company, Emera Inc., now have ownership stakes in three of the six wind power projects for which Nova Scotia Power signed power purchase agreements in 2008.

The provincial government ordered Nova Scotia Power to have five per cent of its total electricity purchases generated by independent power producers from renewable energy sources by the end of 2011. The legislation was supposed to encourage competition in the marketplace and allow independent power producers to get a toehold in the province.

The provincial Energy Department has also filed evidence urging the board to grant the utility’s request and will assist the power company in meeting its government regulations.

RESL owns and operates turbines across Nova Scotia in Brookfield, Goodwood, Digby, Marshville and Richmond County. RESL also has two wind farms under development in Alberta.

Nova Scotia Power has until May 13 to respond to the submissions.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1181189.html

Applying the brakes on biomass

Experts say impact on province’s forest should be carefully measured
By ALISON AULD The Canadian Press
Sat. May 8 - 4:53 AM

The Nova Scotia government should be careful in using biomass for power generation, an expert panel said Friday, warning the province’s already stressed forests can’t handle more pressure from the hungry energy sector.

The clear position could make it more difficult for Premier Darrell Dexter to fulfil his pledge to produce 40 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity from renewable resources, like biomass, by 2020.

Allan Shaw, one of three members of the arms-length panel, said there is the risk that the province will deplete already taxed forests as it tries to ease its reliance on coal and other polluting energy sources.

"We very much encourage a very cautionary approach, a very slow approach and one that will allow the government to look at what is happening to the forests before further commitments are made," he told reporters at the release of the report titled A Natural Balance.

The document suggests the government should instead look to other sustainable methods to generate power as it tries to reduce greenhouse gases and come up with new energy sources.

The recommendations come just weeks after the NDP government pledged to expand the province’s green energy sector and get at least 25 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015.

It’s an ambitious goal since only 11 per cent of its electricity comes from renewable sources today.

Dexter has said much of that should come from wind power, but it will include forestry biomass, which involves the burning of wood waste and wood products.

Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell reiterated Friday that biomass will be part of the 10-year strategy, but said he realizes government has to find the right balance.

"I don’t see any environmental advantage to cutting our carbon emissions, but turning the province into a moonscape by cutting all the trees and burning them," he said.

"The question is how much can you reasonably do that’s sustainable over the long period."

MacDonell said he will produce a position paper on the issue in August.

The Opposition said it doesn’t oppose the use of biomass, but the government needs to proceed carefully, particularly when it comes to a proposed $200 million, 60-megawatt biomass facility for Cape Breton.

Leo Glavine, the Liberal natural resources critics, said the party has endorsed the NewPage facility, but he says it should be smaller and wants best practices in place to ensure clearcutting is controlled.

"If this can be kept in a balance, that’s fine," he said. "But I see the energy and electricity plan for the province as being in conflict with some of the Natural Balance report."

The report also said issued a strong statement on clearcutting, recommending that it be allowed by permit only. It also said whole-tree harvesting should be ended, with the exception of Christmas tree producers.

The Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia shot back with a statement saying the recommendations would choke off wood supply to the forest industry, leading to cuts at lumber, pulp and paper mills, and in the trucking sector.

"This is a very damaging report for the future of the forest industry in Nova Scotia," Steve Talbot, the association’s executive director, said in a statement.

"We see this as a step by this government to put a stranglehold on the forest industry."

Talbot said the industry generates about $140 million in taxes and exports more than $1 billion in products annually.

Jamie Simpson of the Ecology Action Centre praised the report and said recommendations on clearcutting and whole-tree harvesting should make it more difficult for the province to look to the forest as an energy source.

"Their recommendation to proceed extremely cautiously is well-founded," he said.

"In the absence of regulation, there definitely could be an increase in the amount of clearcutting and poor forest management as a result of creating a large new market for this forest product."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1181343.html