Multi-billion dollar corporations are investing resources, time and money into developing tidal power in Nova Scotia, but if we’re to believe provincial authorities and the corporations’ reps, the corporations have no idea if they’ll make money or not.
Last year the province issued a Request for Proposal for development of a tidal facility in the Fundy Ocean Research Centre. The new facility will hook into a transmission line recently built with federal funds, and any power generated would be bought by Nova Scotia Power. The idea was that the new facility would help develop tidal technology, which has recently seen a major setback with the failure of a turbine installed by OpenHydro, a company owned in part by Emera, the parent company of Nova Scotia Power.
Five companies responded to the RFP, and Atlantis Resource Corporation of Australia was judged the best, although provincial authorities have declined to make public the scoring of the proposals. Atlantis will join up with Lockheed Martin and Irving Shipyard to build and install its AK 1000 turbine.
But at what rate will the corporations be able to sell power to Nova Scotia Power? “I don’t know,” said premier Darrell Dexter at a press conference announcing the deal. His staff subsequently said the rates will be established at some future date by the Utility and Review Board. “We’re doing this so we can sell turbines,” said Atlantis’ Tim Cornelius, discounting any concern about power rates.
Still, the UARB is presently considering a 64 cents per kilowatt hour charge for smaller operations selling tidal power through a “feed in tariff” proposal to be finalized in April. That’s about six times the 11 cents per kwh costs associated with coal generation, the prevailing source of electricity in Nova Scotia. The higher costs will be reflected in higher bills to customers.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2011.
Congratulations to Tim Bousquet for exceptionally conscientious reporting. The 64 cents might indeed be somewhat inflated — but who knows? Fact is, all the renewables except nuclear and hydro are turning out to be white elephants almost everywhere.
In Spain they’ve been paying 44 cents per kWh to people with solar panels, and Spain is finding that unsustainable, raising the ire of those who installed the panels expecting a guaranteed income to recover their investment.
Disillusionment is slowly settling in, but N.S. apparently has not yet gotten the message.
Nuclear is really the only way to go, all evils considered – too bad the NDP outlawed it.
As you said.. nuclear has as lots of evils… but hey, drop a plant in Halifax and start up the endless taxpayer subsidies and maybe in 20 years you will have power.. if you don’t mind picking up all the liability *and* you can afford to buy reprocessed nuclear warheads because, the is a peak uranium issue as well.
The FIT issue is a bigger one as George pointed out. As a higher percentage of renewables comes online at the higher tariff, it starts to impact the overall rates. The larger question is how to help NS become more energy self-sufficient in an era of most costly oil. Ocean energy like tidal and wave and on and offshore wind are natural resources which can be used. How to pay for them and integrate them into the power structure to maximize the benefit to the community in terms of reliable power, good paying jobs, and while being sustainable is the bigger question and it really revolves around how to use these energy sources.
Nuclear is the only method of generating power that has never killed a person in the western world since it’s inception – and what, we are using coal? Which kills thousands every year in coal mine disasters all around the world.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c…
We live in a country with the most uranium of any country on Earth – but yes, let’s keep throwing our money at leftist “green” jerk off power fantasies instead.
I’m sure all the industrial and manufacturing centers in the world use wind power, and tidal power, not nuclear power, right? lol.
Nova Scotia – perpetually stuck in the backwoods.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/deaths-pe…